poor turtle

[mckellar007]

well, today i got a new eastern long neck turtle, and hes not looking too good.

he is:
**extremely dehydrated(spent the first 25 mins with his head in the water drinking)
** his back legs were rock hard to the point where when he moved they crackled and broke, there was some bleeding
** he two back feet are swollen
** he looks like he has a couple of layers of unshed skin
** missing all his toes on his back legs accept one
** very underweight

the guy i got him off didnt seem to know much about turtles, it looks as though he had been keeping him in a box outside with a heat light, no water by the looks of things(he said he put him in a small water tub when he first got him, but he just climbed straight out, i dont think he has seen water since). meaning he also probably hasnt eaten in that time.

so i have put him in my tank with my other turtles, he spent the first 25 mins sitting on the dock with his head under water, then when he went into the water he could barely swim, kept kicking and getting nowhere, now hes swimming around a bit but mostly just floating on the top of the water. im going to take him out soon and treat his wounds with betadine, and depending on how he improves over the next couple of days i might put him on antibiotics to treat the swelling, but it seems to have gone down a bit.

just wondering if there is anything else anyone thinks i should do?

 

[Emzie]

poor little fellow, glad you saved him

 

[Bearded_Lady]

You should probably quarantine him from the rest of your turtle just in case he is carrying any contagious infections/ diseases. It would probably be wise to take him to a vet as soon as possible as well.

 

[-Peter]

You could try putting him into a shallower container for a while when introducing to water. Its does come back to them though. Sounds like he will need a fair bit of attention so good luck and join this site

http://www.australianfreshwaterturtles.com.au/index.php

ps, if he is dehydrated he will probably not have eaten for a long time either so thats the next step.

 

[mattyandnat]

Don't know much bout turtles but won't your other turtles get sick if there is somethin wrong with him

 

[mckellar007]

You could try putting him into a shallower container for a while when introducing to water. Its does come back to them though. Sounds like he will need a fair bit of attention so good luck and join this site

http://www.australianfreshwaterturtles.com.au/index.php

ps, if he is dehydrated he will probably not have eaten for a long time either so thats the next step.

thanks mate, ive posted the exact same thing up there and got some awsome help, he is now seperated fromt he rest of my turtles and being dry docked for treatment, the put back in the water, and so on and so forth until he is better which judging from what ive been told, will probably be a few weeks minimum before he can go back in with my other turtles safely, he is improving rapidly at the moment, and what i thought was missing toes has turned out to have one full foot, and one with a couple of toes missing. they were just so swollen that you couldnt see. but he is swimming away happily at the moment by himself.

 

[-Peter]

This unfortunately highlights an aspect of Australian turtle keeping that I am confronted with repeatedly.
The common belief that they are land tortoises and dont need access to water.
We see threads about the inhumane and mindless killing of snakes but imagine the slow decline over 1 to 2 years through starvation, dehydration and the physical atrophication that ensues.