Diamondback Turtle Foot Injury

Question
One of our school's 6 month old diamondback turtles appears to have had her feet partially eaten by the other.  I have separated them.  What do I need to do to care for the injured turtle until we can get her to the vet on Monday?

Answer
Hey Cathy,

I'm sorry to hear about the little girls feet. I'm glad however that you are taking her to the vet.

Until you can get her to the vet I would do what we call "dry docking", meaning just keep her in a tub or bucket or tank that doesn't have any water in it. This will help her feet dry out and hopefully stop bleeding. If she is bleeding, you can use a blood stop powder to stop the bleeding. You can let her swim for about 10-15 min tomorrow as long as it doesn't start her feet bleeding again. Your vet will probably clean the wound and put her on antibiotics.

Hopefully this will help you some

-Nicole