Urgent Care :: Urgent Question?

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Post Posted: Wed Apr 27, 2022 6:41 pm   Urgent Question?

I just have a question since there's not many people I can talk to and the Vet that has seen my turtle doesn't have much time to talk with me. My turtle was leaking out blood a week ago, everyday since she's had clear yellow fluid coming out day and night for a few days, now mostly just at night. She did have x-rays and she does have 5 eggs in her , 2 of which are fractured but still whole. One must've cracked in a way it injured her inside (or he did say it could have been blood from irritation...which is weird because it was a lot of blood, I thought she was going to die from blood loss that night), I haven't seen blood since, but this constant big yellow spot beneath her every morning I keep seeing (she sleeps outside of her tank at night on a towel). He did give me some homeopathic medicine to give her that is supposed to help her move things along more slowly and told me to buy some repti-calcium to add to her pellets before he was able to get the x-ray looked at by a radiologist. They got back to him today and they do see the fractures and agree it would be good to induce her but I'm just worried about her injury. Could that make it worse if she's still healing? Should I wait a week and see if this other stuff along with the calcium helps while she's doing okay? Even though she is leaking yellow fluid which I'm not sure if it's her body trying to push out what egg fluid leaked out or if it's fluid from her injury trying to heal I don't know. I just, I'm on the fence about if I should induce her tomorrow and risk to making her injury worse or wait ...which also comes with it's own risk. I don't know what to do, and I guess just wanted someone elses opinion. Throughout all this she never lost her appetite, and he did see her yesterday. He said if I hadn't told him what was going on he'd of thought nothing was wrong with her, since she looked healthy and was acting completely fine and not out of the ordinary. Do you think it might be safe to wait a week? or should I have her induced? :(
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Post Posted: Wed Apr 27, 2022 9:14 pm   Re: Urgent Question?

The fluid is coming from her cloaca? Eggs are usually soft/pliable and it is not normal for them to break inside the turtle. If there is blood and other fluid, and if the eggs are damaged, I think they need to be removed ASAP. Did they say anything else about the eggs... if they were oddly shaped? Did she experience any sort of physical trauma?
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Post Posted: Thu Apr 28, 2022 12:28 am   Re: Urgent Question?

Unfortunately I took too long to decide and I'm not sure they can see her tomorrow anymore, I'll have to call and find out if they can squeeze her in. Yeah the fluid is leaking out of her butt, is where she poops from called her cloaca? Also he showed me the x-rays and they looked like nicely shaped eggs to me, he made no mentions of how they looked at all. As for trauma nothing that I can think of, she does crawl over things and constantly tries to squeeze herself between anything near the wall. It's possible that from her constantly doing that since she'd put herself at an angle, then drop down when she got through, maybe that? But she doesn't drop down too hard since she lands on her legs...hmm, I can't think of what else really. Sometimes she struggles to get on her platform when the water is too low, could the straining to get on maybe cause it? I was also thinking maybe she's just not getting enough calcium, could that cause it too?

I admit I haven't been strict with her diet, she wastes so much lettuce and greens from not wanting it and I do give in to giving her pellets more regularly instead of letting her go without food... :oops: Although I did buy some red leaf lettuce recently, she's never had it before, only green. I happen to be looking around a different store than normal and saw it, I'm happy I got it she seems to like it. I hope it helps her feel better a little.

If they can't squeeze her in tomorrow, all I can do is hope she does okay till the Vet is available again. After tomorrow he's gone till Tuesday...I was just worried so much about her being induced and something going wrong. I can't help but over worry, I've lost a pet Rat in the past to a simple surgery for removing a small quarter sized benign tumor that was just there, hanging out under her skin on her side. She was healthy, only a year old, and was perfectly fine till I got her back. She ended up going into shock and eventually passed away that day. I just kept feeling like the same thing would happen and inducing her would make things worse and she'd start bleeding again, the eggs would crack more from all the contractions and she'd end up dying or something. I wasn't able to talk to him enough to be sure on what to do. Now I feel bad, even worse if she just all of a sudden starts bleeding again or just one day looks in pain again when I could have had her induced...all because I was over worried. I can't get away from it either way I go! :cry: I hate making decisions like this.
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Post Posted: Thu Apr 28, 2022 11:13 am   Re: Urgent Question?

