Blue Ridge Wildlife Center Patient of the Week: Eastern Painted Turtle

What should you do if you hook a Turtle?

As the weather starts warming and anglers start fishing, please be mindful of the native freshwater turtles waking up! We received our first “hooked” Eastern Painted Turtle this week. Luckily, the finder did not attempt to remove the hook and brought the patient directly to us.

As you can see from the following intake photo and x-ray, the piercing end of the hook went through the roof of her mouth and out the top of the skull, narrowly missing her brain and eyes. This turtle was heavily sedated in order to extend the head so that the hook could be safely removed.

After a successful hook removal, she is being treated with pain medications and antibiotics and is recovering and eating well (see banner photo). We anticipate she will be ready for release on May 1st (the first date we can release reptiles in VA)!

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