Our oldest turtle, Sadie, has been exhibiting unusual behavior lately. Nothing about her tank conditions have changed. Her diet is the same. We recently replaced her lights and her filter is fairly new.
1. For the past year Sadie has been basking a lot more, and even spending most of the night on her dock.
2. In the past couple of weeks, Sadie has been sleeping underwater for the majority of the day. She's active in the late evening then goes back to sleep by midnight. She's also been putting herself in the exact same corner of the tank to sleep, and has abandoned her regular nap spot. (She used to sleep holding the top of her underwater tunnel with her back feet and would rest her chin on the floor of the tank, she doesn't do this anymore).
3. She is eating, and interested in food but not the typically frenzied and charismatic eater she's been the last 16 years. She used to launch herself above the water, splash like crazy, etc., but now she just comes up to the surface and takes the food.
4. She is not swimming lopsided, or showing any visible or audible signs of infection.
5. She seems to have no idea where she is half the time. She recognizes us but she just appears confused. It's not easy to explain in words, but just think of what confusion looks like on a person with dementia and apply that to a turtle. Carrots and other vitamin A rich foods have been part of her diet for 16 years, and I've never heard of a turtle going blind through aging.
6. Lack of territorial and aggressive behavior. Sadie has always been territorial, like we would NOT put our hands in her tank because she would always rush at us and try to bite. Outside of the tank Sadie was always sweet as pie, would chill in my mom's lap, and this territorial behavior started after the first time she was gravid in 2012. She has zero interest in trying to bite us nowadays, and for her, it's weird.
7. We don't know her birth date, and we estimate her age to be somewhere between 35 and 40 years old. She could even be older, based on what some vets we've visited over time think about her.
We did make an appointment with our vet for euthanasia on the 27th. Normally I view the lack of appetite for an extended period of time as the sign it's the end of life, but, I don't want to push her to the point of misery that she isn't eating and what little of her personality that's left is gone. I just don't think that's ethical or fair to her, as much as it sucks.
