Trying to treat an open wound on my turtle...help

(Louisiana)

Help Save Clyde

Last night my dog got ahold of my box turtle . He is about 8 months old. He has 3 puncture wounds on the top of his shell and missing a scale or two on the bottom sides from the dogs teeth. I stopped the bleeding with Betadine and have wrapped him up so his wounds are not exposed to the air. I have read that the main thing to look out for is infection under the shell and am not too sure what to put on the open wound to prevent the infection. Any suggestions?

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Nov 01, 2014

Cure
by: Turtles

If this happens get bettadine on the wound straight away. Then cover and conceal. It may hurt your turtle and bite you. I recommend leaving the pieces of shell left in the wound for if you pull it out it will lead to constant bleeding. I may be wrong since my turtle is still recovering from his third degree puncture. Your turtle will also tend to move a little more from irration. This might be a bad sign. I hope anyone this happened to good luck since it is sad.

Jun 14, 2011

Injured Turtle
by: Anonymous

I would take this turtle to the vet asap. The vet will properly clean the wound, possibly give an antibiotic injection, and probably provide ongoing medication if it's needed. As you can imagine, keeping a wound under a shell cleaned and uninfected is not easy.

Best wishes.

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