Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I took my male 3-toed box turtle to the vet yesterday, he had runny and swollen eyes. When the vet was checking him over, she pulled out his back leg, and his side was impacted with dirt. She took him to the back to clean it out, and showed me a deep cavity on his one side, where the dirt had been. It is between his front and hind leg, on his left side. It was really impacted in there, and she felt that maybe it was putting pressure on his lungs, hence the infection? He's on antibiotics now, and I have to inject him every other day for 10 days (yikes). I was wondering what caused this deep cavity, and if anyone else has seen something like this? The skin is smooth in there, no signs of a wound.

do you mean the area the leg would fold up into when the turtle retreated into it's shell?
also the area one would feel in to palpate for eggs?
or is there an actual hole in the shell itself?

I'm not really sure of how to interpret your description of a 'deep cavity between front and hind leg'. If you're referring to the space, behind the hinge, where your turtle tucks in his hind legs in order to close up into his shell, then it's normal for there to be 'empty space': after all, he does need room to retract his legs.
In that case the impacted dirt may have just accumulated, but I doubt that it would have exerted pressure on internal organs, and I don't think that the current infection would be the result.

Your turtle may be weak and underweight, which would give the cavity mentioned earlier the appearance of being very deep. I suspect that the dirt is just a side issue, and that your turtle may have other problems. How often, and what do you feed it?

Make sure it has adequate humidity, a good place to soak in clean water, plenty of room to move around so that any mud or dirt that gets in there can work its way out again. Keep it's environment warm while it is on antibiotics to help it fight off the infection.

I meant to ask if you could post a photo of the area on your turtle that you're concerned about.

Thanks for the replies. The area I mean is where he tucks his hind leg up to close his shell. His shell is fine, no problem. The area I'm concerned about is much larger on the left as opposed to the right side. Maybe the dirt has been impacted a while, which caused this area to get bigger?
He lives outdoors (right now inside while sick) in a 5' X 25' enclosure, so he has plenty of room to roam around. He lives with my 3 other box turtles. They eat worms and snails, figs, plums, strawberrries, and I put greens out but they don't seem to like to eat that. I dust the fruit with vitamin powder. Their substate is potting soil, peat moss, and dirt. They have a large shallow watering dish and log hides with spaghnum moss covering them. I water their area down every afternoon in the Summer and the sprinklers go off every other day.
I'll try to post a picture of the cavity this evening.

It would be great if you could posts pics.

It seems unlikely to me that the dirt accumulation and the infection are related. As for the cavity being more pronounced on one side, that will probably change back to a more symmetrical appearance with time.

You might want to consider ways to upgrade the bathing situation for them: a little setup with circulating water might be enough to prevent the accumulation of dirt. Or, just check them and thoroughly rinse them on a regular basis: it's a good idea to this this anyway, so that you can more effectively monitor their overall condition.

Do you give your turtles any vegetables at all? They would probably benefit from the addition of carrots, squashes (butternut, acorn), and or yams. When I feed my Easterns, I chop up the greens into small pieces which adhere to other food items, so they get their greens. I have offered them straight greens in the past but the don't touch them, nor do I see any signs that they eat any plant material in the habitat here. So, I feed them a mixture of chopped protein, veggies, greens and fruit and I know they get a little bit of variety with each mouthful.

Hello,
The cavity I'm talking about is where he tucks his knee up into his shell. But, I'm happy to report that after just one day with the impacted dirt removed, both sides look equal again. It must have been there a while to cause that cavity to be pushed in the way it was. I will check all of my turtles for such a problem, in the future. And, I will add more veggies to their diet, even though they don't seem to like them. Dribble is doing better, although he still has swollen and goopey eyes, he ate 3 worms yesterday, which is a good sign. I have to give him his antibiotic shot today, for the first time by myself (the vet did the first one). I'm a little freaked out, I don't want to hurt him. Thanks for the advice.