I found one of my eastern box turtles dead this afternoon. It's as if I've lost a child. This group of easterns came to me from a dear friend who had rescued more than she could handle and needed some help. I took 11 and it was non stop daily hydrating ( you shoot them full of sterile solution with a syringe) and tube feeding this mush of baby formula and cat food. You had to be sure you put thew tube down the right hole or youd drown them. Stick the needle in too far and puncture an organ, bye bye turtle.
Turtles, box turtles anyway, have no diaphragm seperating the organs. They just float around in a bag of fluid, so giving injections is very sketchy. You must be very careful.
This group was so sick, it was a couple of months before I got them to eat on thier own. I tried everything in the all the turtle food groups, crickets, pinky mice, a large variety of fruits and vegetables...they weren't interested. Finally they went for nightcrawlers. I was in heaven.
Norton was very ill, and relapsed several times over the next couple of years. But I always managed to bring him around. we had a nice run of 4 or 5 years where he was healthy and happy. Until today.
I found him in the water dish. I don't know if the heat got him or if he was sick and I just didn't notice, or it was just his time and he got into the water he loved so much and just went to sleep. He was very old, so old in fact, that his growth rings had blurred and smoothed out to the point that it was impossible to count exactly how old he was. At the very least 45 or 50.
Norton was a beautiful turtle, bright yellow markings and an awesomely camoflaged shell.
He was very friendly and responsive. I will miss him.
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