Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Yesterday I found a female eastern box turtle setting in the middle of the road. Before I approached her, I thought she was dead, she had her head tucked in and her front legs were stuck out to the sides. After I picked her up, I noticed her head was extremely swollen and on one side she has an abcess. It's so bad that it has effected the vision in one eye. I have seen many wild boxies with abcesses this year, but non quite this bad, does anyone know what causes this? If it were captive turtles, I would guess that it would be do to improper housing/ living conditions. I'm guessing it's due to flies or some other kind of insect biting them. Because this girl is in such bad shape, I brought her home with me and am treating her. Has anyone else came across wild boxies with this problem?
On a much sadder note, on the way home I saw another box turtle on the side of a busy highway, I went back to move it away from the road and someone had smashed it's head! It looked to me like someone had done it on perpose, the only part of the turtle that was damaged was the head. It's really heartbreaking that some people find joy in killing helpless animals....makes you wonder who the REAL animals are! Hope everyone has a safe and Happy 4th! Christy

Likely are ear abcesses....most likely also has an upper respiratory infection.

Will need lanced and flushed and she will need a round of antibiotics. This girl will need a vet or rehabber.....

Good luck, jen
How to Locate a Wildlife Rehabilitator

Most likely the cause is a vitamin deficiency. I have had several boxies and one last year came down with swollen eyelids and was wheezing when it breathed, I upped the humidity and she seemed to get a little better but then she refused to eat. Slowly got weaker. So I figured it must be some lack of vitamins. I got the following items:

Flukes Repta-Aid emergency aid about $11

I don't remember the cost of the following items:

I mixed it and put a spoon full of ReptoLife plus vitamins(using the spoon from the Flukes it)

I also mixed a spoon of Rep-Cal Calcium with it.

Crushed a couple of dried crickets (you have to crush them well)

Then the hard part.

You have to keep pushing and bumping their head until they get mad and bite the syringe. When they bite squeeze 1/2 to 1 CC in and let them swallow.

Repeat the proding again until they are done. I mixed about 3 CC of the stuff, the full shot from the Emergency mix.

What happened was a immediate. After a few minutes she started yawning and tasting the air. You could see that she was satisfied from the goo.

I repeated this 5 days per week and within 8 days her eyes cleared and she was eating like mad.

I give her some goo every 6 weeks or so just to make sure she is getting all the important stuff that she needs.

Good for you, for picking her up and trying to take care of her.
First of all, it may not be an infection at all: it could be a tumor of some sort. Turtles do get lumps and bumps from things other than infections.
Recent research has found a link between long term exposure to certain insecticides, which impair turtles' ability to utilize vitamin A, which in turn can cause respiratory infections and ear infections.
Get the turtle to a Vet or a rehabber. DO NOT try to treat this on your own if you've never done it before. It may require more than one round of antibiotics to beat the infection, not to mention surgery to remove the caseated pus, assuming its an infection. Best to get it right the first time, since its a wild turtle who's probably none to happy right now anyway.
Good luck
Stephanie

Thanks for the replies, it's greatly appreciated! Abby (the only feminine name that I could come up with that evolved from "abcess" is hanging in there, she ate on the first day here...she pigged out, actually! It's probably been some time since this girl has eaten, I imagine that it was pretty hard for her to find food in the wild due to her condition. I have lanced ear abcesses before so that won't be a problem. There are no rehabbers in this area, I tried locating one when I found Patches (the boxie that got hit by a car, some of you may remember me posting about him). I'm pretty sure that I can help this girl, I'm just shocked at how many boxies that I have seen this year with this problem, luckily none of the ones seen before were this bad. If I can ever get my camera working, I will post pics of her. Christy

Good to hear she has a healthy appetite: that's a good sign.
Good luck with her.
Stephanie