Urgent Care :: Turtle Not Basking (Outdoor)

[GunnerMan]

Ok we have two res we got last summer and introduced them both to the pond. The pond is about 1,500 gals with fish and lots of plants including Bull Rush, Lotus, Water lillie, zebra rush, water celery, cattail. Pond is equiped with a skimmer filter with UV light.

Both res hibernated over the winter and when spring came one of them came up and started basking for most of the day and seems to be enjoying life. The other one we never saw and we kind of assumed it did not make it through hibernation so once we were sure there was no way it could still be dormant we decided to do our spring pind cleaning(feed, cut, thin out plants; scoop muck from the bottom; partial water change etc) So I was in the pond scooping and I scooped up the turtle in my net and to our surprise he was alive. So we took him to our other pond while we finished cleaning. I did knowtice his shell looked a bit discolored/faded but I decided to put it back in the pond when we finsihed cleaning. It has now been 2 weeks and it never comes up, and when I took it out a few days ago it had apparent shell rot.

So this turtle does not bask, I have seen it bask maybe 3 times but for the most part we never see it come up. It has shell rot. These are very untamed turtled as jump in the water as soon as we get remotely close. What might be causing the turtle not to bask?

[SpotsMama]

He could be sick and confused. Did he seem as active as normal when you put him in the other pond? Specifically how does his shell look? Would it be possible to post a picture of his shell when it's dry?

If he has severe shell rot or if his behavior is abnormal, he will need to be seen by a good herp vet. If he has shell rot, staying in water continuosly will only make it worse. His shell will need to be treated and part of the treatment will involve lots of dry time.

Is there any reason he can't stay in the other pond? If he has something catching, you don't want the other turtle to get it.

[TheComputerGremlin]

I agree, you need to see a herp vet for the shell rot and dry dock him indoors for a few days. That will force him to get dried out and maybe once he starts feeling better, he might start basking again.

What size are the turtles? You mention this was their first hibernation, i.e. brumation. You may want to bring them in in the future winters. I don't know where you live, but sometimes the warmer parts of the US don't get cold enough for brumation, causing the turtles to basically starve to death, and cold parts, turtles wouldn't naturally be found there so they aren't prepared for that type of cold. All you would need is a setup indoors for the cold months and then back to the pond during the warm months.

[GunnerMan]

They both stayed near the bottom of the other pond trying to hide under the filter but they didn't look abnormal. The other ponds have no plant life in them and are not suitable at this point for them to stay in permanantly. We just put them in there so we didn't stress them out with all the commotion in their normal pond. I tried to catch him today to get him out and dry him out some but could not find him. Tomorrow I will look again and try and get a picture.
The one not basking is smaller than the other, the largest is about 6 - 6.5 " long and the smaller probably 1" smaller. When we first returned him to the pond after the cleaning I witnessed him basking with the other one a few times but then he just stoped. We live in the central part of New Mexico.

Tomorrow I will take him in and try and get pics.