Box Turtle Health Tips

"One of the main problems with illnesses in box turtles is going to be vitamin A deficiency. This is the underlying cause of several different conditions that box turtles can get. This turtle in particular, I got her as a rescue. She had been in a pet store that was abandoned and she was left without food and water, therefore she didn't have access to enough vitamin A. By the time I received her, she was extremely dehydrated. She was malnourished. She was basically skin and bones. Her eyes were infected, both of her eyes were infected and very pussy. She has respiratory infection and she was just in horrible condition. And so I treated her a long time by myself, just her eyes. Her eyes were the only real apparent illness at the time, so that's what I was treating at the moment. Then when I started seeing the bubbles coming from her nose, I realized there might be something more to it. So after further research, I found that vitamin A deficiency fit all of the symptoms that she had and I immediately began to treat her for that condition. Now, a good source of vitamin A, like I had mentioned before, is cod liver oil. Added to her daily diet or at every feeding will prevent vitamin A deficiency. Now in her case, I mega-dosed her with vitamin A. I had to receive veterinary care for her. She had to receive a shot of vitamin A, and she also had a fungus growing in her mouth and down her throat which caused her to lose her appetite completely. So that led to the malnourishment. And the antibiotics were used to treat the fungus and then the vitamin A injections, plus my care at home. I had to force feed her for quite a while by sticking a tube down into her stomach with a mixture. Which you can probably find on the Internet, some sort of force feeding recipe for any type of reptile that you may have. Now she's completely well again. This is something that is, this is the first time she's been healthy since I've had her. And she looks wonderful now, but just in case, I always want to make sure I put the cod liver oil on her veggies. That way I'm sure to not have this issue again."