injured 3-toed boxie

[Loohan]

Damn, apparently I ran over a mature 3tbt on my property.I got her soaking in lukewarm water now with a bit of H2O2, which is starting to froth some after a few minutes.

Note the plastron seems to be dislocated at an angle. I tried to take close-ups of the injury but they turned out blurry. After the soak I can try again.
I don't know if there are any suitable vets around here. I already emailed the Reptile Rescue in Little Rock.
Can i just get some OTC antibiotic salve or something?
She seems relatively alert, etc. and stirring around occasionally trying to get out of the soak.

 

[Berkeley]

Be careful with the Hydrogen Peroxide- it can actually do damage. Neosporin is fine to use, other than that keep it clean and dry-ish as best you can.

Good luck! I hope you hear back from the Reptile Rescue. The turtle should be fine!
--Berkeley

 

[ColleenT]

sorry this happened. I hope he makes out ok.

 

[Loohan]

What a drag. I was up on part of my property where i almost never take a vehicle. The dirt road had gotten overgrown with weeds so yesterday i mowed it. But at the highest mowing setting, because the ground is uneven and rocky.
This morning i drove up there to do some chores, when i was delighted to see a beautiful adult boxie.

Since it has an interesting face, i snapped some pics of my new friend.



Then i realized she looked swollen and puffy, so i inspected and found the damage.
I was nonplussed as to how she could have gotten a fresh injury like that in the woods. Then i remembered i had pulled in right near there half an hour earlier to make a 3-point turnaround.

I did not use much H202. It took like 20 minutes for the surface of the water to get covered in light foam.

Then i considered putting fresh aloe on the wound, and that might have worked out OK, but i went ahead and made the 25-mile round trip to get Neosporin.
I just globbed a bunch over the injured area.
Now she's placidly resting in a newspaper-lined box.

 

[PJay]

Wow! I feel for you. Box turtles are tough, so hopefully it mends ok.

 

[MPRC]

Poor girl looks grumpy. I've seen worse healed injuries in wild turtles, hopefully she's okay.
Keep her warm and comfortable and let us know how she does.

 

[Loohan]

She's doing as well as can be expected. Still oozing a little blood. I just gooped on more Neosp. and changed the newspaper.
Yes, am keeping her warm. Good thing i found her and took her in. We got 2.3" of hard rain last night, and it got cool.
She is not moving much, which i guess is good. Being sensible and resting. She looks basically OK.

Yesterday i had put a Rose of Sharon flower and a prickly pear in her box. The flower was gone this morning, so i gave her another.
Hopefully i will have new flowers by this afternoon. (Newish plants.)

 

[Loohan]

She hasn't eaten any more yet. I even gave her a nice juicy blackberry yesterday morning, but she never touched it.
She did produce a turd a couple days ago; a good sign things are functioning.
She does look better. The swelling has gone down a lot, and her plastron is not as dislocated.
Today i thought she could handle a sunny soak in a non-sterile stock tank (excuse the window reflection):
For about 45 minutes, Weather was ideal. I figured some rays would do her good. She paddled around some; movements look normal. I'll probably repeat this every day this week if the weather stays sunny.
After she dried i put some fresh aloe vera on her injury.
She is very sweet and docile. Acts tame and seems to have forgiven me due to my sincere contrition.

 

[MPRC]

Glad to see she's up and moving!

 

[Loohan]

Update: 2 months after the accident, i just released her. Not entirely dry-eyed. She has been nothing but congenial and lovable.
We are still having unseasonably warm temperatures. I have been gardening bare-chested this morning. The next 3 nights are supposed to be mild.
Here is how her injury looked this morning:



She ate almost nothing the forst 4 weeks. I looked up turtle anatomy:
http://www.imagequiz.co.uk/img?img_id=ag5zfmltYWdlbGVhcm5lcnIQCxIHUXVpenplcxi5yL8rDA
and one can see that the break was right under her stomach. I think what happened is when i ran over her, she was over a rock in such a way that the shell broke there, and probably pushed way in, possibly bruising her stomach. So eating was painful.

But then after 4 weeks her appetite was good, at least for black soldier fly larvae, which i had plenty of. She ate and ate. And i gave her long outdoor soaks most days. I wanted to beef her up before releasing her, as it has been dry lately and she probably would not have found anything much to eat outdoors.
She stopped eating on the 7th, and in the past week i gave her 4 warm soaks indoors.

Here is a pic from a couple days ago:



And a couple from this morning:



I released her where i found her. From there she can easily walk down the north slope of the hill (indeed that's where she headed once she finally started moving). I think the boxies here brumate on north slopes. This is the South, where one does not plant apples or peaches on the south slope, because we sometimes have winter days in the 70s or even 80 degrees F. The tree thinks it's spring, starts to flower, then another freeze comes along to kill the buds. For the same reason, i suspect the turtles know not to dig in except on the north slope.

 

[Yvonne G]

I'm very glad to hear such a happy ending. And what a pretty turtle.

 

[ColleenT]

she looks great. i wish her luck. Thanks for taking care of her.

 

[Berkeley]

That's awesome. Good job!
--Berkeley

 

[cmacusa3]

I applaud you!!