Abstract

Eastern box turtles (EBT, Terrapene carolina carolina) commonly present to wildlife hospitals for traumatic injuries, as they have increased exposure to people and vehicles due to their terrestrial lifestyle.¹ While it is known that wildlife in captivity experience stress,^2–4 it is unknown how glucocorticoids could reflect survivorship in hospitalized box turtles.

For this study, small volumes of blood were collected from 37 EBTs admitted to TRT for traumatic injuries on days 0, 1, 7, 14, 21, and 28. Packed cell volume (PCV), total solids, leukocyte differentials, and corticosterone concentrations were measured, and triage scores were assigned at intake based on injury severity, reflexes, and attitude. Logistic regression was used to determine which parameters influenced survival on days 1, 7, and 28.

Turtles which did not survive for 24 hours had higher lactate on intake (p<0.01), were more likely to have toxic heterophils on blood smears (p<0.05) and had higher triage scores (p<0.05) than turtles which survived past 24 hours. Turtles were more likely to survive to one week if they had higher corticosterone on the day of intake (p<0.05) but lower corticosterone at 24 hours (p<0.01) when compared to turtles that did not survive, and non-survivors had lower PCVs on the day of intake than those that did survive (p<0.01). Survival at one month was dictated by triage scores (p<0.01). These results implicate the need to reduce stress in the first 24 hours of hospitalization and demonstrates the importance of injury severity when assessing prognosis in EBTs with traumatic injuries.

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank the many volunteers that work with the Turtle Rescue Team to provide daily care and medical treatments. This study was funded by the Morris Animal Foundation and the Triangle Community Foundation. Animal care was conducted under IACUC #19-036-O.

Literature Cited

1.  Budischak SA, Hester JM, Price SJ, Dorcas ME. 2006. Natural history of Terrapene carolina (box turtles) in an urbanized landscape. Southeast Nat 5:191–204.

2.  Tyrrell CL, Cree A. 1998. Relationships between corticosterone concentration and season, time of day and confinement in a wild reptile (Tuatara, Sphenodon punctatus). Gen Comp Endocrinol 110(2):97–108.

3.  Denardo D. 2006. Stress in captive reptiles. In: Mader D, editor. Reptile medicine and surgery. Saint Louis (MO): W.B. Saunders. p 119–123.

4.  Hunt KE, Innis CJ, Merigo C, Rolland RM. 2016. Endocrine responses to diverse stressors of capture, entanglement and stranding in leatherback turtles (Dermochelys coriacea). Conserv Physiol. 4:cow022.