Urgent Care :: Strange excrement...

[yterron]

Ok... this morning when I took lola out of her tank... she left a mess in the plastic container I place her in... it was larger than a jelly bean and was dark brown... she spread it all over the container and it smelled really bad!!! Could it have been an egg? please help

[marisa]

How big is Lola?

I really don't think it's an egg (do you see any pieces of shell? The interior of the egg isn't the color you're describing.

It sounds like Lola's been holding her poop inside her for a bit. With the consistency you described, it sounds like a little gastrointestional upset. My RES will sometimes make some really stinky poop. If the container is your turtle's normal enclosure, it would be good to net out as much as possible. If the tank is small, perhaps a water change (or at least a partial water change) would be good.

[yterron]

Well, she's 4.5 inches... The container isn't her normal enclosure... it's just where she eats...

So, you think it's probably because of the water in her tank... it's just that she's been shedding and her water, which usually gets changed every two weeks, now has to get changed every five days!!! I guess I'll have to change more often while she finishes shedding...

[marisa]

I don't think I said I thought it was because of the water in her tank...

What I said was, if she pooped like that in her regular tank, you'd want to net it out and perhaps do a partial water change to help keep the water quality up. If she did it in her feeding container, you'd be throwing out the water anyway.

She's shedding skin?

[yterron]

yep... but she´s all done now... is it bad that they shed ?

[marisa]

No, they normally shed skin as they grow.

[yterron]

Great... she's getting bigger!

[Deon]

hi my turtle has wierd excretement too, but its different. It does not come out like usual, but more like diarrhea, in little bits. Do you guys know if this is a serious problem?

[octpusgirl8]

A lot of time different food = different poop. A lot of times if my turtle eats his lettuce all at once he'll have a loose "lettuce-y" poop. Does that sound like what's going on with your turtle?

[Deon]

yeah i think so. He only poops in small crumbs size bits when i fed her lettuce and carrots so that may be it. I fed her pellets today - will see if theres a difference. thanks!