A gopher tortoise was picked up in Port St. Lucie, when a homeowner found her in their yard painted with nail polish.
Now, it’s undergoing cleaning and treatment at the Treasure Coast Wildlife Center.
“The tortoise needs to thermo-regulate and they cannot change their body temperature efficiently if the sun is reflecting,” said Dr. Leonard Fox, a volunteer veterinarian at the Treasure Coast Wildlife Center. “This tortoise now cannot hide from predators as easily because the sun is reflecting.”
He says among the dangers for this gopher tortoise is the polish can be toxic and the cleaning will take a lot of time.
“We can’t stress her out so just like 15 minutes every couple of days of scrubbing,” Fox said. “We can’t use nail polish remover because that’s toxic to the turtle.”
Fox said he’s treating more and more threatened gopher tortoises these days, as our communities undergo lots of development, pushing tortoises out of their burrows.
WPTV