Wounded Common Snapper

[mrgrimm]

My daughter and I were out exploring a local lake looking for animals and we found this guy in pretty bad shape. Judging by the way we found him I think he probably wasn't going to make it through the winter. He was half covered in dried up, cold, very tacky mud with part of his tail chewed off and not moving much. I think he was trying to burrow down but just didn't have the ability. I decided to pick him up, take him home and get him cleaned off to inspect the damage.

He was easy to handle and didn't put up a fight at all for the mile long walk back to my van. He did get a little cranky when I got him home and had him in the tub rinsing him off. I initially put him in a large kiddie pool, but have since switched him into the bathtub (we have another bathroom we can use) because it's much easier to do the water changes. I have a space heater in the bathroom and a heat lamp over the tub with some paver stones in there and water temps are about 78F.

He would not eat anything I was trying to give him all week, Reptomin wrapped up in sliced chicken, some ground beef nuggets, dead mice, live feeder fish, etc. I wanted to try something different so I went and bought some frozen Shad and frozen whole raw shrimp. I thawed them out and also picked up a pair of 9" salad tongs to use to "tease" him to eat. Well it was a success and he is starting to finally act like a large snapping turtle should! I think it just took a few days for him to settle in and get him warmed up. I plan on going to my grandma's pond and catching some Bluegill to keep frozen and ready for him in the future.

It was important for him to start feeding because now I can get him on some oral antibiotics to help him heal up successfully. I plan on keeping him at least all winter to get him well fed and healed up a little better before a release. He kind of has a gimpy left front leg though, so I will continue to monitor that and see how that works out. Vet said the injury was likely from a car and probably about 6 months ago. The vet is Dr. Calhoun currently working in Wilder, KY and he gave me a lot of good advice. He is really into reptiles/exotics.

Honestly, as long as you respect the turtle, move slowly and handle them from behind he seems pretty easy to handle. I will try to get some more recent pics and video of him over the next week, these pics were just a day or so after we found him.