OK, Friday evening, I took Sasha to the vet to get her beak trimmed.

The vet was nice. He gave her a basic exam. Checked her lungs and heart. Weighed her (she weighs 274 grams). He asked me about her diet. When I explained that she is not a fan of veggies, he suggested dusting her bugs with a multi-vitamin to help keep her healthy (I would appreciate opinions/advice on using a multivitamin.).

He said that, overall, she seemed pretty healthy.

Then, he took her upstairs and trimmed her beak. Overall, I liked him. He wasn't so friendly that he'd become my new best friend, but he seemed to know a bit about turtles (he admitted that they don't get a LOT of box turtles as patients - which doesn't surprise me since I couldn't find ANYONE who even knew that he treated reptiles) but he did seem to know the basics. I'll still be keeping my eyes open for other reptile vets, just in case, though (not sure how he'd do if I had a medical emergency).

Here's my only problem/concern.

Take a look at the before and after pictures. I don't see a big difference in her beak. Did he trim it sufficiently? He said he didn't want to trim it so far that it would bother her or interfere with her eating. He said he trimmed it to line up with the lower beak. If the pictures aren't good enough, I can take some more.

BEFORE:



AFTER:







Ignore the giant worm. I had to wake her up this morning to take her photo, and she wasn't in the mood to eat it.

it barely looks trimmed at all, but is it lined up with the bottom? I guess that's what would be important.

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My name is Liz
Do what's best for the animal, not what's best for you.

I'll take her out and try to get a better photo this evening (she is NOT a morning turtle, so even though I woke her up, I didn't want to take her out of her enclosure - in the evenings, she is more amenable to posing for photos).

I can't tell if it lines up. In my opinion, it doesn't, but I'm just not sure. I can't figure out if I should take her back to the vet, find a different vet, or what.

was this the beak trimming that cost $25 vs the one that was $200? If this was the $200 guy I'd be ticked.

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My name is Liz
Do what's best for the animal, not what's best for you.

Mind you I don't know anything about turtle beaks, but if it is like trimming severely overgrown nails, it may be that there is only so much that you can take off at a time and you may have to slowly work it back to where it needs to be. If you take it back too far too quickly you get into living tissue.
Just a thought.

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Merlin,
What's Life Without A Little Magic!

So this was the dog vet you mentioned before?

From the pictures, I don't see a difference, but like Merlin said, he may not be able to trim too far back.

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"Let's eat, Grandpa!"
"Let's eat Grandpa!"

Punctuation. It saves lives.

Yes, this was the $25 guy. In fact, since he also did the basic exam (which cost $32.00), the beak trim (?) was only $18.00.

I wondered about that possibility. All things being considered, I'm not overly worried, because she was able to eat fine BEFORE the beak trim, so even if I have to get it done a couple more times to get it where it should be, I don't have a problem with it.

On the other hand, he didn't say anything to me about needing to bring her back in a few months to have it done again. You'd figure, if it has to be done slowly, over time, he'd have said, "OK, now you need to bring her back in 2 months so I can take it down a little bit further."

I've no idea, I've never had to get my turtle's beak trimmed people so I don't know what the difference should look like. I'll try doing some research though.