Sick Turtle

[speedimager]

I have a hatchling Diamondback that recently started what can best be described as a convulsion and has stopped eating. A couple days ago I noticed when feeding my 2 diamondback I have that 1 did not eat and had what appeared like a siezure,(neck fully extended, mouth open to a quick retraction with mouth open) this happened a few times. I seperated this one from the other. This one has since lost all interest in food and does not want to be in the water. Up until this point they both have been very active. Any help would be appreciated.

[Todd Stockwell]

Although it’s always tough to offer health advice sight unseen, this sounds like a respiratory problem. Staying out of the water, no interest in food and the mouth opening sound like symptoms of respiratory infection. Do you have the water temp warm and the basking site temp even warmer? Keeping the little guys warm is essential. There are differences in opinion on how warm to keep the water, but it needs to be in the 78 to 82 degrees F range at least for hatchlings in my experience. The basking temp needs to be a little warmer at 85 to 87 degrees F. Some keepers go lower, but raising it up, at least until improvement is seen, might help. Watch the sick one for dehydration on the basking spot. If it won’t go into the water on its own anymore it will dehydrate staying under the basking light continuously. Respiratory infection that persists needs antibiotics from your vet. I have had some success giving Baytril orally to tiny hatchlings per vet directions. Toddspeedimager

[Jason Williamson]

I have been trying crushed coral and cuttlebone to wear down the overgrown beaks of a few female terrapins I have. Today, I used a Dremel pointed tip grinding stone and filed down a beak that was badly overgrown. I got the beaks edges nice and trimmed down to normal and I trimmed nearly all of the overgrown wide crushing plates inside the mouth too. However, the mouth still doesn’t close all the way because the very back edges of the crushing plates (analogous to where our wisdom teeth would be) were hard to get to because it is so far back and also because the terrapin was getting restless. I am also a bit afraid to work back there because there is so much soft tissue around these areas and one little slip could cause a small cut or scrape to the soft tissue. For the most part, the process went better than I had imagined and the terrapin didn’t seem to mind it as much as I thought she would. Is there any tips on how to better immobilize the head and hold the jaw slightly opened so as to be able to grind these back edges so that the mouth can close as it should? Thanks, JasonTodd Stockwell

[jlwm810]

Jason, I’ve never trimmed my diamondbacks’ beak before and was wondering where one might be able to get the Dremel pointed tip grinding stone. I’m not even sure what that is, is that the best tool out there for trimming turtle beaks? I’m surprised you can actually hold their head in place. Thanks James — In diamondbackterrapins@yahoogroups.com, Jason Williamson

[Jason Williamson]

I bought my Dremel at Lowes Home Improvement but many places carry it. Home Depot does and maybe Walmart. It is a high speed rotary tool and you can put various bits on it to do different things. I bought a couple of grinding stones used to grind plactics and ceramics. I had one stone shaped like a small barrel and the other like a tiny Christmas tree. I prefer the Christmas tree one for trimming the terrapins beak. I tried to use simple manual fingernail files but that proved to be quite time consuming and wide back & forth sweeping motion was rocking the head of the terrapin back & forth too much and I thought that this can’t be good. I am going to keep experimenting with various hard items in the diet to try and trim down the beaks because the dremel trimming was quite an ordeal and I view it more as a last resort than something I want to end up doing routinely. ,Jason

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