by Anita
Sep 30, 2003 6:36 AM · 2558 views · 98.9 k · 700 x 435
This female wild RES was hit by a car a couple months ago. She had severe shell trauma and an opening into body cavity. I rehab turtles and assisted the vet tech with her repair. She went thru a round of antibiotics too and is doing great now! She will be a long term rehab and kept until her shell heals. She will eventually be released back into the wild. Don't attempt repairs yourself. Get injured turtles to a qualified vet or rehabilitator.
Are you located in Houston? I noticed you listed gctts as a link on a post.
Turtlehugger
Jul 1, 2004 12:05 PM
Rating: 4/5
Good quality photo. The content though........two words:Oh god
Poor thing. Did you administer pain meds? I hope you did.(There are pain meds you can safely administer to turtles, right?)
Anita
Jul 1, 2004 12:18 PM
The GCTTS is Houston based but has members all over. I live in a suburb of Houston.
Anita
Jul 1, 2004 12:35 PM
When the vets offices that I use do certain procedures that cause discomfort, turtles are sedated. For patching this turtle there was no need to sedate her. Sedation is only done when absolutely necessary because there is risk involved with it. With turtles it can be tricky to balance drugs/gas and not OD them. I am not aware of any drugs that can be safely administered to turtles for pain during recovery. I personally believe that turtles must have a high pain tolerance. Many start eating within a couple days of injury so I would assume they are not in too much pain if they have an appetite. RES #1 is now in a 3,000 gal. inground community pond and will be allowed to hibernate there this winter. Her patches may be removed next Spring to see how far the healing has come. We anticipate the shell to grow back but this may take 2 or more years. See the Long Term Care page for updates on all the LTC turtles we have.
http://www.gctts.org/long_term_care/
strider_D
Aug 16, 2004 10:56 PM
HOLY MOTHER OF GOD!!! im tramatized....
Anita
Aug 17, 2004 5:24 PM
Sorry, I don't mean to horrify people by posting photos like this. I feel it is important for people to know that turtles are quite resilient creatures and with the right care, can recover from very tramatic injuries. Out of all the injured turtles I've rehabbed over the years, we probably save over 90% of them. This means the native water turtles heal and are released back into the wild. Very few heal with permanent injuries bad enough to keep them from being released. The Gulf Coast Turtle and Tortoise Society puts non-releasable turtles up for adoption to our members (for free). They have to meet certain outdoor housing requirements. These turtles can then live a quality life in in ground outdoor backyard ponds and be watched for problems and taken to a vet by its owner if needed. We still plan on releasing this turtle in the future because she is doing great.
