Urgent Care :: male suddenly mean & female appears prego

[turtledawg88]

I have had 2 male and 2 female RES for about 5 years. they live in an outdoor tank (130 gal). within the last couple of weeks one of the males has started attacking the largest female, biting really hard on the neck, its leaving big sores. i checked her out today and there are also huge swollen lumps on either side of her tail, (eggs?) i was told would not lay eggs in tank.... please help!!!

[notoch351]

Eggs, I’m not sure my guess not. They should be separated before anything serous happens. Do you have pictures of the tail?

[megcornell]

You need to remove the aggressive male immediately. Those sores will likely get infected so keep the water quality as good as possible in the females tank.
She could be gravid.... is she displaying any signs like restlessness and loss of appetite. When a RES is carrying eggs they are in front of her back legs not behind it so you're probably not seeing the eggs. The swelling could be any number of things from an injury to stress related issues.

I'm not sure how large your turtles are, but 130gal is just not big enough for 4 turtles, you will need to look into separate enclosures.

[industrial_girl_2000]

Definitely remove the aggressive male because the aggression will only get worse from here on in. I had the same situation many years ago when I had 2 turtles living in the same tank. They fought daily & bit each other so hard that the male lost several of his long nails. He also ended up with a sprained tail, and the female ended up with sores on her neck as well. I eventually had to just give the male away to a friend so now I only have 1 turtle.

None of us are trying to sound negative when we tell you these things. It is all about preventing the turtles from hurting each other. In the wild, the turtles have a HUGE area in which to swim & get away. 130 gallon tank is simply too small for this kind of aggressive behavior.

Keep us posted! And if you can, please post pictures of the injuries so we can help you further!

[marisa]

Give the agressor his own enclosure.

Clean the wounds on the female (Betadine is easy to get, dilute it) and put some antibiotic ointment on them if they're not too deep. If the wounds are open, you might want to separate the female from the others until they close up if the others start to show an interest in them. At any rate, make sure the water she's in is clean.

The lumps on either side of the tail aren't eggs. Can you post a pic of the tail with the lumps?

[turtledawg88]

couldnt get her to pose for shot of neck wound. you can see to the left of tail though in this photo. what is this???

since my last post i have divided the tank in half, boys on left, girls on right. the tank seems to give them all plenty of room still (typing error 230gal. not 130gal) am applying antibiotic

thanx for all the help

[marisa]

I can't seem to get a picture...

[SpotsMama]

All I see where the picture's supposed to be is a red x.

[megcornell]

http://images.kodakgallery.com/photos43 ... _0_ALB.jpg

I can see the picture... does the link help anyone else see it?

The rear certainly does look swollen but I'm not quite sure what from.

[turtledawg88]

try this link for pic
http://images.kodakgallery.com/photos4386/1/38/37/11/54/7/754113738110_0_ALB.jpg

[industrial_girl_2000]

The links don't work for me. I get a gigantic white screen with "FORBIDDEN" on it. Sorry.

[SpotsMama]

I can't see it either. Does the photo hosting site have a button you can click somewhere to make the photo "public"?

[megcornell]

Maybe I can see it because I have kodak picture equipment on my computer.

I've downloaded it to picasa... see if that works for people.

[SpotsMama]

How is the female with the lumps behaving? Is she eating? Swimming normally? Walking normally? Basking?

If it were me I'd take the turtle to a vet and get some x rays. I don't know what could be causing the swelling but it's unusual enough to cause concern. If there's also been a change in behavior I'd get to the vet ASAP.

[marisa]

I see the pic. The whitish area to the left of the tail? If so, it's a little difficult to see from that angle...Is the skin broken? Does it look like it could be a bite?