Turtle help.

[Mike D]

ok heres the scoop. went fishing with a few freinds yesterday and i ended up coming home with a painted turtle. i caught him close to the shore and my girl was holding him and when he stretched out his neck i noticed he was missing an eye. and upon further inspection we realized he has a laseration on the back of his neck as well, looks like an animal attack. needless to say my girlfriend wants to try and rehab him. so right now he is in a spare 30 gallon tank with a filter and a basking spot and i fed him so cooked chicken last night which was gone this morning. he is a real character. he wasnt in his new home for more than 30 min before he started following us around the tank and reaching his head out to be pet


what would be the best thing to try and treat these wounds with? i cannot bring him to a vet. wild animal i figured he would have a better shot in a tank with clean water and steady temps than in a small pond full of nasty crap.. also these are not super new wounds. i would say probably from the past 3 weeks or so, best guess i am not familiar with how fast turtles heal up.. i will try and get some pics up later. the worst part i can see now is there is some swelling to the side of the head where he still has an eye.


any help would be appreciated.

 

[barracuda123]

I think its est to add some salt and increase temp. But that's only a guess. Good luck!

 

[methos75]

Basic neosphrine and a cleaning with Peroxide once a day is fine, they handle most wounds well

 

[biguebs]

Basic neosphrine and a cleaning with Peroxide once a day is fine, they handle most wounds well

+1

Turtles are able to shrug off a lot of things. Clean water and correct lighting (UVA & UVB) will do plenty though. I would also get some feeders from a LFS for him to chase around and eat since he is wild caught. It will take some time to get him onto pellets/sticks most likely since they are used to wild conditions where they obviously aren't fed reptomin lol.

 

[Mike D]

what kind of salt is best?


thanks for the fast replies. i ill pick up some feeders on the way home

 

[Mike D]

first round of treatment was done last night. i cleaned the areas with peroxide first and then applied some neosporin to the areas. will be doing the same tonight. i took some pics but i am hesitnt about putting them up. people make a big deal about seeing pics of reps eating mice and such never mind seeing one who has suffered trauma like this guy.

 

[Creek_stomper]

I'd like to see the area in question. You may find silvadene and some dry-docking may help it heal faster.

Josh H

 

[mshill90]

This is MFK.. we've seen it all.

Pics would definitely help though.

 

[matt_bee]

I'd put the pics up, like was mentioned by mshill90, it will probably help you get more advice once people see what you're talking about. I don't see why any fuss would be made, some of the threads I've read this morning have had some pretty eye opening photos.

Its all in nature, that's what makes us all fascinated in it all!

 

[Mike D]

i will try and get some pics up tonight when i get home. he is doing very well at the moment. i do beleive that he is fully blind though. i can put on figer in front of his "good eye" and he does not flinch or pull back into his shell.