-_-Red Eared Turtle 4 - Winky-_-
3 May 2004: Winky, a wild 8 inch female Red-eared Slider, was dropped off at the Houston SPCA by someone who found her, hit by a car, on a road.
Both of her bridges are fractured along with a large fracture up the right side of her carapace. She has a small opening into her body cavity. Her eyes are swollen due to head trauma. She seems to see best out of her left eye (hence, the name Winky).
She was taken to one of the vet's offices that works with the GCTTS, to have her body cavity flushed out and shell repaired. She received antibiotics to prevent bacterial infection and received some steroids to help reduce swelling in her brain.
Winky hasn't eaten yet but that sometimes takes time. Her prognosis is guarded. Winky will be with us for some time.
Your donations will help to pay for her care. Let us know if you would like your name mentioned on this web page as a donor for Winky or any of the other long term care turtles.
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13 May 2004: Last week, upon palpation of Winky's abdomen, we suspected that she had eggs inside. It didn't seem she was getting better and she showed no signs of wanting to lay eggs when placed in dirt. Back to the vet she went.
An x-ray did confirm the presence of seven eggs. A drug was administered to induce her to lay the eggs. She was also put back on antibiotics. Over that weekend no eggs were laid. Monday, back to the vet she went for another shot of the drug to help her lay. Again, nothing. Winky was in serious trouble.
Blood work was done showing, high liver enzymes, low albumen, kidney functions were fine and her white blood count was normal. After a discussion with the vet, it was decided to try surgery to remove the eggs. This fine vet was not willing to give up on Winky just yet. He explained the risk that she could still die during the surgery.
Wednesday Winky had her surgery. The vet removed all seven completely formed eggs and several eggs that were not shelled. (The eggs could not be saved.) Her uterus was in poor condition so he removed it, effectively spaying her.
To perform this surgery a square section of her plastron had to be removed and now it is patched and sealed. Wednesday evening Winky was picked up from the vet's office. Thursday morning, with the sedation worn off, Winky got a nice soak in shallow water. She was thirsty and drank the water! That is a good sign.
Her eyes look less swollen and she moves around a bit more than before the surgery. She has not eaten since being rescued but we will keep working with her.
Winky is NOT "out of the woods" yet.
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22 May 2004: Because Winky was not eating, the rehabber caring for her started force feeding her by slipping a tube down into her stomach. After a few days of tube feeding, Winky is finally self feeding now. Two days ago she started nibbling small bites of fish and is also swimming around more in her isolation pool. Since her surgery to spay her, she has been floating in the water due to air in her body cavity. This is unavoidable when the body cavity is surgically opened or opened due to trauma. In the past, other turtles that have had this happen usually stop floating within a few weeks. Eventually, the body absorbs the air. We expect this to be the case with Winky also.
29 Jun 2004: Winky did stop floating as expected. She had to receive antibiotics for an upper respiratory infection a few weeks ago but seems to be OK now. She is eating very good on her own. Her eyes are still swollen and she sees mostly out of the left one. She has started using her rear legs more and is able to lift her body to walk. She was not using them much since her injury but this wasn't mentioned originally.
All of Winky's bridge and plastron patches were removed by the vet. The carapace patches were left on. He also removed the square section of plastron where he did her spay surgery back in May. It was slightly loose and attached to loose acrylic patches. She has white tissue under that square but there is no infection and the abdominal cavity is sealed. She will get short daily soaks in clean water with antibiotic ointment put on the belly tissues afterwards. She is on a rubber rack in her container to keep her plastron clean. Another round of the antibiotic will be started. The vet will judge later if she is to have another patch put over that area. We'll know more in a couple weeks. We hope that the tissues will toughen and thicken and no more patches will be needed.
24 Dec 2004: Winky recently had a visit at the vets office because it was noticed her appetite had diminished over the previous 2 weeks. The vet did bloodwork and discovered that her liver enzymes were way off and she had an extremely high blood calcium level. We hope that the liver problem isn't a sign of liver failure. It is unknown why her calcium levels are so high. This was very unhappy news for Winky's vet and her rehabber. Her rehabber has started tube feeding her because she is just not eating enough to sustain herself. Winky is in a large indoor heated tank but doesn't seem to have the energy to swim much. The vet also had her rehabber give her a round of antibiotics as a preventive measure. On the bright side, Winky's plastron area has healed nice and no longer needs a patch. The tissues are thickening and toughening which is what we want. Winky's prognosis is very guarded again and we will keep you updated.
4 Jun 2005: Winky has improved over the winter and is now outside. She is happier outside and eating better. It is the opinion of her rehabber that she has bouts of depression when kept inside over winter and therefore doesn't always eat good during those times. Because she does not like to use her back legs much she is not a good swimmer. She panics if the water is more than about 10 inches deep. Because she can not go into deep water, she will not be able to hibernate naturally outside during the winter. She will have to be wintered over inside. She does not bask on her own even when outside so her rehabber puts her on the ground in the pen regularly. Winky then will slowly crawl along investigating her pen. The best news is that Winky's surgery area on her plastron is becoming hard and seems to be turning into shell and even getting the dark pigment back! (see new photo) This is great news. Winky is not releaseable yet but may be put up for adoption to a GCTTS member who is willing to set up a habitat to meet her special needs.
13 Feb 2006: Winky's rehabber is happy to say that this winter Winky has been doing great. She doesn't seem depressed and has a good appetite. She is more active in her indoor winter tank than last winter. In our mild winter climate she can go outside into a pen on warm days and when another large female RES is placed in the pen with her to get some sun, Winky sometimes uses her back legs to crawl. This other turtle seems to motivate her to be active. She rarely used her rear legs before so this is very promising. With more time, we hope that Winky will continue to use her rear legs often. We assume since she originally had a head injury that the brain damage must have affected her some way that she maybe doesn't realize she can use those legs. They are very strong if you try to pull on them but she just doesn't use them as she should. She still doesn't use them to swim but maybe that will change too. We have hope.
The surgery area on her plastron has completely healed and is now a healthy part of her shell again. The patch on her carapace is still intact and may be left until it starts to come off naturally.
12 Nov 2006: We are happy to say that Winky has been doing wonderfully this year. This summer she started consistantly using her rear legs to crawl when on land. She also started eating some aquatic plants. Before she would only eat protein foods. Since our Fall got a late start this year, Winky was able to stay outside until October. She is now in her large tank for the Winter although, she is still able to go outside on warm days here during our mild southern Winters. She doesn't seem to be depressed like she has been when brought in for previous Winters. She is active and has learned to beg food from her rehabber. She has another RES, Sweetie, in a neighboring tank to watch. There are still no plans to release Winky into the wild because she does not swim well in deep water.
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2 Feb 2007: Winky is still doing great inside this winter. Another smaller female RES was placed in with her. They get along fine and the smaller turtle seems to help keep Winky active. We were able to get a very nice updated photo of Winky so we are sharing it here.
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