I'm no authority, but I can theorize a bit here. Mercury is only dangerous if it get in the body, commonly through a cut in the skin, and it gets in the blood stream. If they don't have any open sores, that wouldn't be a problem.



I don't know if it can be breathed in, but then turtles don't breathe water, so that wouldn't be a problem. They of course drink the water, so that would be the most likely way for mercury to enter their bodies.



Mercury forms little balls when in contact with air or water. Hopefully, they would see the little balls and not ingest them. Also, it seems to me that problems from mercury usually take quite a long time to show up (not sure though), so you wouldn't see any immediate problems.



Anyway, I don't think the danger to your turtles is likely to be immediate. However, there is another problem. How did you clean up the pond? Mercury is not supposed to be just swept up and thrown away with the trash. DH is a maintenace super for a colllege. A student broke a themometer in her dorm, and they had to have a whole haz-mat team come in to clean it up! (Course I grew up breaking thermometers and we would play with the little sliver balls before our mom finally threw them away!)



You are also lucky they didn't get electricuted! Please look into getting a thermometer that has a titanium casing, so you don't ever have this problem again!



Good luck. Let us know how things are going!
-----
0.1.0 ornate box turtle

1.0.0 eastern box turtle

1.0.0 Yellow belly slider

0.1.0 Red belly cooter

0.1.0 Australian shepard

1.11.0 chickens

1.0.0 Dutch(rabbit)

3.2.0 children (do I still count the married ones?)

1.0.0 husband

[ Reply To This Message ] [ Subscribe to this Thread ] [ Hide Replies ]