Reptile & Amphibian Forums

(or would it be pet wild turtle? lol)

We have a wild American Box Turtle on our property who is missing a back foot. The injury seems to be healing up ok (it's been about a month since we found her with the fresh injury), but she keeps reinjuring herself on the rocks by the creek making it take longer to heal. She also spends a lot of time soaking it in the creek (I guess the cold water feels good on it?). Though she has become very tame and even eats from our hands, I would rather she be kept out in the wild. I am getting concerned, though, that come winter she will not be able to dig a hole to hibernate. I have read on a couple turtle rescue websites about rescued turtles who could not be released because they were missing front or back legs. There are places here I can take her to (legally), but I really don't want to remove her from the wild unless she will come to harm otherwise. I usually leave things alone in nature, but I am afraid I have become quite attached to this turtle and have lost my objectivity. I am hoping she will be ok to leave alone where she is! I am including a picture of her below...isn't she a doll?!

If I were in a similar situation, I would probably just continue to monitor her but leave her wild. Turtles have a truly marvelius capacity to reover from such injuries. My personal feeling about not releasing injured turtles is that it really depends on the severity of the injury...many wild turtles survive trauma and continue to live for years. Do not underestimate her chances of survival.
Another option would be to overwinter her indoors and release her, in the same place where you found her, next summer. Releasing her elsewhere is a bad idea.

Here is a link to an article that may be of interest to you.
Link

Thank you so much for your response and the link to that wonderful story. That sounds exactly like my turtle except she is much younger and can move the stump that's left. She did lay some eggs not long after we found her (I assume they were hers) and we found a couple laying beside the creek, so maybe she had similiar problems the turtle in that link you posted had. I will definitely keep a close eye on her and bring her in to overwinter if her leg doesn't heal up soon. I didn't know you could release them once they had been in captivity like that. I am glad because I could never reproduce the wonderful habitat she has now and I like leaving her where she is to make more wild box turtles.

4 years ago I pulled over to the side of the road to help a box turtle that was stuck at the curb and could not get over it. When I pick her up I noticed the bottom of her shell was covered in blood. When I checked her out I could not find were a car had hit her. Then I notice that the blood was coming from a stump on her missing back right leg.
I took her home and put some antibiotic cream on the stump. She spent lots of time soaking her tub I made for her in my back yard. She made a complete recovery and eats more than any of my other turtles. She is always the last to go into hibernation and the fist to come out in the spring.
This year she has been mating with my new male box turtle. On June 30th she laid 6 eggs. I was very surprised at how deep her nest was. The only problem she had was that 3 of the eggs did not fall down the whole she dug. But the others did and she managed to cover them up with just one leg and you could never tell that she made her nest there. I have all 6 eggs in my house and they should hatch in about a month.
I always wonder what happened to her. Were I found her there are lots of houses and I was thinking that maybe she ran into a dog. But is anyone’s guess as to what happened to her.
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Jack

Great story, Jack! This turtle had laid some eggs as well and a couple of them didn't get burried either (probably for the same reason since it would have been right after she injured herself). She is still doing great so far, though she is still re-injuring herself from time to time on the rocks. Hopefully there will be enough time for her to recover before it gets cold. I think it's so cool she is staying in the same area so we can visit her everyday!