I rescued this girl today. As you can see her beak is a bit long and her back toenails seem to be messed up. Her tail also is a stub, so a piece was taken off. Any ideas what happened to the toenails? Does her beak need trimming do you think?
adopted this girl today
- Thread starter lisa127
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Yes, her beak needs trimming. Be very careful because her face is deformed too.
Reptile carpet is not a good substrate for a box turtle. Please read the care sheet. Her messed up foot may well be the result of the improper substrate she lived on before.
So good that she has been rescued! If you can set her up outdoors for the summer it will be so good for her.
Reptile carpet is not a good substrate for a box turtle. Please read the care sheet. Her messed up foot may well be the result of the improper substrate she lived on before.
So good that she has been rescued! If you can set her up outdoors for the summer it will be so good for her.
You could try feeding her on a ruff surface, like a flat rock or piece of tile and see if it will file her beak down naturally. It's not the worse I have seen. It does need to be shorter, but it's not so over grown that you can't try to let it be filed down naturally.
Oh and she looks dry. Give her a nice warm soak and get her set up with the proper substrate, water and humidity.
These pics were taken before. That is not my reptile carpet.
What do you mean her face is deformed? I just see an overgrown beak. Am I missing something?
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She can live a perfectly healthy life this way, but her nose and beak are not the ideal shape that a box turtle should have. A couple of my tortoise rescues look similar.
Eric Zukowski
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I don't believe it is her nose that is messed up but her eye blends in with her nose making it look like a big nose.
Stubby tail and jacked up nails are the beginnings of MVB. She should be fine with some outside time, proper diet, and a nail/beak trim.
I'm thinking the beginning of MBD as well. She had an appointment with the vet to look at her beak, but I had a dog with an emergency injury so had to cancel her appointment. I'm going to feed her on a rock until I can get her in. She has a great personality!! After only 3 days here she seems so comfortable. Not pacing or stressed and not hiding all the time. Seems very comfortable in her enclosure and she's very friendly and outgoing. The only she has eaten for me so far are nightcrawlers.
Does she look like an integrade boxie?
I just wanted to update. I was able to take her to her appointment after all. The vet filed down her beak some. She agrees with me that she looks suspicious of MBD issues but that without a blood test we can't say anything for sure. Other than her "deformities", she says as I knew that she appears to be very healthy and active. She said normally it's difficult to get a boxie out of it's shell to file the beak but Pebbles is so outgoing and bold it wasn't a problem. The vet was laughing at her the whole time. She said she's such a character. So good lighting and a good diet and we should be good to go. And sometime outdoor time as well.
