* Harriet found her forever home with awesome people! Yay! *

Harriet was found outdoors on her own. Being a red eared slider, Harriet is not a native species and would likely have not survived the winter if she hadn’t been brought into Hamilton Animal Services.
We got Harriet out of the shelter and straight to the vet for a check up. Turns out, Harriet has quite a bad infection on the sides and bottom of her shell. This was likely caused by being kept in unsanitary conditions wherever she was living before she was dumped, and possibly not having access to a basking spot to dry out her shell. She was put on two different medications and a daily medicated bath for the infection. Her foster family will tell you that giving medications to an angry turtle is no easy task, but they managed. 🙂
Harriet had a follow up appointment after the two weeks of the medication, and she was given a clean bill of health. All the infection was gone. Yay!
Harriet is now ready to start the search for her forever home. Because she’s a larger girl, she’ll need a tank that is at least 100 gallons, but more would be better. Check out this page of the Little Res Q website for proper turtle set up.

We’ll never know for sure what happened to Harriet or how long she had been on her own in the wild, but she was likely released by her owner when she got too big/inconvenient for them. Sadly, a shocking number of turtles are abandoned this way. Even more are surrendered to shelters because their owners are not informed that the cute little loonie size baby they purchase in a pet store can become the size of a dinner plate. Most people aren’t prepared for how big a baby will grow, or the amount of work that goes into caring for a turtle as they get bigger.
If you cannot take care of your turtle any longer and you are unable to re-home him/her, DO NOT RELEASE INTO THE WILD. Releasing a turtle is not only breaking the law, it is potentially subjecting your turtle to a slow agonizing death due to his/her inability to adapt to the environment. Red eared sliders are native to the southern states, and don’t often survive harsh Canadian winters. Releasing a turtle into the wild could also introduce disease that can endanger wild turtle species, and disrupt an already delicate ecosystem.

Helpful turtle info websites: