Patient Spotlight: Xanthisma

On Monday December 18th of this year (2023) I was amidst turtle cleaning chores in the clinic, and was in the process of cleaning the enclosure of a wood turtle who is healing from his wounds, Xanthisma. Xanthisma arrived on October 28th, and had been through a lot, but was starting to improve in slight ways. One of the next big milestones we anxiously awaited was for him to eat on his own. There was a full plate of food sitting in his enclosure - a salad of greens, veggies, moistened pellets, and fruit, of which banana was the day’s fruit of choice. The food was partially spread out over the towels, as if he walked right through it. I collect the food and remove the plate, but wait what? There’s no banana! I suppressed my initial excitement, thinking it was likely that the banana ended up being squished into one of the towels I had already removed. After all, the rest of the food was not touched. I finished up cleaning, replacing his water and towels, and closed up his enclosure.

From there I went to prepare a plate of food, just in case that actually was him that ate his banana, but I was not expecting much. I prepared some high value items - more bananas of course, since that may be his favorite, as well as hard boiled eggs, and mangos. I enter his enclosure a final time and place the food plate down. He’s already moved into his water, which is so encouraging to see. Not even a week ago Xanthisma still needed assistance in and out of the water tray, so it was a huge step forward in his progress that he is now feeling strong enough to move around on his own. I quickly leave him to disturb him as minimally as possible, and close the curtain so he can no longer see me.

I moved on to other chores but as I was walking by again at some point, I noticed I did not close the curtain entirely, and there was a little window where I could see in. I could see movement. I peek in to see what Xanthisma is up to, and there it was! He only half emerged from his water tray, and was face down in his plate while he moved back and forth between the egg and banana in a rapid motion, as if he couldn’t decide what to eat first. I literally jumped for joy! It’s happening! This was a huge step forward for Xanthisma!

Since that day Xanthisma has been loving his meals, and every single time he eats we are ecstatic. We are so proud of Xanthisma and all his immense progress thus far! As previously mentioned, Xanthisma arrived at the very end of October after being hit by a car. Car hits are by far the most common reason we receive turtles of all species. Xanthisma was in really rough shape, and his recovery has been slow. His carapace (top shell) was split along the back left margins, and the fracture extended up his carapace and crossed the backbone. When he arrived he was extremely lethargic, and was dehydrated from blood loss. When held, his left leg dangled from the side of his body with no movement. His right back leg was missing entirely, and he also was not moving the nub which remained.

Believe it or not, the missing right leg was actually an old injury that had already healed, and had nothing to do with why he was admitted. Wood turtles are very commonly found missing a limb, sometimes two, and more rarely three! It is very common that the wood turtles we admit are missing limbs. The state biologists see individuals with these injuries in field surveys year after year. That means missing limbs does not make a wood turtle non-releasable, and they can still survive long-term in the wild.

Raccoons are the most likely suspect to have caused the loss of the back right limb. They use those nimble little fingers to pry out turtle limbs. Some turtle species have an advantage in handling these predators’ advances, such as Blanding’s turtles and box turtles, who can withdraw inside of their shells and use their hinged plastrons (bottom shell) to close themselves inside. Box turtles are the best at this, and can really seal themselves inside of their shells with their hinged plastron magic trick - “now you see me, now you don’t!” Painted turtles and spotted turtles do well withdrawing into their shells, some retracting far enough in that it looks like they completely disappeared, yet neither have a hinged plastron. Snapping turtles have tiny plastrons and cannot withdraw into their shells effectively, hence their big attitude when they reach adulthood (snapping is their only defense!). Wood turtles however are no match for a raccoon, as they don’t have a hinged plastron, their shell does not do enough to protect them against certain agile predators like raccoons, and they don’t have the bite of a snapper to ward them off. Raccoons are also what we call “subsidized” predators, meaning they thrive living around humans, and areas with high human presence are likely to have unnatural numbers of these predators, which is a huge detriment to wood turtles, as well as other turtle species.

We were extremely concerned about a diagnosis of paralysis. When a fracture crosses the backbone it is very possible they will be fully or partially paralyzed, which would make him non-releasable. For over a month Xanthisma did not use either limb. We saw little movements that seemed hardly more than reflexes. Eventually we saw more and more voluntary movement, which was such a huge relief. We thought Xanthisma was likely to be paralyzed to some degree based on his initial response, but he’s slowly building up that strength, and we are more and more hopeful he will make a full recovery.

One of the most concerning aspects of Xanthisma’s health was that he did not seem to be urinating at all, and we were concerned that there may be paralysis keeping him from doing so, or that there may be a rupture in the bladder where the urine was leaking into his body cavity and therefore not exiting the body. His inguinal pockets (the area above the back limbs) gradually became larger and larger, and he was gaining so much weight without losing any. This was positive at first, since he was dehydrated initially, and he was making up his fluids on his own. But he gained over 100 grams without eating, and that is underheard of for his size. I also never saw evidence of urinating - he never peed on me during exams (a common defense mechanism) and his water and towels were always pristine.

Our amazing veterinarian, Dr. Jardon of Mountain Brook Home Veterinary Care, was able to see him and confirm the urine was not filling up his inguinal pockets. It is still possible there was a slight rupture causing fluid to leak, but it wasn’t fluids causing the puffiness of the inguinal pockets that we were seeing. We were also seeing increased movement of the limbs and were skeptical about paralysis, and there was no evidence of bladder stones. It was a very confusing time, and we were really not sure what to think from conflicting results, but we hoped if it was a rupture that over time the body may be able to repair those cells and heal itself.

Finally he reached a day where he turned a corner! After about a month and a half from his arrival, I saw a substance in the water. His water was no longer pristine and his weight started to decrease. He started to actually move around between his water and dry area, and I continued to see dirty water as well. It was so encouraging to see! He has continued to improve and his weight has gone down significantly. It’s rare that we are excited by weight loss. Usually we’re looking for the opposite improvement, but this is exactly what we needed to see for Xanthisma.

After significant weight loss where it was finally within a reasonable range from his weight when he arrived, he still had not eaten. I was starting to believe that he would need to have supplemental nutrition, but we did not want to force his body to process more than it could handle, since he seems to have had some significant internal damage. We were still in the waiting process, and it was reaching a point where any day we would need to intervene. But that is when the amazing day of December 18th came along, and he decided to eat on his own!

Words can not describe how happy we are with this turn of events! Xanthisma has finally reached a point in his recovery where he’s feeling better, is moving around more, and his bodily functions are becoming increasingly normal. We feel more and more hopeful each day about his progress, and while he’s still very much amidst the recovery process, we hope with all our hearts we can see him back home come spring 2024. Here’s to Xanthisma’s continued health!