Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hello everyone. My RES is about 6 months old and our other res nipped at his front right leg. Since then he has been walking funny and seems to have some trouble with swimming. He doesn't seem to have too much of an appetite either. He jsut stays on his dock with his legs and head pulled in and his eyes closed. When he does move, he seems to have a problem with that leg. He was nipped about a week ago. Does anyone have any ideas or advice you can give? Thanks a lot in advance.

Circusfan

my FIRST piece of advice would be to SEPARATE the turtles! if they are already tearing into one another, it will only get worse! second of all... it sounds to me like you are having either an 'attitude' problem or a territorial problem with the turtles.
what size are they?
how big of a tank are they in?
If the turtles are too big for their tank, they become territorial and this could cause the one turtle to snap at the other one.
did you ever think that the one turtle who bit the other one is a bully? i mean maybe the one turtle stays on the dock because he's tired of being harassed by the other one!
either way i definitely think that you should separate them.
do you see any apparent damage on the turtle's leg? if so, i would say to take the turtle to a vet. They could probably give you some kind of meds to put on the cut!
good luck!
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~ Evie

Pets:
RIP 0.1.0 German Shepherd {Dusty}
0.1.0 German Shepherd/Collie mix {Shadoe}
0.0.2 RES turtles {Booger & Snot}
1.0.0 African Clawed Frog {Bingo}
0.0.2 Snail {Gary & Larry}

He needs to see a vet. It's very possible that he's gotten an infection. Do you know if the bite was accidental or aggression? I strongly suggest seperating them.

I agree with the first posts, my first advice would be to take to the vet though. Anorexia and abnormal behavior following a trauma are signs of pain and your turtle is suffering.

Hello everyone. Just so you know, our turtles ARE seperated. We have them in a very large tank and have a plexiglass seperator in. The only reason one of them was near the other was I wanted to clean the plexiglass seperator. So i took it out to clean it and the other turtle got to the one who is now (I think) injured. I will be taking him to the vet. I just thought someone on here might be able to offer some advice for caring for him until I can get him to the vet.

Circusfan

I'm glad to hear that they're seperated. In the future it would most likely be best to move one of them out of the tank completely while cleaning the divider. The bathtub tends to be a good turtle holder. The only thing I can suggest until you get him to the vet is clean, clean, clean water.

Thanks a lot. He has a trup to the vet on Friday.

Circusfan