Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have a few questions on a young, perhaps yearling box turtle I found in my yard. She appeared to be very light, and undernourished, unsure how she got in my yard. I placed her in an outdoor enclosure with two other box turtles we have.

I fed it and it voraciously went after dusted mealworms, would also occasionally eat snails, slugs, earthworms, and for some reason only apricots.

It then got sick..appeared to be Vit A deficiency (per my evaluation, and a Vets), got it a Vit A injection, and Vit A drops for the eyes.

Began eating again, slowly on earthworms, snails, slugs, and some mealworms, never really recovered it's appetite, and 6 days ago stopped eating all together, and became very sluggish once more.

I brought her indoors, put her in a humid environment @ 80 degrees F, with a Vitalite. Still wouldn't eat, so I got some spinach dusted with Herptovite, gently pried mouth open, and then let her bite down on the spinach leaf, and she would then swallow it, did that about 5X, and then fed her 1 ml of soaked pureed box turtle food, purina trout chow, and herptovite powder through a small syringe, which she again swallowed on her own.

Any thoughts as to my course of action, or other suggestions....any help is much appreciated!!!!

Also, thoughts on Herptovite dusted mealworms??? I am attempting to wean all my turtles off them, based on Vet advice

Thanks Again!

Jon

well i am curious about the vit a defieciency diagnosis. (i am not a vet myself so my opion shoukld be weighed accordingly) what were the symptoms? This is an often misdiagnosed condition. vitmin a shots can be fatal.

i see no problems with dusted mealworms but go easy on the vitimin dusting.
i'd say cut down on the spinach or get rid of it entirely (unless its the absolute ONLY thing you can get the turtle to eat) spianch is not a great turtle food (see for example tt on spinach and oxalic acids ) and box turtles probably don't each much leafy material in the wild anyway.

other diet components are good.
try adding berries mushrooms.
the slugs sometimes harbor parasites.... did the vet do a fecal screening to check for any sort of "worms" in the stool?

Thanks for the reply. My web research led me to believe that it was a Vitamin A issue, unprompted the Vet had the same conclusion, and his specialty is turtles, so I felt pretty good about the diagnosis.

He did not do a fecal exam.

On the spinach, I had read that green leafy vegs had good amounts of Vitamin A.

The advantage I guess is that it is also easy to feed to an unwilling patient......what would you suggest in it's place that would supply Vitamin A???....would it be anything on the first chart high in Vitamin A that is not listed on the second chart??

Also, can I just use a small amount of Liquid Vitamin A from a gelcap on the food???

Thanks Again!!!!

"Began eating again, slowly on earthworms, snails, slugs, and some mealworms, never really recovered it's appetite, and 6 days ago stopped eating all together, and became very sluggish once more. "

This could of course be related to changing weather, where do you live? what is the weather like there now? How have your other box turtles been behaving?
i'm sure others here will have some advice for you.
bill? tess?

Southern California...it is cooling, but the others are still eating very well.

Thanks!!!

This may be a silly question, but here goes:
How long have you had your other box turtles, are they male and female, and could they have mated, nested, and produced this mystery yearling that has appeared in your yard? Even a mature female that you've had for less than five years could lay fertile eggs.
As for vit A rich foods: orange vegetables (carrots, winter squashes, sweet potatoes) dark leafy greens (collards, turnip greens, kale) would be great sources. Stay away from the spinach, as has been previously stated.
What were the symptons, just out of curiosity?
My personal observation has been that box turtles posess very accurate internal calenders that trigger seasonal behavior changes: your little one may be off its food because its the time of year that they ready themselves for hibernation, regardless of what the weather is doing.
Stephanie

Tomatoes are a great source of vitamin A and most of my turtles love tomatoes. But don't give up on a food if you offer it once, they can be finicky and not be hungry for a given type of food when you choose to offer it. I'm eating alot of tomatoes in my own diet so I cut off the tops and will put that in with a group of turtles. Blackberries are also a good source of vitamin A and are popular with boxies. I also wouldn't abandon mealworms, they are a good staple to keep around and they are easy to raise, but I would add crickets, earthworms and superworms as well as the fruits and veggies. I bought 1000 mealworms 2 years ago, have always let several pupate into beetles (I don't refrigerate them) and I have a never ending supply of mealworms.
I do dust them with herptivite and calcium and look for molted mealworms to feed first. You can also use the mealworm beetles as a food source. If you are in an area native to box turtles, look for seasonal goodies. In the summer, my husband and I catch as many cicadas as we can. This morning, after a night where it rained heavily, our yard and driveway were full of grubs that had surfaced.
May through July we caught as many junebugs as we could.

What were these vitamin A eye drops? I've never heard of those. I would probably be careful with injections. I've had several turtles become ill (runny nose, swollen ears and swollen eyes) and if they are at the point that they won't eat, I've learned to force feed them gerber baby chicken and I put a drop or two of cod liver oil in each syringe full of food.
They've all gotten well after I've brought them in, keeping them in a rubbermaid tub with a heat pad under one part, and force fed them this babyfood mixture. I also make sure they soak at least once a day if not more. I've got one ornate in now that will eat, but he's clearly got a sticky eye problem, and while he'll eat superworms, he won't if I put any cod liver oil on them, so I'm going to have to force feed him some chicken so I can get some cod liver oil in him.
Its also good to keep some terramyacin (sp?) eye ointment around for when the eyes start getting sticky. I think the problem has to be vitamin A, my outdoor pen had sufficient humidity and usually the cod liver oil helps, I've never had to go to a vet for antibiotics.

Good luck and keep us posted.

Thanks for your reply Lisa. The "drops" they had me use on the eyes were actually soft gelcaps of Vitamin A, they had use use a drop per day on each eye.

The eyes were closed, puffy, and had pus on outsides.

I am sure it wasn't a lost hatchling as we just moved to this house, but I do have male and female...just haven't got any fertile eggs from them yet.

Thanks for the reply!!!