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Calamity & Hydra's Story:
Abused Female Northern Diamondback Terrapins
Day 1: The Arrival - Shells Debrided
At 9:30am on February 17th, 2004, the UPS Delivery Truck arrived with a box containing two female Northern Diamondback Terrapins. I had offered my home to these two with the impression that they were perfectly healthy turtles that simply had some old scars from previous shipping errors. I was told there were about 50 turtles placed in a box to be shipped together and these two ladies were at the bottom. As such they had suffered some damage which had rendered them unsalable. Nevertheless, their previous owner explained that even though they "looked bad" they really were absolutely fine.When I opened the box, anxious to meet the new additions, I was disappointed, to say the least, in how they were packaged. The insolation surrounding the turtles was sealed in clear plastic. The turtles themselves were placed, together, in a single pillow case that was tied shut. This resulted in two immediate problems. The first problem is that the turtles, during their travels, were so close together that they were forced to be banged against each other and scratching each other. I would have preferred to see each one wrapped individually to prevent such damage. The second problem comes from the pillow case being surrounded by plastic. Any and all fluids from the turtles, meaning urine, was soaked up by the pillow case with no ability for the pillow case to dry out since it was surrounded by plastic. This resulted in both turtles taking their trip wrapped tightly inside soaked urine filled horribly smelling cloth. My preference would have been to at least surround the packaging of the turtles with newspaper to provide something else the ability to soak up the fluids.
I grumbled about the packaging but realized that the important thing at this point was the fact that the turtles were here!! Unfortunately, the pleasantries were going to have to wait because these turtles needed HELP! Calamity was the first terrapin removed from the pillow case. Beyond all else I noticed she had a single droplet of fresh red blood resting on her nose. Blood from the nose is NEVER a good sign! I immediately began to observe her breathing and check her eyes etc looking for ANY signs of respiratory distress. Thankfully I was not able to notice any signs of a serious problem and once that single droplet was washed away, no other signs of blood revealed themselves. For this reason I am led to believe that she was likely just scratched either by herself or her travel mate during the shipping process and that the blood was from something superficial.
Calamity's shell was soft. Placing two fingers around the back skirt of her carapace while applying some pressure allowed the shell to bend in either direction. This was definitely not good! Her shell also had several areas of rot and infection both on the carapace and the plastron. Just about every scute on this turtles was in poor shape with signs of improper nutrition, poor (possibly no) proper lighting, as well as unclean waters being the most popular types of reasons for the various conditions this turtle was in.
Sadly, Hydra was the next to be removed from the pillow case and her condition wasn't much better than Calamity's. Hydra also had a bendable soft shell, though not quite as soft as Calamity's shell, and Hydra also had shell rot showing on just about every scute. It became quickly obvious that these turtles had been kept under poor conditions for quite some time and it was going to take a much longer period of time in superb conditions to get them back into fair health.
We began the day by simply placing both turtles into a kiddie pool with heat lamps and full spectrum UVB bulbs, a basking shelf, and salt water to allow them to rest, rinse off, and begin an initial attack on their wounds. We also offered food options including plants, reptomin sticks, mozuri pellets, shrimp, and krill. Neither turtle would accept any of the food options.
Several hours later I decided there was no time like the present to begin attacking the shell rot head on. This 'attack' began by first removing the already dead and rotted shell pieces and fungas. Spending a great deal of time with each turtle I ran over every point of their shells pulling off any pieces that were not firmly attached and gently picking out the white fungas that had formed in the pits. After this major first debriding of the wounds had been completed I gave each a throughal cleaning with betadine. I then added acriflavin to their already salted water to begin an attack against the fungas and let them soak.
The acriflavin seemed to 'attach' itself to their worst and deepest areas which in an odd sort of way helped me to depict the issues due to its yellow coloration. Any yellowish parts shown in the pictures is actually white. It is the acriflavin that has caused the yellowing.
Calamity - Day 1
Calamity's Plaston
Calamity's Back 8 Marginal Scutes have basically fallen off and rotted to the bone.
Calamity's Carapace is riddled with rot and is "bendable" w/ minimum pressure applied.
Hydra - Day 1
Hydra's Plaston has numerous pits and virtually all scutes have been lost or will likely be lost soon.
Hydra's Marginal Scutes are surprisingly looking saveable.
Hydra's Carapace is riddled with rot. She has lost most of her pleural scutes and her vertabral scutes are at risk.
| Click Here To View Day 1 | Click Here To Continue On To Day 2 |
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