Urgent Care :: Oliver just had the worst day of his life today

[laurapa]

Let this story be a lesson to you: just because you think your basking site is secure, it doesn't mean it is.

While I was at work today, Oliver's floating log moved out of its moorings (which we thought were good enough to hold it in place) and, naturally, it floated to probably the only place Oliver could have remotely escaped from. And even where it was, he must have worked pretty hard to pull this off. But that's not a surprise to any of us here.

He escaped from his stock tank, Lord knows how long ago, and took himself on a little tour of our house. (I hope he didn't fall too hard from the top of the tank because we have hardwood floors, but the top isn't even two feet from the ground, so hopefully he didn't crack his shell. He is too traumatized for me to look into this right now though.)

So why wasn't this the greatest day of his life instead of the worst day of his life? Because I found him stuck fast in a sticky roach glue trap we have on the floor of our kitchen. It's one of those paper glue traps, and it is just as wide as he is. His two little front feet were stuck to it. Having gotten my toe stuck in it before, I know how bad it sticks. (I should point out here that it has never caught a roach.)

Who knows how long he had been there. His shell was dry when I found him, but I don't know how long he was actually stuck in the trap.

The poor guy. He had gone in headfirst and all I could see was his butt and his back legs. He was a little lethargic by the time I got home and really wasn't interested in fighting me too much when I picked him up.

I knew enough not to try to pull his little arms off of the glue. Quick, frantic internet research told me that all I needed was vegetable oil. So I got a q-tip and started dabbing his little feet, and sure enough it got him right out. Now he's back in his tank. He must not have been too cold cause he only sat on his basking site (which is where I put him...once I put it back where it belonged) for about 30 seconds before he got down in the water to explore.

I'm worried about a lot of things. Here they are:

1. I used safflower oil because that was what we had. Will oil hurt his skin? I don't know how I would go about getting it off of there without soap, and even that would be assuming Oliver would let me touch him right now, and there is no way.
2. There is a little turtle skin stuck to the glue from when he no doubt struggled like crazy at first to get free, and I know he won't let me look at his arms right now because he's so freaked out. There doesn't appear to be any blood on the glue, so I don't think he ripped toooo much skin off. In any case, what should I do? Should I just keep an eye on him and watch out for infection where he was stuck? At what point will I be safe to assume his skin is OK?
3. Could the glue itself have poisoned him at all? Right now he's swimming around like one happy little turtle with a second chance at life, so he must not have been TOO cold when I found him, and he must not be too sick at the moment, but I worry about the long term.
4. Help!

I wish I had taken a picture. It was so sad and it would have even been funny if it wasn't MY turtle. But obviously I wasn't thinking about that at the time, and at that point I thought he was dead cause he wasn't moving. I only just now stopped shaking.

I hope Oliver realizes that I saved him and that I didn't set that trap to catch him and eat him. He is very skittish right now, which I can understand. Hopefully this was a bonding experience.

I feel so bad for him. CAN YOU IMAGINE WHAT THAT MUST HAVE BEEN LIKE???

[laurapa]

GUESS WHAT HE IS TRYING TO DO RIGHT NOW??? NO LESS THAN TEN MINUTES AFTER I PUT HIM BACK IN HIS TANK??

TRYING TO ESCAPE!!

[laurapa]

One more thing: now he is basking and he appears to have a faint red ring around the outside of his eye. I don't know if he burst some capillaries when he was struggling to get free, or if this is maybe totally unrelated. We got him a new UVA/UVB bulb the other day, so maybe his eyes are just a little irritated from it. He has gotten in the bad habit of looking right at his lamp and worshipping it when he basks.

I hope it is not a sign of poisoning from the glue or anything.

[TurtleLover_S&B]

He might have hurt it earlier the time he got out,or he could've hurt it when he was trying to get out the 2nd time.Well,you might want to put eggcrate on the top of the tank,but make holes for the lights.If you don't know what an eggcrate is here's a link to a pic. to what it is:

http://www.petfish.net/pix/0508/eggCrate.jpg

[marisa]

1. The safflower oil won't hurt him.

2. For the skin abrasion, I'd clean it (even with just water) and put some ointment (like Neosporin) on it, let him stay out of the water 30 min. or so to let some of it be absorbed. I'd do this daily until I saw that the skin was healing.

3. I doubt the glue affected him. The glue is to contain roaches, not poison them, is it not?

4. Calm down!

[laurapa]

Thanks, you two. I feel better after the responses. It was so terrible coming home to that. Especially since at first he didn't move and I thought he was dead.

I'm not sure he'll let me get at the underside of his arms. He doesn't like being touched at all and goes right in his shell. That's how he was BEFORE today's traumatic experience. But I'll give it a shot!

I guess in terms of poisoning I just figured that if his skin was stuck to it for any amount of time, there might be chemicals in there that could be bad for him, even though the glue isn't intended as a pesticide. But I bet you're right...he is a tough little guy, after all.

Right now he is basking happily. He's going to have to get down from there so I can secure is log better!

[marisa]

Don't know if your going to use one, but it might be easier to apply the ointment with a q-tip.

[megcornell]

What a crappy day for Oliver!
Those traps are awful! When I first moved to NYC we had them in my apartment, they don't catch anything and they're so sticky and disgusting.
The turtle skin on the trap probably isn't enough to be too concerned about, just keep an eye on his front legs to make sure they don't get irritated. I would clean and disinfect them though and then dry dock him like marisa said. It's better to be safe than sorry.
The eye irritation could be anything from stress to the lights etc. I'd watch them for a day or two to make sure everything's ok.
Finally, definitely cover his tank. If he's keen on re-escaping there's no doubt he'll figure out a way to do so. Apparently those traps aren't enough to deter his sense for adventure .

Oh, and some roach advice- I ditched the traps and bought this amazing powder called diatomaceous earth, it's completely non toxic to vertebrates but it works wonders on bugs. It wiped out my roach problem, I haven't seen one since I first sprinkled the stuff.

[TurtleLover_S&B]

Your welcome!Hope his eye is gonna get better.

[laurapa]

Thanks for the help. He's going in the dry dock right now, and hopefully I can get a few subversive swipes under his arms when he's not expecting it.

I'm assuming I'm not supposed to attach his basking lamp over his little dry rubbermaid bin while he dries off, right?

Update: Oliver was SO ANGRY that I took him out of his tank and put him in that little rubbermaid bin. But his angry flailing and hissing about the q-tip meant that his arms weren't hidden in his shell, so I was able to get some neosporin on his arms and chin. I don't know how much I managed to get on there, but I got some.

Now he is still flailing around trying to get out of there, but he'll probably dry off faster that way anyway. So it works.

[Arisu]

how cold is it without a basking lamp?

[laurapa]

^Probably about 72, but since I'm only keeping him there long enough to dry off I thought I'd leave him cool since he wasn't basking when I took him out of the tank.

[Arisu]

I think if the room temp is above 70, it will be warm enough (unless you still have a hatchling?!). poor Oliver tho, he probably was freaking the hell out when he first noticed his situation. I'm glad hes okay but turtles never seem to learn do they?

[laurapa]

They most certainly don't learn! We reeeeeeeally secured his floating log last night, and I removed all the stupid roach traps from our floor, just in case. Although part of me wonders...our apartment has so many nooks and crannies, I wonder where he would have ended up if he HADN'T got caught in the trap! We might have never found him!

I like that he ventured into the kitchen. Eating is his favorite thing to do ever, so I think he was just looking for a treat!

I fed him extra this morning before I left for work.