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Well. We can't tell if our oldest (130-year-old) Eastern Box turtle, Edwina, is dead, or if she has just gone into winter hibernation.
We woke up this morning, came downstairs, turned on the turtle's lights, and made the awful discovery... OMG! Eddie was dead! Or was she? ..... It's hard to tell, with turtles. She's shelled in. Rather, her head is pulled into her shell, and so was her back leg. She only has three legs. She lost her left back leg in the wild, some forty-odd years ago, which is why Turtleback Zoo rehomed here with us. They couldn't turn her loose again with only three legs. Her right front leg was splayed out, and lher left front leg was partially out, looking as if she were comfortably sprawled out.
Box turtles, when they die, tend to spill out of their shells, all over the place, as if their shells will no longer contain them. Sleeping turtles tend to shell in and come out when they wake up. Eddie is partly in and partly out.
Eastern Box turtles hibernate every winter in the wild, but in indoor captivity they usually do not hibernate. Ours have never hibernated. They have heat sunlight lamps and an electric hot rock upon which to bask. They never hibernate, haven't done so in fifty years.
But, as they age, reptiles - like humans - become more susceptible to the cold. ANd this is the latest we have ever gone without turning on the furnace. It's been getting below fifty degrees Farenheit in our house at night, lately. This may have triggered the older turtle's hibernation. (Our other turtle, Georgie, is fifty-some-odd years old, and he's wide awake; he hasn't hibernated.)
Eddie's legs are still soft, pliant; rigor mortis hasn't yet set in. Nor has her body begun to deteriorate. This suggests that she may be hibernating, not dead.
There are no vets hereabouts who specialize in reptiles, so we're more or less on our own. We haven't even had a call back from Turtleback Zoo. The zoo is a few minutes' drive away; I will drive up there tomorrow and see if I can get any help there tomorrow... although with all of the recent state and county financial cuts lately, dunno who's left there. sigh
If Eddie is just in winter hibernation, I'll need to set up a box with some hay down in the cellar for her to spend her hibernation in. And if she's dead, well, then we'll need to bury her. I just don't know what to do!
We woke up this morning, came downstairs, turned on the turtle's lights, and made the awful discovery... OMG! Eddie was dead! Or was she? ..... It's hard to tell, with turtles. She's shelled in. Rather, her head is pulled into her shell, and so was her back leg. She only has three legs. She lost her left back leg in the wild, some forty-odd years ago, which is why Turtleback Zoo rehomed here with us. They couldn't turn her loose again with only three legs. Her right front leg was splayed out, and lher left front leg was partially out, looking as if she were comfortably sprawled out.
Box turtles, when they die, tend to spill out of their shells, all over the place, as if their shells will no longer contain them. Sleeping turtles tend to shell in and come out when they wake up. Eddie is partly in and partly out.
Eastern Box turtles hibernate every winter in the wild, but in indoor captivity they usually do not hibernate. Ours have never hibernated. They have heat sunlight lamps and an electric hot rock upon which to bask. They never hibernate, haven't done so in fifty years.
But, as they age, reptiles - like humans - become more susceptible to the cold. ANd this is the latest we have ever gone without turning on the furnace. It's been getting below fifty degrees Farenheit in our house at night, lately. This may have triggered the older turtle's hibernation. (Our other turtle, Georgie, is fifty-some-odd years old, and he's wide awake; he hasn't hibernated.)
Eddie's legs are still soft, pliant; rigor mortis hasn't yet set in. Nor has her body begun to deteriorate. This suggests that she may be hibernating, not dead.
There are no vets hereabouts who specialize in reptiles, so we're more or less on our own. We haven't even had a call back from Turtleback Zoo. The zoo is a few minutes' drive away; I will drive up there tomorrow and see if I can get any help there tomorrow... although with all of the recent state and county financial cuts lately, dunno who's left there. sigh
If Eddie is just in winter hibernation, I'll need to set up a box with some hay down in the cellar for her to spend her hibernation in. And if she's dead, well, then we'll need to bury her. I just don't know what to do!
I have no clue about turtles, but I am interested in hearing what you find out from the zoo. I hope Edwina is just cold and tired for a nap. 
a guess di whole idea of death and uncertainty and keeping it around and checking weekly altho it may be dead is what mi know mi cudden do. so i am happy there are people like you withcy. i am a weakling when it come to these things.
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