My turtle had a bad fall today. Some time ago I built a ABTA for my res. The ABTA covers half my 50 gallon tank and the other half was uncovered. He started trying to climb out the exposed side while begging for food so I made a wall around the parts he attempted to escape from. Yesterday he started trying to escape from the last exposed side, which is nearest to the wall. I didn't think he'd try to escape from that side, and didn't understand the fixation on climbing out of the tank, but I put constructing a 4th wall on my to-do list.
Today when I got home from work he was not in his cage. I found him hiding in a dark corner. His shell has some damage along the front edge. I'll post pictures later, but the damage is about 3/4 inch long, and maybe goes 1/8 inch deep. It is blood red and you can see several layers of shell. I took him into the bathroom and applied hydrogen peroxide to the shell. Some of it got on my turtle's face and fizzed around his eye. It looked like they eye was missing or a big blister, but after I was done caring for him I noticed both eyes were open and seemed fine. I wonder if the eye lid or something was damaged. After applying hydrogen peroxide to both places I applied neosporine and dry-docked him.
I fed him this evening. He ate, which was a good sign. For the dry dock I have a rubber-maid container, newspaper on the bottom, and his basking lights overhead. I also put a shoebox "cave" in there so he can get out of the basking lights if he needs.
What other suggestions do you have? How much water time should I provide. How long should I dry dock? What else should I look for?
