Went to the Vet for a Beak Trimming – My turtle cant eat now
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Hello everybody Here are some photographs;PHOTOS My name is Ada and I’m new to the forum. I live in Los Angeles andhave several turtles in two tanks. My youngest one is 17 years (withme) and the others are over 20 years in my possession. Two of them (a male and a female) are Malaclemys terrapin but I’m not totally sure of which subspecies they belong to. Flora my female perhaps could be a Tequesta and Figaro the male perhaps a Pileata.I’m having some problems with the beak and caparace of my femaleterrapin. Her name is flora and I got her on May of 1986. I orderedher through a local petstore. She was supposed to be an ornateterrapin but when I received her at the pet store she did not looklike one. Her conditions were poor, she was old, had a crack on thecaparace and was in weak conditions. The people at the pet store toldme they were going to return her but I really liked her and decided to keep her, and I don’t regret it, she’s the sweetest turtle of all. Itook her to a vet and was diagnosed with a collapsed lung. She wastreated but never recovered from that. She cannot swim straight likethe others but she has managed her disability well during all these years.She always had trouble with her beak getting overgrown but she always managed to eat and break her beak to comfort. I have never had that problem with the male. About a month ago she broke once more her overgrown beak but this time it was not in an uniform way and she started to have some difficulty eating. She started to lose some weight and I decided to take her to the vet.I had a hard time finding a vet who could help her with her problembut I was finally referred to a vet who treated reptiles.The vet looked at her and told me she had an infection on her carapace and that she needed antibiotics, then he took her with him to trim her beak. After waiting for a long time he brought Flora back to me and told me that he trimmed her beak but that I needed to bring her back several times more to finish trimming it because her beak was very difficult to trim. He also told me that he will need to put her under anesthesia in order to do that.The thing that really worries me is the anesthesia. I don’t want tolose Flora to it. I have had so many bad experiences in the past withvets. I lost 2 eggbound females to the hormone therapies of the vetsand a sick hatching was taken to the vet alive and I was later toldthe hatchling was dead, then he did not return the body because hesaid it was autopsied and discarded. All of that without my consent,but it was about 25 years ago and I was quite young then.Ok, here is the current tratment for Flora (the cost was $143.00):-Vet gave her a shot of antibiotics that says in the receipt -Injection
he told me not to use the Betadine on it. Could it be used forprevention?-which is the proper way to feed them with those food syringes? I put some of the liquid food on her mouth and placed her on the water to swallow but some of it comes through the nostrils or mouth… Should I liquify the food to a very liquid consistency?Thanks for reading, any help will be greatly appreciated.Extra information about my terrapins setup:
Living Setup:60 gallon tank – freshwater2 ZooMed fluorescent Reptisun 5 bulbs in the basking area – 15 hourson approx.2 Hagen Fluval 4 plus internal filter (ordered another, one broke)Heather with protector – temp. 82 F.Food:2 times a week any of;raw chicken breast frozen with zoo med’s Reptivite vitaminsraw meat frozen with zoo med’s Reptivite vitaminsraw smelts frozen with zoo med’s Reptivite vitaminsraw shrimp frozen with zoo med’s Reptivite vitaminsDaily:Different types of reptile pellets; ZooMed aquatic turtle food,Reptomin and others.Available live aquatic plant snailsNOTE: Flora has always been extremely picky with food all her life. She only eats the chicken and the live snails. I tried everything with her and even little bits of new food mixed with the regular but she spits everything new. Figaro eats everything but neither of them like vegetables or fruits.Water changes:25% a week and 100% a moth. Treat the water with Amquel to remove the ammonia, chlorine and chloramines from the tap water.NOTE: I used to give them a sea salt water baths once every two weeks for several hours with Aquarium systems Instant Ocean. Then I changed it to a monthly basis. I believe that this change plus the beak problem that caused weight loss and the burning of the motor of one of their internal filters contributed to her caparace infection and vitamin deficiency that it is also affecting her eyes.
The vet did not give me anything for her eyes but I ordered a couple
of bottles of ZooMed ReptiTurtle Eye Drops from drsfostersmith
website with the new filter and some medicated sulfa blocks that were on sale.I was thinking that my recently adopted girl might need her beak trimmed, but looking at your photos has me really worried… I know I have a really good vet and several recommendations of others in MD if he doesn’t feel comfortable doing the trimming, but I too am worried about anesthesia as far as the treatment goes – one of my cooters had shell problems this summer and my vet treated her with Baytril… I remember him saying that it tended to be the drug of choice with turtles, but he gave her Baytril injections… he said it was hard to be sure if enough of the medicine was getting in when it was given orally… I took her in for 3 shots about 2 or 3 days apart I bathed her in a dilute solution of Chlorhexidine (a recommendation on several turtle care sites) once or twice a day and let her air dry she healed beautifully – unless you know where to look, you can’t even see the scars I hope someone with experience has some advice for you and Flora recovers!
Thanks kord17007 🙂 I believe that in the diamonback species range area vets are a lot more knowledable of the terrapins problems than in the west coast. By my interactions with different vets during the years I have noticed that they dont recognize them. The personalized Baytril injections method that your vet used with your turtle seems more reliable. My vet gave me the option of injecting mine on my own but I had to decline because of previous bad experiences injecting them. Good to know about the “dilute solution of Chlorhexidine” I will have it in mind for future needs. Thanks again kord17007 🙂 — kord17007
Who’s your vet? There is a horrible one in Columbia, I had two map turtles come in with horrible shell rot as a result of his inexperience. Dr. Rhody in Laurel is good, but Dr. Boyd and Dr. Gold have more turtle experience. There’s a vet in College Park that I would use for iguanas, but not for turtles. Katrina — In diamondbackterrapins@yahoogroups.com, “kord17007”
I’ve been using Richard Greenwalt, DVM… he was with a Carlisle/Mechanicsburg practice, but has since moved to Dover Area Animal Hospital (between York and Carlisle)… he’s knowledgable, it’s obvious he really likes turtles, and he is always willing to explain his diagnosis and why he recommends a particular treatment… I have a call in to him, but haven’t been able to touch base re his experience w/ beak trimming… if he hasn’t had much I’ll bring her down to MD — In diamondbackterrapins@yahoogroups.com, “beautifuljoe1313”
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