Baby Rescue Turtle with Crushed Shell

[d_virginiana]

My husband and I got a call from his friend today that they found a baby eastern box turtle (same species as Turtle) with a broken shell, so we spent the day driving to go pick it up and see what we could do. The little guy still has a lot of growing to do, so if we get past the infection, mending the shell is going to be a long ordeal...

The wound had maggots in it, and was filled with dirt. He also has an eye infection (which should be easy to deal with. I still have antibiotics from when Turtle had her eye infection, and his isn't that bad yet). So, we started out by rinsing the shell wound with diluted hydrogen peroxide. I know it can be intense, but it was necessary for this case. Afterward, we flushed it alternately with water and diluted hibiclens several times to get as much grit as possible out. Lastly, I wicked out as much moisture as I could, and treated it with neosporin. It's loosely covered in surgical gauze (with the gentle surgical tape attaching it to his shell) to keep debris from falling in it.
He's beside my python's tank right now, to keep his temps in the mid 80's, and has plain newspaper substrate with no water. He'll be soaked twice a day, but every medical text I could find said not to give turtles with shell injuries free access to water.

I sent an e-mail to the reptile rescue that I adopted my White's tree frog from to see if there were any options there for him. They've had several intense, long-term medical cases that are posted on their website. I offered to foster him and do all the basic care, but this guy will almost certainly need a vet to pop that shell into place, and we can't afford that for a wild rescue. The vets around that do take rescue wildlife will only keep them if someone acts as a financial sponsor, so the rescue is the best chance for that.

He's alert and eating; killed a small worm earlier. A little weak, but no paralysis. He's also very curious and investigates anything new you put in front of him. A full recovery is a long-shot at this point, but you can tell he's still got a lot of fight in him.

Here he is... Well, seems more like a she, but still. We're calling her Derpy.
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[jwolfe152]

oh wow thats a bad spot i hope it heals underneath real well so they can use the fiberglass and i think steel mesh to make the shell again if they can do it from what i hear it also has to be replaced every ten years or so. have you thought about after it heals maybe talk to someone at the rescue maybe they could point you to someone will to do it cheap or maybe telling you how to do it. it seems unlikely they would tell or show you but it could be worth a shot if ya wanna keep her. oh and other than then shell she is a beautiful little girl.

oh and i will look for the link but using peroxide over an extended period of time may do more harm than good, because it kills off a lot of good stuff that starts the healing process in the skin just a heads up but a few days to help keep maggots out should be ok

[jwolfe152]

We are discontinuing the peroxide applications as of today and will not resume unless the maggots reappear. As I mentioned earlier the foaming has ceased and from now on out we will stick to the Neosporin. Here is a link to an article that backs up what "JWolfe" posted. I certainly think the peroxide had it's place. I could tell the maggots really didn't like it and vacated immediately.

Claim that hydrogen peroxide aids healing fizzles out | The San Diego Union-Tribune

here is part of the thread

[d_virginiana]

I'm hoping the rescue will actually be able to afford the vet care for him.

I know about the hydrogen peroxide. Thing is, it's more intense than hibiclens or betadine. You can't really tell from the picture, but there was mud and gunk just caked up in there. The peroxide was the only thing that actually loosened any of it so I could flush the place with hibiclens and water.
With bad injuries, my strategy is generally to 'nuke' the injury once with peroxide, then clean with the milder stuff from then on out.

[guidofatherof5]

Thanks for taking the time to help. Any idea how the injury happened?

[jwolfe152]

oh yea i didnt mean to not use it period. i would use the peroxide for a few days because it debrides the wound of dirt,dead tissue, and a lot of germs, its just not something to use for more than a few days IMO. i don't think i would have tried anything but peroxide to get the mud out, you don't wanna go poking or digging at it and potentially making it worse.

i too hope that the rescue can pay for it. i guarantee its expensive for the wire mesh and fiberglass and not to mention whatever the vet gets for actually applying it. then there is the costs of keeping, medicating, and any other test they might wish to do.

[d_virginiana]

I'm thinking that they'll want to use the surgical wire for awhile since he's still growing and that's easier to replace. I want to watch them do it in case there's ever a time when that's not an option.
I've got my fingers crossed that I'll hear back from the rescue soon.

Thanks for taking the time to help. Any idea how the injury happened?

Not a clue. They just saw him walking through their yard, took him in, and called me. This is the third 'What do I do with this turtle' call I've gotten in a couple weeks, but the only one that needed extra attention.

[jwolfe152]

well at least you know other people care enough to at least call and ask someone who knows instead of looking at it and saying ahhh poor turtle, then just walking away. i cant imagine it would be that hard to apply the screen material or fiberglass, the thing to watch for is a wet sore that could fester underneath any material.

[d_virginiana]

well at least you know other people care enough to at least call and ask someone who knows instead of looking at it and saying ahhh poor turtle, then just walking away. i cant imagine it would be that hard to apply the screen material or fiberglass, the thing to watch for is a wet sore that could fester underneath any material.

One segment of the shell has been pushed below the rest though... And it's now being held out of place by the other segments. It'll have to be popped back into place before the shell could begin to heal. I've watched tons of videos on the subject, but I wouldn't want to do that if there's any chance I can get a vet to do it. Plus, I got the majority of bone fragments out, but there's at least one still stuck in there. Hoping it'll come out as the dead skin begins to slough off though...
I cried when I had to trim Turtle's toenails earlier in the week and I accidentally made one bleed. She didn't even notice lol. I'm not generally squeamish at all, but I really hate to be the one causing an animal pain. I'd definitely feel a lot better about any future 'rescue' procedures I have to do if I could get a walkthrough by a vet.

[d_virginiana]

When I cleaned it out this morning, a fair bit of grit and dead skin washed out. Part of the wound has a pink look instead of the 'zombie' flesh look it had last night as well. I'm taking that as a good sign.


The bad news is that he almost definitely has some nerve damage in one of his back legs that I didn't notice at first. He can still move it, and scoot around a little bit, but it's clear now that he can't control it correctly. Doesn't look severe enough to be a long-term mobility issue, but that has me worried about when his shell has to be popped back into place, since that means the initial injury definitely affected the spinal cord.