Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I was just given two small eastern box turtles, carolina caolina.
High school kid kept them on wood chips. Both look impacted. I've never had an impacted turtle before. I have them soaking now. What else should I do as it is 7:30pm here?

One has passed some wood chips already, but I would like to hear from someone else who has had to deal with this. Sorry for the crossposts.

Angela

What makes you think that they are impacted? You've said that they are passing wood chips. Any vomiting or regurgitation? How long have you had them? Are they interested in food?

In deciding if this is an emergency, gage your turtle's demeanor. Is it bright, alert, and responsive? Is it lethargic, depressed or unresponsive?

If you decide this can wait until morning after answering the above questions, you can do the warm water bath thing and encourage excersise (if not stressfull). I'm assuming you've already optimized husbandry. Call you veterinarian and book an appointment in the morning where a proper exam can be done, presumeably to be followed up with X-rays.

If it is clear that this turtle(s) is in dire need of attention tonight, you'll need to look up the nearest emergency clinic. They may not have vet's on hand that are very experienced with herps, but they will know enough to help stabalize your turtle until morning. Repeated vomiting, whether in a bright turtle or not, is a sign of blockage and/or other things, all of which need to be dealt with tonight.

Good luck with your new turtles

Ian

Thanks Ian for your response. I was paniced yesterday.

Here is my update on the turtles. The larger of the two passed quite a bit of small wood chips, sand, and small black debris about 1 cm by 3mm in addition to barely digested tomato. I soaked her for about 30 minutes last night, and then let her walk around in a warm shower for about 20 minutes. The smaller of the two passed only a small amount of material, but didn't look like it was in as bad a shape as the larger one was in the first place. I didn't find any visible worms or other parasites, but I know I still need to take these 2 in to the vet and have a fecal run, and x-ray.

History that I should have included last night in my panic to try and help them.

They are 3 toes and not regular easterns. I was concerned about the larger one because the girl that brought them over said that she hadn't eaten in 3 or more weeks, her tail is atrophied and black and anus is distended. It looks like it, the tail, will fall off eventually. She is unable to pull into her shell and there is something odd about her shell, like it is stretched around her to the very limits. (However, as I have never seen a 3 toed up close, perhaps this is only an improper assumption on my part?)

The smaller one also has an atrophied tail and the anus is distended, though not nearly as much as the larger one. The little ones shell is proportioned and is able to pull into it with out a problem. They both had mites. Needless to say the wood chips were pitched immediately and the two are now on newspaper and I have demited them pretty well. I checked today when I got home from work and I couldn't find any on them. Will be checking and soaking daily for the next two weeks. The nails on both were horribly long. I have trimmed them all now. The larger one is missing the middle toe on each of her rear feet. These two seem to have thin almost baggy skin compared to my ornata ornata. Both are more alert today and the larger one even seemed to enjoy me holding her on my knee and rubbing the back of her shell tonight.

The young lady had them for about 2.5 years. They were purchased from local MI pet stores about 6 months apart. She feed them romaine lettuce, mazuri turtle chow, and tomatoes. She brought over all of her supplies including a florescent UVB bulb, and heat lamp. The supplement that she offered weekly has Vit D3 in it. I've counted about 8 growth rings on the larger and 5 on the smaller turtle.

I have attempted to get the two to take a few drops of mineral oil, but they were highly resistant to the idea. A friend suggested that I try and offer the girls some earthworms or superworms, but last night neither could be tempted with a superworm. Tomorrow I am going to get some earthworms and see if that interests them.

Thanks for listening and if you have any other insight please let me know.

Angela