Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have a an ornate box turtle which hibernates outside in PA, have had him for 2 years (2 winters as well).
Since coming out of hibernation, he has had his eyes closed 90% of the time.

IN the past month, he has only opened his eyes while in water soaking. I have isolated him, soak him daily and make him eat, I have to force him to eat.

I have had him at the only local vet (an hour away) twice now. I have eye drops with Vitamin A from the vet.

His eyes have showed little if any improvement (two different times I have actually seen puss, but not since the drops)..

Now he also has mucus coming out of his left nostril. I cannot miss work a third day and find another vet even farther away. Can anyone please help w/ advice of any sort!!!!!

Oh dear! Sound like a respiretory infection! You will need prescription meds. for that. Call the vet and describe her symptoms in great detail. Tell them your situation about not being able to skip work. They might either stay open late for you or let you drop her off after work and pick her up the next day after work, or they might just send you a prescription.

Mean time, get her a UVA/B blub and make sure it is as close to her as you can get it while being sure she won't burn herself.

Keep her warmer than usual.

Keep on soaking her and encouraging her to eat. If she stops eating, you can soak her in pedialite so she won't dehydrate.

Good luck. Be sure to give us an update!
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0.1.0 ornate box turtle
1.0.0 eastern box turtle
1.0.0 Yellow belly slider
0.1.0 Red belly cooter
0.1.0 Australian shepard
1.11.0 chickens
1.0.0 Dutch(rabbit)
3.2.0 children (do I still count the married ones?)
1.0.0 husband

Ditto to diva.

Make sure that the turtle has access to a very hot basking area...at least 95F. Also, keep the relative humidty in the enclosure to about 50% or less. Keep up the regular, short soaks in warm water or the turtle will quickly dehydrate. Indoor housing is absolutely critical at this point. You don't want the turtle exposed to the PA humidity this summer.

You'll probably need an antibiotic, as diva said.

All of my T.o.ornata came to me as rescues with respiratory infections. Unfortunately, this is what they are known for when being kept outside of their native range.

Good luck! I feel your pain on this one.

An ornate should not be hibernated outside in PA unless the area is on high ground and does not too wet in the spring. Ornates are notorious for getting respiratory infections from cold, wet conditions and can succumb to pneumonia if not taken care of promptly. The best advice I can give you is to take the turtle back to the vet-maybe a friend or family member can do it for you so you don't miss work-and get the turtle on full spectrum antibiotics.

Since turtles will sometime come out of hibernation with gunky eyes and not become sick-you will want to look at your habitat to see if there is some way to make it better for ornates. For example-I have my ornates in pens that get lots of sun and allow the pens to be drier in ther fall. I learned the importance when one summer in the midwest we had much cooler temps and wetter weather and all my ornates got sticky eyes and stopped eating but the three-toeds did not. I had to put one on antibiotics but the others recovered with just antibiotic eye ointment and helped along by hot late summer temps.
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Tess Cook
www.boxturtlesite.info