An injured can be a serious problem for a turtle. In the wild, this almost certainly leads to death. Not only do turtles with injured legs become more vulnerable to their predators, but they also cannot move around and get their own food.
Luckily, pet turtles have more options than a turtle out in the world. For starters, pet turtles don’t have to worry about predators in their tanks. Secondly, you can hand feed them so they don’t have to move much. That being said, it is still very important that you do all you can to help a turtle heal their injured leg.
How to heal an injured turtle leg?
The main ways to heal an injured turtle leg is with diet, quarantine, splints, and in serious cases, amputation.
If your turtle’s injured leg has an open wound, you should apply this reptile open wound spray. It helps disinfect the wound and promotes skin growth.
If you suspect that gout is the cause of your turtle’s injured leg, you should reduce the amount of protein in their diet. This is because excess protein is one of the main causes of gout in turtles. You should reduce the number of pellets you feed your turtle, and increase the amount of vegetables. You should also increase the amount of Vitamin E you give your turtle.
If your turtle has a bone injury in their leg, the problem is much worse. You first need to indicate whether your turtle’s leg is sprained or fractured. You should know that while sprained arms and legs can be healed at home, fractured limbs can only be cured by a vet.
To help a turtle’s sprained leg heal, you should quarantine them in a dry bucket for a couple days. This is to restrict the turtle from swimming and aggravating their injury. Make sure to provide some water for their turtle. You can easily do this by adding an inch of water to the bucket. You can also add crushed up ibuprofen to the water, which might help reduce swelling.
After a week or so, you should put your turtle back in the tank and see if they can move like normal. If they can’t, you should probably take them to the vet for an x-ray. Sprained legs in turtles are tricky, because they can heal in a couple days or weeks, while sometimes it might take a couple months.
If you take your turtle to the vet, they will likely do an x-ray to properly diagnose the injury. If your turtle has a fractured leg, the vet might try to attach a splint to their leg to help restrict their movement for an extended period of time. In more severe cases, your vet might have to amputate your turtle’s leg. Unfortunately, due to their small bone size, vets cannot insert metal plates into turtle’s limbs.
A fracture usually takes a couple months to heal in turtles.
How do pet turtles injure their legs?
Most turtles injure their legs when they stumble on something in the tank. It usually occurs when turtles are on land. It could be when they are trying to enter or leave their basking platform or could occur when two turtles get aggressive with each other.
Another common leg injury in turtles is called gout, which results in swollen muscles and joints.
It is important that you take notice right away when your turtle has an injured leg. You should see if they are altering the way the swim, or possibly the way they move around on land. There is no need to panic at first. You should wait a day or two and see if the limping persists.
If your turtle still has difficulty walking or swimming, the injury might be serious.
How to prevent your turtle from injury?
The key to leg injuries in turtles is to prevent them. You can do this by making sure the objects in your turtle tank are easily accessible. You should make sure there are no high drops on the land where your turtle might fall from.