Urgent Care

Posted: Mon Jan 05, 2009 12:24 am **LEG BROKEN HELP IMMEDIATELY**

i came home from work today to find my turtle caught in my canister filter intake, her foot was completely stuck in the intake, i thought she was dead. she is alive and her foot is bent and broken, what do i do until tomorrow when i can rush her to a vet

Posted: Mon Jan 05, 2009 12:44 am

Oh how terrifying! I'm glad she's alive, anyway. Is the skin broken at all? How is she acting? Try to keep her calm, I would think if the skin isn't broken it would be best to leave her in the water, less pressure on the leg that way. Definitely get her to the vet in the morning. If you've got a tube of silicone handy, take the intake hose/assembly off and glue it all together so that this can't happen again. Good luck, keep us posted. I know this must be awful for you, I'm sure it'll turn out ok.

Posted: Mon Jan 05, 2009 12:46 am

i left her in the water because once i tried feeding her in a separate container and she freaked out so i thought it would be best to not stress her out any more. she seems okay right now, the skin isnt broken although there is alot of loose skin flakes hanging off, no bleeding. she is just floating on the surface and is looking up at me like shes begging for help, i feel so bad for her.

Posted: Mon Jan 05, 2009 12:58 am

Oh man, sorry to hear this. Every time I see one of these posts, I recheck my filters. I think octpusgirl8 has provided good advice and hopefully it's just a little sore right now. How big is your turtle and what kind of filter is it?

You'll need to be very careful about the sensitivity and color of the area. If there is no improvement, then surgery might be required.

Posted: Mon Jan 05, 2009 1:03 am

My turtle got his leg caught in the intake once, I had actually bought the silicone to secure the tube and planned to do it the next day but I came home from class and there he was, trapped under water with his foot stuck in the tube. It was awful, I love my turtle and I would have had a hard time forgiving myself if he had died. I had to cut the tube off his leg it was so swollen, and I was sure it was broken. His foot was bent backwards, and the leg was swollen to twice the size of the other. It was too late to take him to the vet that night so l frantically researched where to take him in the morning. In a few hours, the swelling went down completely and his foot looked normal. He didn't seem to mind me touching it, and he walked fine so I figured I got really lucky. I kept a super close eye on him the next week or so, and other than some shedding skin on the leg he was okay.
I don't know if your turtle is going to be quite as lucky, but you never know. The most important thing is that she's alive. Keep an eye on it, and be ready to take her to the vet in the morning.

Posted: Mon Jan 05, 2009 1:13 am

its a marineland c350, my turtle is about 6 inches. i called cornell animal hospital and they said she should be fine till i can get her there in the morning. whew, im glad shes fine. i feel stupid for not securing the cover to the intake on the filter, im definately going to do that as soon as possible

Posted: Mon Jan 05, 2009 1:17 am

Cornell is reportedly to be excellent. Good luck and keep us up to date!

Posted: Mon Jan 05, 2009 2:00 am

I took my turtle to cornell exotics when she had an RI infection. You really couldn't find better herp vets, she'll be in good hands.
I hope everything turns out ok!

Posted: Mon Jan 05, 2009 7:30 pm

I wish you the best. I'm going to secure my intake somehow also. Is there another way other than siliconing it? How would i clean the ntake if I siliconed it?

Posted: Mon Jan 05, 2009 8:21 pm

You can either silicon it or super glue it, though super gluing will require some time out of the water, more hours that is. Unless your tank is getting really nasty, you won't need to clean the intake by itself, and all of the tubing is so hard to clean anyways. You can take a pipe cleaner from the opposite side after it's glued together.

Speaking of which, I still need to do this ... But my hubby is super strong, so the intake, I can't even pry it off! He'll have to work this one!

Posted: Tue Jan 06, 2009 7:03 pm

thanks for the feedback

Posted: Thu Jan 08, 2009 5:52 am

update-- she is doing awesome. just after my last post she started to use the leg and swim around. cornell said she was really lucky for what happened to her. they said she will be fine. i guess i freaked out for no reason :lol:

Posted: Thu Jan 08, 2009 11:32 am

I'm so glad to hear she's doing better. That was a close one.... :wink:

Posted: Thu Jan 08, 2009 1:29 pm

That's good to hear, I'm glad things turned out so well.
She's a lucky turtle!

Urgent Care :: LEG BROKEN HELP IMMEDIATELY

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