Pet Turtles And More » turtle health http://www.PetTurtlesAndMore.com A blog about pet turtles and other related pets Thu, 09 Sep 2010 02:28:23 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=abc en hourly 1 My pet turtle has a few more shells to shed http://www.PetTurtlesAndMore.com/blog/my-pet-turtle-has-a-few-more-shells-to-shed.html/ http://www.PetTurtlesAndMore.com/blog/my-pet-turtle-has-a-few-more-shells-to-shed.html/#comments Mon, 16 Nov 2009 21:45:33 +0000 forlogos http://www.PetTurtlesAndMore.com/?p=1161 Following up on writing about turtle shell shedding and my pet turtles shed shells, I thought I’d share about how the shell of Rex, my male red ear slider turtle, was looking.

pet turle

His shell looks almost like new, since most of his scutes have fallen off already. When the scutes fall off, they reveal the newer, fresher shell layers underneath. The colors and patterns on his shell looks brighter and fuller, almost like he went through a time machine and got younger. By simply comparing the appearance of shell scutes to each other, you can tell which ones have recently been shed and which ones are going to go soon – basically it’s comparing the dull shell scutes vs the bright.

Here are some photos of the current state of of his shell: The parts encircled in red are shell scutes that my pet turtle still has to shed.


See the difference with the still be shed areas and the areas where turtle scutes were recently shed?

If you look carefully at some turtle pictures of his neck, you can see the scarring from when Cinderella, my other pet red ear slider turtle bit him.


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    • ]]>     http://www.PetTurtlesAndMore.com/blog/my-pet-turtle-has-a-few-more-shells-to-shed.html/feed/ 0     My pet turtles shed shells http://www.PetTurtlesAndMore.com/blog/my-pet-turtles-shed-shells.html/ http://www.PetTurtlesAndMore.com/blog/my-pet-turtles-shed-shells.html/#comments Wed, 04 Nov 2009 05:06:07 +0000 forlogos http://www.PetTurtlesAndMore.com/?p=1132 I wrote about turtle shell shedding in a previous blog post, pet turtle shell shedding.

    Oh yeah. Shell shedding is completely normal and natural for pet turtles. It’s a sign of good health. It means they are eating properly and have the proper turtle habitat in terms of having a completely dry basking area (in addition to a totally wet swimming area).

    My pet turtles have been shedding their shells

    The reason for that is that my turtles, my male pet turtle in particular – Rex, has been shedding a lot of his shell lately.

    Both my pet turtles have been shedding their shells for months now. Usually I find small bits and pieces of shell when I do some spot cleaning of the turtle tank with my water vacuum. I find them mixed in with everything I vacuum up, including pet turtle poop, uneaten food, cuttle bone “crumbs”, and shed skin. I always thought they were shedding really thin layers of shell that would come off in really small pieces. Of course, the pieces I would find weren’t always the same size. Some were bigger, most were really small.

    Then when doing a water change a month ago, I learned the truth. It was a weird water change but I learned a lot. I also watched my pet turtles a lot that day… Before I even started, I found a newly shed piece of my pet turtle shell in the water. A whole scute! Much larger than any piece of shell I’ve found since. During the water removal and replacement process, I saw about three whole scutes in the water – fresh from falling off my pet turtles’ shells.

    Pet turtles eat anything

    I found a fourth scute when I saw Rex eating something. I hadn’t given the turtles any food, so I though he was eating some turtle poop – but upon closer inspection he was actually trying to swallow a whole turtle scute. My pet turtle was trying to eat his shed shell! He had almost swallowed the whole piece before I managed to pull it off his mouth. That’s when I realized that my pet turtles have been shedding whole pieces of shell, entire scutes all this time. They see the pieces after they fall off, and red ear sliders being what they are, they ate them. The small bits and pieces I would find when doing maintenance were turtle shell fragments that were already processed – as in my pet turtles had already eaten and pooped them!!

    After the water change, Rex was swimming around when I saw a scute hanging off his back. It was almost completely out, so I pulled it off him. Throughout the rest of the day and the day after, I kept finding whole pieces of shed shells in Rex’s side of the pet turtle tank. In the next few weeks, I vacuumed more frequently and found whole scutes in the vacuum bag. Some pieces were clearly Rex’s and some I’m not sure which pet turtle of mine they came from. I only found a single piece of whole scute that I found in Cinderella’s (my female red ear slider turtle) side of the turtle aquarium. Just one.

    And so, here they are. Some photos of the pet turtle shells that were shed. I’ve been collecting them over a month and arranged them in their proper arrangement. I have almost all the scutes for Rex’s carapace – they are the first several pictures. I only found one piece from his plastron, it is the second set of photos. The last three photos are the only whole piece I found from Cinderella’s carapace. Enjoy:

    How about you? Have you been finding your pet turtles shed shells? Have you been collecting them or just throwing them away?


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    • ]]>     http://www.PetTurtlesAndMore.com/blog/my-pet-turtles-shed-shells.html/feed/ 4     My pet turtle’s drugs from his eye injury http://www.PetTurtlesAndMore.com/blog/my-pet-turtles-drugs-from-his-eye-injury.html/ http://www.PetTurtlesAndMore.com/blog/my-pet-turtles-drugs-from-his-eye-injury.html/#comments Mon, 12 Oct 2009 20:52:00 +0000 forlogos http://www.PetTurtlesAndMore.com/?p=1046 Recently while cleaning up, I came across the vet bill from (my male pet red ear slider turtle) Rex’s eye injury from over a year ago.

