Blue Ridge Wildlife Center Patient of the Week: Woodland Box Turtle

Can a turtle get an ear infection?

Although the weather is cooling, we are continuing to get many turtles in for care. On Saturday alone, we received and performed surgery on FIVE new turtle patients!

One of those patients was this woodland box turtle who came into care with a severe aural abscess (an ear infection that causes internal swelling). These abscesses can sometimes be caused by trauma, but many are associated with vitamin A deficiency, which changes the tissues that make up the ear lining and predisposes these turtles to develop abscesses.

In captive turtles with abscesses, this is often due to a lack of dietary vitamin A. In the wild, some pesticides are known to alter the metabolism of vitamin A and have been linked to these abscesses.

While ear infections in mammals often travel from the mouth to the ear canal via the eustachian tube, turtles lack an open, external ear canal. When an infection reaches their ear, it can’t escape, leading to the accumulation of pus with a firm, cheese-like consistency.

This unusual characteristic means that pus doesn’t readily drain back into their mouth, resulting in the formation of a substantial pocket within the ear. Without treatment, these abscesses and will often cause turtles to stop eating, which could lead to death.

This patient is healing well and will be spending the winter at our Center, and we expect him to be ready for release on May 1st!

Where do turtles go in the winter?

Woodland box turtles undergo a period of dormancy called brumation during the winter months, characterized by reduced activity and metabolic slowdown in response to colder temperatures and reduced daylight.

They seek shelter in burrows or natural cavities, becoming lethargic and unresponsive to stimuli, conserving energy and not eating or drinking. While they continue to breathe, it’s at a much slower rate, and they can absorb oxygen through their skin.

As the weather warms in spring, they gradually emerge, becoming more active and resuming their usual activities.

In our area, wild turtles brumate in the fall and winter months which is why the law in Virginia does not allow rehabilitators to release reptile patients between October 1 – April 30. Luckily, we were able to release nine turtles on September 30!

Any turtle we can’t release before October, or who came to us within that time, overwinters with us at the Center. We keep them in a warm and humid room so they don’t fall into brumation and can continue to be rehabbed.

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