Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Honuman, since you've don't some turtle rehabbing I was hoping for your opinion. I received a wild adult female RES back in May that had been hit by a car. Her Carapace and bridges were fractured. She also had a head injury. She was given some kind of steroid for the head injury for a couple days, then put on antibiotics and patched up by one of the vets offices that works with me for rehab turtles. Shortly after, we realized she was egg bound due to her injuries. She didn't respond to Oxytocin. The vet wasn't willing to euthanize her yet so he did surgery to remove the eggs but ended up spaying her because her reproductive organs were becoming necrotic. She did fine through the surgery and recovered and healed. I had to tube her for a couple of weeks but then she started to eat on her own. She did great all through the summer in a wading pool outside. This Fall I brought her in and put her in a 50 gallon tank with a heater and filter. In about Nov her appetite dropped off some so I took her back to the vet and he did blood work. He said her liver functions were way off (too high, I think) and her calcium levels were way high. Her white blood count was fine and her kidney functions were fine. He didn't know why her calcium levels were so high. (She was never given CA suppliments.) She was mostly fed whole fish, earthworms and dry cat food. She wouldn't eat dog food or plants. He is afraid her liver may be failing. He had me put her on a light dose of Baytril for a little while as a preventive due to her weakened condition. I finally started tubing her again cause she just wasn't eating enough. She got so she wouldn't eat the lives earthworms. After a couple weeks I tried her with cooked chicken and she really got into that. She is eating chicken good but doesn't want much else. Sometimes will eat a little Reptomin. I know the chicken isn't a balanced diet but I'm not too worried short term especially since her calciums levels are high. I guess the question I'm taking forever to get to is have you ever had turtles with poor liver functions showing in bloodwork recover? Do you have vets that do bloodwork on your rehab turtles? I had one a year or so ago that showed poor liver function and she is now doing well. I haven't had many turtles show up with poor liver functions so I don't know what the pronosis usually is for such turtles. Any opinions? Anyone in the know can also answer.
thanks
P.S. This turtle is healing well from the shell fractures and some of the patches have been removed.

Wow Anita!! That poor girl has been through the wringer and back again!

I have never dealt with liver problems with any of the turtles I have rehabbed.
I have seen renal failure though and the prognosis was grim in these cases.
I have seen liver problems with birds though and was able to manage the situation with diet changes (mainly fat content of foods). I am sure that feeding fatty foods to her is a big no no. I don't what the fat content is on that dry catfood but I would lose that and try your best to encourage her (stubborn as she may be) to eat some greens.

I have forwarded you post on to a good friend of mine who has been rehabbing for many more years than I have. I am sure she will have some insights.

Steve