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I have had my yellow cooter for about 2 + weeks now. She acclamated well to the tank and the other two turtles. She loves to bask and spends the majority of her time up there. The last several days I have noticed she is never getting down from there - not even to eat. I seperated her to eat to see if that would help but she has been refusing. I noticed today when she did finally jump into the water (only b/c another one knocked her off the floating log) that she isnt using her left front leg. She paddled with it a bit but not much. She swam around and sat on a rock and ate some lettuce but then went right back to the top of the log! She wouldnt use that leg when she got herself up there either. They have not been aggressive with each other at all - the other two stay away from her for the most part. I have tried to check it out but I can't see any visible sign of injury or anything??

1) She has an injury or illness of some kind and needs to go to a vet. Weakness or paralysis can be caused by many different things, so a vet needs to evaluate her and find out what is wrong. Did you not take her to a vet before placing her in with the others? A new turtle should be quarantined for at least 30 days and inspected by a vet before putting it in with turtles already present.

2) If she is spending all her time on the basking area, it could be that she feels unsafe in the water (since she is handicapped by the leg) or because she is sick and needs the higher heat of the basking area.

Please do get her to a vet ASAP, and keep us posted :/

We didnt take her to a vet before we put her in the tank b/c we bought them all at the same time and they were all living together at the pet store before we brought them home. I have a call in to a vet here so I ll see what he says. Thanks

Is this one of the turtles that gets pushed off the basking area by the one? If so, it sounds like a bigger tank/space would be good...Hope it's not serious. Let us know what the vet says.

She didnt make it. I couldnt find a vet that knew about turtles on New Years Eve and she didnt make it through the night We have since taken our other two in to the vet and both are healthy and have been doing well the last couple weeks.. swimming and basking and trying some new foods. They seem pretty happy so hopefully they will be ok.

sorry to hear about your loss, but glad these 2 are healthy. I'd keep an eye out for aggressive behavior and be ready with a 2nd setup just in case though.

Califmommy9 wrote:She didnt make it. I couldnt find a vet that knew about turtles on New Years Eve and she didnt make it through the night We have since taken our other two in to the vet and both are healthy and have been doing well the last couple weeks.. swimming and basking and trying some new foods. They seem pretty happy so hopefully they will be ok.

I understand your loss. I also obtained 3 RES around Christmas and one of them didn't make it not very long after New Years. It's sad to seem them go but you can't be hard on yourself because you tried.

yea, i'm glad i found this site, if not, they'de be eating all wardly, in 3 inches of water, gravel in tank, with one rock for basking, i wonder if i still have an old pic of their setup

Sorry to hear she didn't make it.

sorry for the loss, i dont like hearing about other pet's passing away, its just...to heartbreaking