Turtle Thursday: Jay

Jay, our Map Turtle

Jay is our second to youngest turtle. He was labeled as a Mississippi Map Turtle, but as far as I can tell, there is no such breed. He seems closer to a Texan, or some Map mix.

His story is actually a pretty sad one. When I found him, he was is a filthy, dirty, disgusting pet shop on 46th Street in Sunnyside, Queens, NY. The guy had two tanks filled with "barely legal" turtles. He had Maps, RES, and Muds. Knowing how this guy doesn't properly care for animals, I wanted to rescue a little guy before they all died. I chose the prettiest and brightest colored map in the tank. I noticed he had some imposing blotches on his shell, but decided I can handle anything. I'd been very successful with turtles up to that point, I can take on anything anyone handed me. I named him JAY, after the character from Clerks. (We already had Dante and Randall!)

That was the number one rule in choosing a pet turtle that I broke. You are never supposed to choose a sick animal, or even an animal that is in less than perfect condition.

It turned out that he had some conditions. He had a "horn" on his neck, and some shell rot. When I went back to the pet shop to ask about the horn they looked it up in a turtle handbook. Nothing. The clerk shook his head and said with a straight face, "There's nothing in the book about a horn, I guess he's just evil."

"Evil?" I said, "Thanks," then walked out, never to return to that shit hole.

Jay would spend the next bunch of years of his life in the isolation tank trying to make him better. The shell rot grew into a septicemic infection. During that time, he hardly grew, as his body was busy trying to fight off infection. It took years before he was able to be put in water full time and reintroduced into the turtle population. Even then, it took him a long time to learn to swim.

• FACT: When turtle shell or skin rot isn't taken care of properly or soon enough, it can grow into a much worse infection requiring the use of topical, oral and/or injected antibiotics. In addition to meds, dry docking would be necessary. Take care of these things as soon as they appear.

Now he lives in the big tank and gets along very well with the others. Jay prefers to dwell along the bottom of the tank, which is fine as it adds an extra layer of activity to the tank. He has pretty colors and offers the tank a very interesting personality.