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white stuff coming out of turtle"s mouth?

PostPosted: Mon Aug 31, 2015 12:13 am
by Tom21
Recently for a past couple of weeks, sometimes when my red eared slider opens her mouth, tiny white stringy things come out, I don't know what it is, but I just scoop it out when I see it, but my turtle seems to be fine, she moves and sleeps and eats like nothing is wrong.

Does anyone have any idea what this stuff is?

Re: white stuff coming out of turtle"s mouth?

PostPosted: Mon Aug 31, 2015 6:14 pm
by steve
It might be mucus if she were out of the water for a long time and going back in.

Re: white stuff coming out of turtle"s mouth?

PostPosted: Mon Aug 31, 2015 8:20 pm
by Kansasslider
They don't move do they?

Re: white stuff coming out of turtle"s mouth?

PostPosted: Mon Aug 31, 2015 11:14 pm
by Tom21
@Steve, she's hasn't been out of the water ever for a long time, and during summer she swims and sleeps in the water non stop, she hasn't really gone up to the rock to bask recently. Also it's coming out of her mouth and not her nose either.

@Kansasslider no I don't think so, I scooped them up and looked at it in a cup to see if it's some sort of worm/parasite but it doesn't move.

Re: white stuff coming out of turtle"s mouth?

PostPosted: Tue Sep 01, 2015 11:36 am
by steve
Can you post a picture of it? Could it be shed skin? Any other symptoms?

Re: white stuff coming out of turtle"s mouth?

PostPosted: Tue Sep 01, 2015 12:23 pm
by Tom21
I will try to take a picture of it if I see it again, I've seen much less of it these past few days, but I saw it quite often a few weeks ago. It didn't really look like shed skin, I saw it come out of her mouth when she tried to bite something.

Don't know if there's anything odd, but recently I saw her sometimes sleep sideways in the water in day time, but she swims normal when she's awake and following me when I walk by her tank. I read that if turtles swims sideways it means they got a collapsed lung or some RI infection. But from the 14 years I've had she, she's sleeps in so many weird peculiar positions I didn't think much of it. But she sleeps normal at night, as she always goes back to the same corner.

So other, than the sideway sleeping in day time, I don't notice anything different.

Re: white stuff coming out of turtle"s mouth?

PostPosted: Tue Sep 01, 2015 9:43 pm
by steve
During the sideway sleeping, is she hanging onto something? I guess I would just keep an eye out for any other potential symptoms.

Re: white stuff coming out of turtle"s mouth?

PostPosted: Wed Sep 02, 2015 9:00 am
by Tom21
I don't think she's hanging onto anything, just see her in random parts of the tank sleeping sideways recently, but only sometimes. But she does sometimes hangs onto the filter's intake tube and falls asleep there, sometimes sideways, but sometimes straight up, but she's been doing that since forever, even before the white stuff came out of her mouth.

Yeah I'm definitely checking up on her more frequently to see if she's doing anything else odd

Re: white stuff coming out of turtle"s mouth?

PostPosted: Wed Sep 02, 2015 5:12 pm
by Tom21
After not seeing it for a few days, I saw it again today. Now I'm not sure if it really came out of her mouth.

But I took her out of the tank for a brief moment and stopped the filter to see if it was moving, but it doesn't move, but I took a picture of it.

b6dccb207691972af8da8af49c5aebf3.jpg

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Does anyone know what this stuff is?

Re: white stuff coming out of turtle"s mouth?

PostPosted: Wed Sep 02, 2015 8:48 pm
by steve
It doesn't look like skin or mucus. If she coughed it up, it could be serious... if its pooped out then could be anything.

Re: white stuff coming out of turtle"s mouth?

PostPosted: Wed Sep 02, 2015 9:01 pm
by Tom21
Yeah now I'm not so sure he coughed it up, cause I only saw a tiny bit of it come out of her mouth like when she opened it for water. So she might of pooped it or she might of ate it then spit it out.

I scooped it out, then fed her about an hour ago. She still acts very normal. Just have no idea what this stuff is.

Re: white stuff coming out of turtle"s mouth?

PostPosted: Wed Sep 02, 2015 9:29 pm
by steve
OK, just keep an eye out for any other symptoms.