mouth crud and leeches

Question
Have had red-eared sliders for 13 years in my pond and just recently found lots of leeches on them, also a few of them have some orange looking mough crud.  What would you reccomend?    Thanks.             Anne Baron


Answer
Any kind of crud around a turtle's mouth may be sign of serious injury or infection, and for them I suggest a vet. Parasites are a serious issue which can not only spread disease, but cause anemia as they suck the life right out of the turtle, and they are going to also open up wounds that will be very susceptible to infection. I have also seen a turtle loose it's eye sight due to parasites and serious infection, and if that happens there is little chance they can survive on their own.

You're probably going to have to consult someone in a fishery service or something similar about control or eradication of leeches. I've never had to deal with them except on rescued turtles. But I would suggest if it is possible and you don't have fish, to drain, and refill the pond, or dredge and filter it. That might be the only way to get rid of them without affecting fish or turtles with chemicals. Ducks like to eat leeches, and adding rock salt to the water will control them, but I cannot speak as to whether the salt concentrations are going to be harmful to your fish or turtles at 3 parts per thousand, or 2.5lbs per 100 gallons.

There are a few other methods suggested in the following pages, but it seems that drainage is suggested as the safest method if you want to avoid chemicals or buying ducks in order to handle this problem with any quickness.  

http://wildlife.tamu.edu/publications/a1101.pdf
http://www.ces.ncsu.edu/nreos/wild/fisheries/topics/leeches.htm
http://www.anglersnet.co.uk/authors/bruno10.htm
http://www.maine.gov/dep/blwq/doclake/leech.htm