An aquantance has an aquatic turtle tank. Suddenly has a crop of "silly string" looking stuff. Any one know what this could be?
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turtle trouble
blisterbug
Oct 26, 2003 12:43 PM
Replies (5)
oldherper
Oct 27, 2003 07:09 AM
Can you be a little more specific? Where, exactly is the "silly string" stuff? What color is it? Is it on the turtle, coming from the turtle, or in the cage?
crtoon83
Oct 29, 2003 02:58 PM
blisterburg posted for me on here. It's a white silly string type stuff, but it's flat. I noticed it on the bottom of the tank one afternoon, and it wasnt there that morning. My girlfriend has 2 RES hatchlings, and I noticed the same thing coming out of one of her RES' tales that morning. I picked up the turtle, and took hold of the stuff, pulled it on out and it pulled out about 4-5 feet long or so. Kind of gooey or something. Any ideas will help! -Chris
oldherper
Oct 29, 2003 03:06 PM
This is most likely a tapeworm. You will need to take the animals to a vet and have them treated. One word of caution..DO NOT allow the vet to use Ivermectin to treat this. If your vet is not a herp vet he may not be aware the Ivermectin is very dangerous to use in chelonians. A much better choice is something like Droncit.
crtoon83
Oct 29, 2003 06:56 PM
Is there anything I can get over-the-counter? One of the problems is that she has 2 RES hatchlings, and i'm not sure which one it came out of.
oldherper
Oct 29, 2003 08:18 PM
No, there are no effective or safe OTC treatments that I'm aware of for tapeworms in chelonians.
