Urgent Care :: RES may have drowned

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Post Posted: Tue Aug 29, 2017 4:57 pm   RES may have drowned

Unfortunately I came home from work today to find one of my RES stuck to the filter intake. Somehow the strainer came off and she was stuck to the inlet at her throat. I immediately unplugged the filter and removed her from it. I am not sure how long she was held underwater and am not sure if she is alive. She seems to respond to me pinching her foot, but otherwise, not active. I placed in a plastic tub with a towel. I am not certain what else to do at the moment.
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Post Posted: Tue Aug 29, 2017 5:14 pm   Re: RES may have drowned

Good news. I held her upside and opened her mouth a bit and water drained out. I could hear her breathing a bit then. I also flexed her legs to see if more water would come out.
She has taken a few breaths. I am going to keep flexing her legs to see if more water comes out and leave her dry docked for the evening at least.
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Post Posted: Tue Aug 29, 2017 5:16 pm   Re: RES may have drowned

https://www.myturtlecam.com/facts.php

Call the vet immediately as well!
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Post Posted: Tue Aug 29, 2017 9:05 pm   Re: RES may have drowned

Damn, hope she's OK.
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Post Posted: Thu Aug 31, 2017 1:04 pm   Re: RES may have drowned

Sadly, the vet and I agreed euthanasia was better for her. Even with oxygen, her breathing was at best sporadic and labored. Unfortunate accident.

I am taking steps to make sure this doesn't happen again with her tankmate. I was considering using silicon to secure the strainer to the intake tube, but I don't think there is enough contact between the surfaces. I am going to drill a hole through them and secure it with a small stainless bolt. It won't be able to accidentally come off, but I still can remove it when needed.
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Post Posted: Thu Aug 31, 2017 1:37 pm   Re: RES may have drowned

My condolences. It's those crazy/random accidents that are always the worst. No way of predicting accidents sometimes. The bolt seems like a good idea.
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Post Posted: Thu Aug 31, 2017 2:16 pm   Re: RES may have drowned

Thanks. The strainer does come off fairly easy, not sure if due to aging parts as the setup as been the way it is for 2 years and it's never came off. Just an unfortunate accident.
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Post Posted: Thu Aug 31, 2017 2:39 pm   Re: RES may have drowned

I think it is the strainer coming off easily, just as a design. I had a similar incident a few weeks ago, where the strainer came off, but thankfully the turtles did not stick their head in there. intake isn't big enough for them to get their heads stuck in anyways. What did get sucked in though was lots of the fish in the tank, and I noticed when I went to do maintenance to the canister that a fish was actually swimming on the side of the filter tray. Upon taking all of the trays out, I found around 15 fish, some adults and some babies, swimming inside of the filter! They had been sucked up, but thankfully, as the intake works on siphon, they did not get sucked up into the impeller.

When my turtles were babies, I also had a turtle get its head stuck in the intake of a HOB filter, but I watched it happen. I was running it without a strainer, as the strainer was damaged, but luckily I was able to remove her right away. And just a few days ago, trouble struck again - one escaped the tank! I came home to find only 1 turtle in its tank - I've had this tank for 3 months now, and I thought it was escape proof. Fearing the worst, I frantically searched the whole room, then slowly searched everywhere outside of the room. Eventually found him under the couch. He was dusty, and I had no idea how long he was down there, but he was fine.

Crazy, crazy pets, RES are lol.
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Post Posted: Thu Aug 31, 2017 3:10 pm   Re: RES may have drowned

I have had the remaining one get out of the tank more than once and it's close to a 4 foot drop. Once she's under the couch, the other under the tank stand.
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Post Posted: Sat Sep 02, 2017 12:58 am   Re: RES may have drowned

I'm sorry to hear it :( ... what a terribly difficult decision. What filter do you have? A suggestion that you might also want to think about is using a PVC pipe instead of the inlet pipe that comes with the filter, or some sort of vinyl or plastic sleeve around the pipe.
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Post Posted: Sun Sep 03, 2017 8:44 pm   Re: RES may have drowned

Back when I used a tank with strainer, I would surround the strainer with some blocks or bricks leaving the strainer to poke thru a slim crevice
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