Do you know how long she was gravid? It's possible the eggs calcified, which is very serious. I'm not sure where the blood could be coming from, but I hope she can get help. Sorry to hear about all the troubles, it's just a difficult situation.
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Post Posted: Thu Apr 28, 2022 11:26 am   Re: Urgent Question?

Gravid? Is that when she started laying eggs? She started trying to dig in the ground a few months ago and has laid around 15 eggs so far. Which is the most she's ever laid in a year. She is also notorious for taking months to lay all her eggs, she tends to lay one at a time here and there over the span of weeks. Then stops for a month or so, then continues on. Last two she laid was a few weeks ago, she laid one, then two days later laid another. Before those two i'd say maybe three weeks had gone by, we thought she was done. Honestly I'm surprised to there's 5 eggs in there, and he said the shells looked thin and thought they were new eggs because of this. Now I'm wondering if they're old and just thin shelled because she wasn't getting enough calcium.
Also I did call, they are overbooked already.I did make her the appointment for next Tuesday though and they said if they could somehow work something out to get her in today they'd call back, but it didn't look good since apparently he is the only Vet there handling everything right now, poor guy.
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Post Posted: Thu Apr 28, 2022 3:08 pm   Re: Urgent Question?

They called and said I could bring her in and I reluctantly took her. I regret it too, I feel like she's gonna die over there and I didn't even get to talk to the Vet. I can't stop crying I'm worried, I don't know if taking her was the right thing to do since she was feeling better. :cry:
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Post Posted: Thu Apr 28, 2022 7:51 pm   Re: Urgent Question?

Yes gravid as being carrying eggs. As for her egg-laying situation... it's unusual because they should be in clutches (batches) but the main thing is that she lays them. Because there was blood and other fluids, the right thing to do is have the vet look into it. Is she staying there overnight, is that why you're worried?
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Post Posted: Thu Apr 28, 2022 11:32 pm   Re: Urgent Question?

Nah she wasn't staying overnight and she's home now. I was just overly worried about taking her to have this done and coming back to a dead turtle. I was stressing myself out, I think the worst all the time about everything, excessively sometimes. But anyways! She unfortunately didn't lay any eggs, he did give her another shot before we left and said to call tomorrow if she lays anything but I dunno, it might take longer honestly. I'm just happy to see her and have her home. He said if she doesn't lay anything the next thing to do is most likely surgery, but I sadly don't have the money for that, if I did I'd pay it, I'd pay anything I needed to. I've done all I can for her for now though, I just hope her body can do the rest and safely push them out with time and they don't cause her anymore problems.

As for her egg laying, the closest to a clutch I've seen her do is maybe 3 eggs at once when she first started laying them many many years ago. During that time we used dirt which she did use, dug a hole, laid three eggs. The rest she ended up laying here and there on the dirt instead of in it. But as the years went by she just never wanted to stay in the containers anymore and would do nothing but try to escape. We tried dirt, soil, reptile substrate, sod, sand, we did mixtures of things, we even used lower containers so she could crawl in and out. She just decided she'd rather go sit next to our shoes and dig on the tile, and that did become a thing. She has certain spots now in the house on the tile that when she needs to lay eggs, she walks to and does her thing. She doesn't lay the eggs there though strangely , despite the digging she ends up laying them in the water, on her platform, or what's been going on recently where she sleeps in her little sleeping area.

I guess since she's home now and all the Vet stuff is done there's not much else to do now but keep doing what I'm doing and stay as hopeful as I can that she can relax, lay some eggs, and continue to get better. Thank you so much for the help, I appreciate the time you took in answering my questions, it did help me decide. I am glad I took her and didn't wait, even though she didn't lay anything. Also sorry I know this isn't really urgent anymore and it's me just rambling on now, but I do feel better. So thank you very much for all of this, I am very grateful, tyty. :) :msgreen:
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Post Posted: Fri Apr 29, 2022 12:07 pm   Re: Urgent Question?

I'm glad I can help! You are doing what you can in this is a difficult/stressful situation. As for nesting, its very instinctual and it's important she finds a spot she likes. The blood/fluid complicated things so much more, but I think you made the right call. Hopefully she lays those eggs soon!
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