    If you aren’t a long time reader here’s a picture of the injury, which you can read about it here: My pet turtle’s eye injury, My pet turtle’s eye injury part 2, and My pet turtle’s eye injury part 3 – recovery photos.
    red ear slider turtle eye injury

    The total veterinary bill amounted to $163. Here’s what the charges were for:

    • Metacam 2ml – Exotics
    • Gentocin (only) Opht Soln
    • Injacom Inj – Excotic (101gm+)
    • Exotic Exam – Initial vs

    The first three were pet pharmaceuticals (drugs). They were general made for pet drugs or a reptile formula – none of them were formulated specially for pet turtles. Here’s what each item was for:

    Metacam. It’s an NSAID (non steroidal anti inflammatory) drug that controls pain and inflammation. We had to use a syringe to inject it into poor Rex’s mouth. A lot of other websites state that it has a palatable (tasty) taste and that dogs will easily accept it. Rex might have a dog-like name, but he’s a pet red ear slider turtle and it wasn’t easy giving it to him – he didn’t like it at all. After the first dose, he didn’t dare open his mouth again and it’s impossible to ’slip’ something it into a shut turtle mouth. We would put some of it on his turtle food, but he wouldn’t even go for that. It was hard, but being patient was the only solution. One time he even urinated on me when I was giving him (or trying to give him) some metacam. Aquatic turtle pee – I didn’t think I would ever come into direct with that outside of it being diluted and mixed in with the turtle tank water…

    Gentocin (only) Opht Soln – or rather Gentocin Ophthalmic Solution. Gentocin is usually a spray-on drug that is used on pet dogs and cats for the treatment of lesions accompanied by swelling and/or itching. The type of Gentocin we got was in eye-drop form (not a spray) and it was the ophthalmic solution, which is made especially for use in eyes for treating/preventing infections, scratches, allergies, ulcers and similar. Each drop would immediately spill out from his eyes – turtle eyes seem so small compared to the size of the drops. Gentocin was easy to give to Rex and wasn’t difficult in any way.

    Injacom Inj or Injacom Injection. Injacom is an injection (duh!) that was done by the vet. It contains Vitamin A, D3, and E. Apparently, the one dose the vet gave our pet turtle was enough as we weren’t given any to administer at home.

    The fourth item (Exotic Exam – Initial vs) was the veterinary fee and was the most exam item at $91 (total bill was $163). Going to the vet wasn’t exactly cheap, but it was more affordable than I expected. And the peace of mind that my pet turtle was receiving the care and medicine he needed to recover is priceless. So yeah, take your pet turtle to the vet if s/he gets hurt!!

    Anyway, Rex is a fully recovered and happy pet turtle and he looks like nothing ever happened to him!


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    • ]]>     http://www.PetTurtlesAndMore.com/blog/my-pet-turtles-drugs-from-his-eye-injury.html/feed/ 6     Red Ear Slider penile prolapse – fanning http://www.PetTurtlesAndMore.com/blog/red-ear-slider-penile-prolapse-fanning.html/ http://www.PetTurtlesAndMore.com/blog/red-ear-slider-penile-prolapse-fanning.html/#comments Thu, 11 Jun 2009 02:48:19 +0000 forlogos http://www.PetTurtlesAndMore.com/?p=539 Sorry, no photos. Last night I saw Rex, my male red eared slider, have a penile prolapse / fan himself.

    He was standing under water in a strange way, so I went to look closer. He had his four feet stretched out underneath him and it looked like he was taking a giant dump. A huge dump, bigger, thicker, and more oddly shaped than anything before. I started panicking in my head thinking, “oh no, he’s having an intestinal prolapse! What do I do!?!?”

    I reached for a camera, but the commotion must have alerted him, as the entire prolapsed ‘thing’ went back inside his cloaca. I observed his cloaca (read: butt-hole) for a few minutes as he was swimming around normally and noticed the opening going smaller and smaller. I’d read that turtle penises are weird and oddly shaped, but I didn’t expect it to be so weird and so odd.

    So doing some research, I conclude that it was a penile prolapse, not intestinal and that I have nothing to worry about.

    Here’s a summary of my findings online on turtle prolapses:

    Prolapse: generally when an organ sticks out of a turtle’s cloaca (butt-opening). The organ that sticks out may be intestinal or the penis.

    Intestinal prolapse: Thought to be caused by a turtle eating gravel, improper diet, constipation, parasites, being egg-bound or other reason. The consensus is that it’s not really sure why they have prolapses. An intestinal prolapse should go back in by itself and heal, but it also may not go back in, get injured, and require the services of a vet. If this happens, immediately put the turtle in a container with a smooth bottom, clean water, and away from other turtles or animals that may bite it.

    Penile prolapse: A male turtle ‘fans’ his male organ and it goes back in. This isn’t a problem and there’s nothing to worry about.

    And, since I didn’t get to take any photos of Rex’s prolapse, here’s some I found online:


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