November 30th Update:My turtle still has the same symptoms. I have tried everything to treat constipation.
Symptoms:
- Swelling sides (soft parts) Puffed and enlarged in size, like they're coming out
- Sunken eyes, look of dehydration and vitamin deficiency
- Scutes falling off due to enlargement or being overfed
I am worried that it may be an internal problem (kidney/renal) failure that had to do with a bacterial infection in his/her system.
I have not found any reliable turtle expert in my area. I am located in Queens, NY and the closest "recommended" herp vets are in 40 minute drive from me, and I have no transportation of my own. I was fooled into seeing a regular vet who knew much less about turtles than I did. I've lost trust in seeing anyone unless I throw out everything I've got that will cost me hundreds.
I can't afford wasting more money on a vet who will see my turtle for $100 along with $80 transportation and who knows how much medication or treatment will cost me? My turtle had enough stress with a 20 minute ride and being handled roughly by the vet. I am afraid I am stuck with seeing my turtle suffer like this. I've lost trust in finding any trustful help at all.
I don't know what to do.
I feel like it's just the end for my turtle. I've resorted to stop feeding him/her until I see stool pass.
The only upside is he/she is still actively looking for food which give me some bit of hope.
This makes me sad that I can't find a way to save my turtle because of money.
Even the local zoo website says they do not accept animals. The ASPCA website says it's better to take them to the vet.
"Remember that exotic animals almost never make good pets." "The ASPCA does not provide medical emergency advice over the phone or email. We urge you to take your pet to a local vet immediately."
I've not given up researching, but it seems like in order to get my turtle better again, I have to weed out multiple vets who claim they take care of exotics but only to realize they only know a general amount of information about them, then I have to pay costly transportation to go to the far away "recommended" herp vets, have my turtle looked at for $100 in under 2 minutes, then pay additional $$$ hundreds costing fees of ruling out what's wrong with my turtle and repeat visitations.
I called 2 Animal Hospitals today. Both of which are listed in Vet/Herp doctor listings.
The first one told me I cannot speak to the animal doctor unless I paid $100 for my turtle to be looked at.
The second one was the animal hospital I went to before that finally told me that they do not specialize in reptiles and recommended me to 2 other animal hospitals that I know I can't possibly manage to go to.
I don't mean to sound hopeless. But if my turtle can't be treated, I guess I will have to say goodbye.
Turtle Enthusiast! Will learn anything about them ~ Funny quote: "...It's OK to do cute little things like kissing a turtle, but you can't kiss another person because he's a different color? Give me a break...