Drooling is common in dogs but not so much in turtles, so, seeing your pet turtle drool will understandably be quite unsettling for you as a turtle raiser and will raise concerns about the animal’s well-being.
This article looks into why your turtle may be drooling
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Why is my turtle drooling?
A change in behavior, especially a negative change in behavior, can mean that there is something up with your turtle.
These animals aren’t known to drool so constantly drooling is something that is very odd for these animals.
Here is why your pet turtle may be drooling:
Overheating heat stroke:
One of the more common reasons why your pet turtle may be drooling may be because the animal is suffering from overheating or heat stroke.
These animals are cold-blooded, their body temperature is greatly determined by their environment. If it’s too cold then they’ll get too cold, if it’s too hot then they’ll get too hot and start drooling
These animals don’t sweat so their body releases saliva via drool which evaporates the way sweat in humans does to cool the body.
What to do:
You can immediately help your pet by soaking it in room-temperature water. Don’t put the animal in cold water just yet as this may shock the system,
Allowing your pet to cool off in a shaded area should also help
Checking that the temperatures in your pet’s tank are all correct is another thing that you need to do.
Doing this should get the animal to stop drooling. If the animal does not stop drooling then you’d need to schedule an appointment with your vet to look into the issue.
Herpes:
Another reason why your turtle may be drooling may be because the animal has herpes.
This condition causes lesions to develop on the lining of the animal’s mouth, tongue, and on the roof of the animal’s mouth. A drooling mouth is also common for turtles who have herpes.
In addition to the drooling mouth and the lesions, a turtle with this condition will be reluctant to eat or drink, will have a runny, crusty nose, a crusty mouth, start open mouth breathing, gasping when breathing, closed or swollen eyes, and the animal will be reluctant to move.
What to do:
The most reliable way to determine whether your pet has this condition is to get the animal to the vet.
The vet will take a swab of the oral lesions and do a PCR test to determine whether or not the reptile does in fact have herpes.
This is a rapid test and many vets are able to perform this test. Unfortunately, this test isn’t able to detect low levels of infections and will thus miss them but it will pick up if your pet has a moderate or high infection.
Some labs are able to run tests on turtle blood samples as well.
If you enjoyed this article then you may also be interested in other turtle/tortoise related articles. Here are some articles that you may be interested in: Why Is My Turtle Croaking?, Why Is My Turtle Not Eating Vegetables?, Why Is My Turtle Just Lying There, Why Is My Turtle Going Crazy In Tank, Why Is My Turtle Closing Its Eyes, Why Does My Turtle Just Sit There, Why Is My Turtle Filter Making Noise?, Why Is My Turtle Filter Making Bubbles?, Why Is My Turtle Cold?