Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi,
My RES is about 2 yrs and about 7" long. I fed her a lot of carrots, cabbages, lettuces today. She also had accidentally ate a little piece of styrofoam yesterday. Today since 4:30 pm, she started to choke and let out (vomit) all the foods including the styrofoam. I am pretty worried because she looks tired and still choke and let out the air once every half an hour. She climbed up to bask and jumped into the water when she needed to choke. Seemed to breath alright. I am wondering if it's going to be better. It's pretty late to see the vet now. So, I really hope to seek some advises from this forum. Thank you very much.

Gosh, I'm sorry no one was here to help last night. I wouldn't have known an answer myself. How is she/he today?

Thank you. It's a very kind of you. She is better, but still has little gasp once in a while. As it's a turtle, the vet couldn't do much, except for physical observation. More detail exams are very costly and they didn't think it's necessary for now. I agree, since she seems to be better, but am concerned that she is very weak and rejects foods. I was surprised to see no information about turtle choking anywhere. She used to choke or had a big gasp once in a long while. The vet said it's not normal. Well, thanks again.

you needa reptile vet the 'as its a turtle...." thing is no excuse. an x-ray could be performed as could some sort of lavage. See if you can find a decent reptile trained vet in your area. try arav and click on the "members" link for alist of reptile vets by state and country.

sytrofaom is very dangerous stuff to swallow. Lots of animals have died from it. was the styrofoam vomited up?

I agree .... she may have some styrofoam still inside of her causing a blockage in her digestive tract. It is advisable to find a qualified vet and get an x-ray at least to see if there is an obstruction somewhere.

Good luck.