Turtle Disease Symptoms

Video Transcript

"James Dix from Reptile Rescue here. We'll still going over some of the things with tortoises and turtles. Now, this particular segment is on disease symptoms. Um...a desert species, such as a desert tortoise that we have in the desert of the U.S. a lot of times you'll see bubbles coming out of the top of their nostrils, their nose. And this is a sign that they have an upper respiratory infection. This is highly contagious to any other turtle species. You have to keep 'em separated, and you have to get 'em on antibiotics. Usually you start out with batril injections. That's one way of taking care of it, and you also have to consult your vet. There is different medications. Another sign is, is you have a tortoise or a turtle that has a lot of diarrhea, sometimes that is signs that the actual turtle or tortoise has worms or parasites. And you need to get them into a vet to get that taken care of, because in their natural diet, they shouldn't have diarrhea. But if you give 'em too many vegetables, this also causes the same problem. But they can do a quick check with a little sample, and it takes about five minutes at the vet's office to tell you if they have parasites or not."