Urgent Care :: Spit out mucus and wheezing

[planet.caravan]

Today I was feeding my turtle a piece of cuttlebone and when she spit out the piece that was too big, with it came out a big piece of white slimy mucus.

She is a healthy, active turtle and this has never happened before. Is this normal?

Also always after eating only she wheezes when she breathes, any other time though she never makes a sound. I don't suspect this could be related to an RI since she has done this for as long as I can remember and I think if she had one she would have been dead by now (I'veowned her for 3 years)

Any ideas on what could be happening? Especially regardign the mucus thing

[jay2487]

From what I understand the symptom of wheezing is caused by fluids(liquid i.e water or mucus)in the respiratory system. So maybe, the mucus on the cuttlebone and the wheezing is a sign that your turtle is having trouble breathing and eating at the same type, maybe when eating the cuttlebone or anything else, she actually inhales it somewhat instead of sending it down the stomach tube(for lack of the scientific word)so when she eats she gets water in her lungs and wheezes and when she tried to swallow that cuttlebone, it went down the wrong hole, got mucus on it and was choked back up. If the turtle isn't leaking mucus all the time, I wouldn't think it would be RI. But I'm not a vet either. Might want to take her to visit one.

[planet.caravan]

That actually sounds like a great explanation! She isn't leaking mucus all the time and shows no other signs of an RI . Do you think that could just be some sort of birth defect then? Like maybe some deviation of the trachea and esophagus? Or maybe some defect on her epiglottis?

I guess I would need a vet for an assesment of that like you said, I don't think its life threatening though, like I said, she is otherwise a normal, healthy and active turtle.