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All "Others" Photo Gallery It was suggested to me that a photo gallery for the other critters and interests might be useful to the membership. So here you go, Walt. :) |
Rescued Eastern Box Turtle
09-28-2014, 09:37 PM
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#1
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Rescued Eastern Box Turtle
In June, my stepdad called me saying that he had found a turtle in the road and that it was hurt. He was understating. I'd taken care of a couple of injured water turtles before, but when my mom came to my house holding a bleeding box turtle with her shell in three pieces I knew this would be interesting.
It was really touch and go with her for a long while. She refused to eat for the first 3 weeks, but it wasn't until 2 months after we took her in that I knew she would make it. I knew she was doing alright when she started copping an attitude at us. She's pretty ungrateful to us for saving her life.
She doesn't have a name yet. I don't think she can ever be released again, since her shell (while a whole lot better) is nowhere near healed. When I was holding her for the pictures I could still feel some give in the seams.
You can see the injury in the pictures. The last picture shows her doing her favorite hobby--sitting in her water dish and spying on everything.
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09-28-2014, 10:43 PM
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#2
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I love that she's got an attitude towards you who saved her. That's great. Well, she may not appreciate it, but we animal lovers do. Nice work!
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09-28-2014, 11:16 PM
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#3
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Poor baby! She is very pretty, good job on saving her ungrateful little shelly butt!
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09-29-2014, 12:25 PM
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#4
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Whispering...
Pssst....you're she's a he. Red eyes (though not always a reliable means of sexing box turtles) and that big, thick tail are a couple clues
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09-29-2014, 09:19 PM
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#5
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I'm not sure, really. The photos don't do a good job of showing eye color. It's more golden/orange than red. We've caught male box turtles around here--it's pretty clear when the eyes are red.
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09-29-2014, 10:44 PM
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#6
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Aozora
I'm not sure, really. The photos don't do a good job of showing eye color. It's more golden/orange than red. We've caught male box turtles around here--it's pretty clear when the eyes are red.
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Though not always super bright red, those are still red eyes. Some localities of easterns even produce males with white eyes.
Looking at the first 2 images, I'm 99.9999999% certain he's a he.
I'd be willing to bet if you turned him upside down that his plastron would be concave.
Some other examples of light-eyed males:
Terrapene carolina triunguis - Three-toed Box Turtle
Rest are all T. c. carolina
This image is huge in dimensions, so it's linked:
https://thelizardlog.files.wordpress...6/p1000041.jpg
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09-30-2014, 01:40 AM
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#7
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I've found injured/hit turtles&torts near roads from time to time. Did you clean the wound several times and then use an bicycle tire innertube repair kit, or duct tape to push the shell back together so it would heal up, or just let it do it on its own? Curiously~
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09-30-2014, 05:28 AM
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#8
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It's usually the males that are out wandering around, too. If you look at the plastron, it's very easy to tell.
There are several ways to fix the shell. Best bet of course is a vet. If the cracks are superficial, you clean it very well and leave it alone. It can be stabilized with duct tape, or even fiberglass or epoxy hoof repair kits. The problem with patching it is trapping bacteria inside.
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10-10-2014, 08:34 PM
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#9
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Quote:
Originally Posted by dave partington
I've found injured/hit turtles&torts near roads from time to time. Did you clean the wound several times and then use an bicycle tire innertube repair kit, or duct tape to push the shell back together so it would heal up, or just let it do it on its own? Curiously~
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We initially just put a ton of neosporin over all of the cracks. It was the craziest thing, icing a tortoise with a tube of neosporin... Packed as much as we could into the deep wounds, and on the shallow areas we just covered the gap so as not to let any air or bacteria in. We re-iced with neosporin as needed. As the shell began to heal, we began to put Shell Conditioner on it.
It still hasn't recovered enough to where I feed comfortable setting the shell--there's still a lot of "give" to the point where I don't even want to turn the poor thing over to verify his(?) sex. We'll see if he(?) feels like hibernating this year, and then we'll probably use some epoxy and fiberglass to set the shell permanently. There are pretty good guides online on how to fix a tortoise's shell if you search for them.
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10-13-2014, 11:44 PM
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#10
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I don't really know a whole lot about turtles, but I just wanted to say that you did a great job with him! Just looking at the partially healed shell, even without having any pictures of the original damage, I can't imagine how bad he must have looked when you got him. Many people probably would have given up on him thinking he would just die.
Not that my opinion matters, but it's nice knowing that people like this exist! (:
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