Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi Everyone!

Some of you may remember way back in October I posted about a sick male ornate I received with infected eyes that were swollen shut. Well, here it is 3 months later and I am happy to say his eyes finally opened Friday!

I have been treating him with antibiotic eye ointment, daily baths, and force feeding him. I did notice a couple weeks ago more than usual pus coming from his eyes and popped a large clump out his left eye with a Qtip.

I was surprised yesterday when I checked on him and found him looking back at me. This guy is not fully recovered by no means, but he is on his way!

Also, would most of you agree that this is a desert box turtle (leutola)?

Here he is in October 2003:
http://gallery.pethobbyist.com/data/805SickOrnate-med.jpg

I took this picture Saturday:

man good job on that guy. it is great to hear success stories and i hope he continues on his journey, aided by you, to "health-dom." watching an animal become whole again is a good deal. a long time ago i found an ornate who had apparently been run over by a lawn mower, and then released or escaped on a road near my house. someone had filled the holes in his shell with vaseline and wrapped him up with duct tape. i brought him home and first thing he did was devour some cicadas from my hand. a trip to the vet resulted in some epoxy and fiberglass to close him up. took him close to 2 years for bone to completely fill in the gashes. unfortunately well after he was healed he was stricken with some odd malady(i dunno) which the vet wasnt successful in treating and mario died. he always seemed to be in great spirits tho, even for much of that first summer when i had to keep him confined, which meant spending most of his time in a 10gallon tank on the back porch. i know i know. after that he got free range of the backyard tho.
good luck, ian

>>Also, would most of you agree that this is a desert box turtle (leutola)?

I wouldn't, because I've seen too many male T.o.ornata growing up in OK that looked exactly like your specimen, and OK is far from luteola territory.

I haven't seen luteola in the wild personally, but the pics I've seen of them make me wonder what the big difference is other than locality and that many luteola carapaces appear a little more "straw" colored as a background color.
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Chris McMartin
www.mcmartinville.com
I'm Not a Herpetologist, but I Play One on the Internet

Lucky turtle to have someone willing to invest the time! It really is terrific to hear the good news stories, and see the results, too.
Thanks for the update.
Stephanie

I'm so happy to hear he is improving under your care. Did you force feed him with a stomach tube or just hand feed him? I ask because another owner just got what she thinks is a blind turtle and is now trying to force hand feed him and I'm wondering if that is enough. I will tell her your story

The turtle looks to me like a regular Ornate box turtle. He looks a lot like my captive bred male so I know where he is from, and that's Houston, Texas.
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Tess
Kingsnake.com Forum Host

Hi Tess,

Force feeding by hand is not an easy thing to do. Your friend may want to try to use a tube. I would ask a vet who could show her how to do it.

I've been feeding this ornate by prying his mouth open with the end of a paper clip, just enough so there is a space between his jaws. Then I insert the handle part of a plastic spoon. I slowy push the spoon down his throat until he opens his mouth. I quickly pop in a piece of food (usually a piece of canned dog food -the chunky kind- that I covered in vitamins) on the spoon handle (which acts like a ramp) and push it down with another platic spoon handle. You have to push the food down far so he will swollow it. After some practice I have become able to get a good amount of food down fast. However if he decides to keep his head in his shell I usally have to wait and try another time.

Of course he does not enjoy this but it has been keeping him going for the past 3 months. If anyone else has a better way to force feed maybe they can post a reply to this.

Patrick

What works for me is to get them to trust you enough to gently pin one of the forelimbs to the side of the shell. Then gently grasp the head between the thumb and middle finger and gently pry open the lower jaw. Using a 'pinkie pump' (snake people know what this is) with a No 8 fr. feeding tube on the end place the end in the mouth so you know it is past the glotis and just fill er up. I use the size of the head for the amount of food pumped in and I proceed slowly.
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Ed
Tortoise_Keepers-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
Trying to keep the fun in Chelonian care

I've had great success force feeding tortoises and turtles that needed it by using a liquid diet given with aquarium tubing and a bird feeding syringe. You need a juicer, or at least some means to make fresh vegetable juice. You just juice some squash, carrot, and maybe some celery and a little bell pepper. Then you mix in some vitamins, either reptile vitamins or human, it doesn't matter as long as you don't put in too much. I also add some mineral supplement too.

The thing is, if an amimal is so sick that it has to be force-fed, chances are it is not going to be able to digest solid food anyway. The liquid diet with the vitamins goes right into the digestive tract without having to be processed before it goes to the lower intestine and is absorbed.

Using the aquarium tube and syringe is really rather easy once you try it a few times and get the hang of it. You just hold the animal in one hand, propped up in a standing position, then pull down on the lower jaw with the other hand, which usually will cause the mouth to come open. You then just feed the tube down the throat right into the top part of the stomach and plunge the syringe to put the mixture right in the belly.

I've brought several Greeks and four California desert tortoises that were given to me to rehabilitate back from the brink of death this way.