General Care Discussion :: Speedy

[amsude]

Well on Wednesday night i had a scare. Speedy who we adopted back in September looked white when i came home. I was so nervous i laid out in the living room with him. Then i went to bed and early in the am i woke up and he looked OK with his usual white dot and his shell and I feel some other markings that looked like airbubbles in the water and nothing when dry.




As you can see i probably got nervous for nothing but i called the vet. We went to the vet and she said he is 13 grams and looks good. There is a chance this is shell rot or just scar tissue. She explained how a shell doesn't just heal the next day. Then she said we might want to start giving him some antibotics, so for the next few days . I get to give him a shot.

My son (9 years old) was devasted about this. As soon as she said the word he said no we know we don't want to do this. He had to leave the room. She showed me how to give it not too easy and not looking forward to Sunday when i get to do it with my husband. I even tried to make my son laugh on the way home by saying how he peed all over the doctor while getting his shot but it didn't work.

I look at these pictures now and think how silly I was he looks good.





It is funny because since the vets he has loved his bib lettuce, I can't believe how he is eating it.

[grey goose]

Was it his skin that turned white? Outside of a few dings and what looks like retained scutes at the marginals, he looks fine to me. You may want to reduce the amount of protein in his diet.

[Nettle]

It actually kind of looks like air bubbles that got under old scutes.

How are you feeding your turtle?

[amsude]

We do 15 pellets in the am and bibb lettuce at night. He is a good begger and i have to be honest i have given him so pellets here and there. I do think he was fine and a lot of it was airbubbles in the scutes but i feel the antibotice is a precautionary. The water did smell funny and i guess it all just got me scared and figured he has never been to the vet why not get him weighed and make sure I am on the right track

[Nettle]

Giving-in to begging can be awful. I think (and I'm no pro) that your turtle is retaining old scutes because of the extra protein.

[amsude]

Until I joined this site i was ignorant and thought they could only eat the plants ( which made a mess and I hated that), pelletts and goldfish. I now have learned differently and do hope there is still time for a healthy turtle. I don't give in a lot on the begging. He I think is also learning the begging doesn't work as much it is just hard to ignore now that he is in the living room with me.

[Nettle]

I know what you mean. Mine are in my room. -_-

[marisa]

The shell has a nice shine to it. There are a number of scutes that should shed at some point, and then it should look really good.

What brand of pellets are they getting? Fifteen (I'm assuming each) sounds like an awful lot to me. Adding more variety to the diet would be much healthier for them.

[amsude]

They are wardley pellets, he is loving his veggies. I wonder if i need to cut down his pellets. When we first got him he could eat 8 pellets in no time then we upped it to 10 and now I upped it to 15 just because the tank is so big. For the past four days i started feeding him on the dock so i can see them go and he doesn't eat that many and maybe that is why he eats the veggies now.

Did his shot today and all went well! I am sure the shots were needed and it was an extra $20 but at least I know for sure he is going to be OK