I had the opportunity to help this little fellow out around the middle of April. He was hit in the road and lost part of his shell. There was another part of the shell barely hanging on, so Clint helped epoxy it the way a vet taught us. That did a great job of affixing it to help with some of the pain. I do have pain medication for them, and this guy became more active after his dose.
If infection does not set in, he might make it. The fractured part Clint epoxied will heal in approximately a couple of months. However, he can't live in the wild until his body can heal his shell which will take a long time. There is a slight chance the big hole can be repaired with a prosthesis. We will check into that down the road. He is a tough little guy with a strong will to live. It appears he has survived another break in his shell in the past too!
We have two protected places outside where he can enjoy a more normal life once his open wounds heal. He will have to come indoors in the winter because a broken shell will not allow for safe brumation. He has an opportunity to get well, and that is more than he had before he came here. We will see what happens.
It angers me that we have a certain group of watermen in our area who have a hatred for all turtles. They will literally turn around to run one over. Amanda and I have been yelled and cussed at for protecting them, but it did not deter us. They kill them every chance they get, so I stay busy this time of year getting the poor things across the road and out of harm's way.
Most of the time when I find one that has been hit by a vehicle, the only thing I can do is apologize and end the pointless suffering. It helped my weary and discouraged heart to find this one with a chance of survival. A little hope now and then does such good things for the heart!
UPDATE: I am still not home, but I've been asked multiple times how the turtle was doing and have quickly answered "See blog soon!" It took a while until I had a quiet moment to pull out my tablet.
Lil Dude, as C-Dawg named him, has survived 13 days past the day he was hit by a car. Even though his shell was cracked, his hip (BLUE) was not broken which is surprising. His leg (RED) does have a break that cannot be repaired. He will be able to live fine with three good legs. I have seen three legged male turtles successfully reproduce.
two offspring
Survival odds in this kind of circumstance aren't very easy to determine. He could still die tomorrow or a week or even a couple of months from now. So far, he seems to be very strong, and the healing process is well underway. There are no discernable signs of infection. There is an issue that cropped up a couple of days ago that has me concerned. It hasn't returned so far.
If you are squeamish, stop reading now.
Don't you dare fuss at me in person because you did not heed the warning above!
The pinkish area isn't flesh, it is cayenne pepper (numbs, kills bacteria, stops bleeding). In the picture, I am using a salt water soak to pull up the cayenne poultice to see what is underneath. I was happy to find it was healing faster than I expected. I gave him another salt water soak with a few drops of tea tree oil in it. I came up with a way to coat his injury with triple antibiotic ointment without having to touch it. (I melt it slowly in the corner of a baking sheet and once it cools to a skin safe temperature but is still "syrupy" in consistency, I pour it into the cavity. It takes two people to do this.) I will be able to switch to comfrey and goldenseal salve soon. That will really speed the cell turnover rate. (That can not be used on deep wounds because it can heal the top before the deeper area is healed. Healthy deep wounds produce clear or very pale yellow fluid and need to drain which is a normal part of the healing process.) The opaque color is from the epoxy. He almost lost his entire back end. It is amazing he is still alive and moving around as much as he is. I am surprised his right leg is working fine.
