1. The mechanism of stress response:

Stress response is an instinctive reaction unique to animals. When the body is subjected to strong harmful stimulation, it triggers strong tension in the animal and stimulates the animal to secrete a large amount of adrenal glands. white.

And in a sustained stress state, excessive secretion of adrenaline acts on various internal organs of the body, causing visceral blood vessels to constrict. It produces an ischemic effect, which may lead to tissue and organ lesions under continued effects.

If it acts on the stomach, it will lead to gastric ulcer or even gastric perforation and bleeding; if it acts on the cardiovascular system, it will cause heart rhythm disorders, malignant hypertension, etc.

Long-term continuous adrenal gland secretion will also cause a cliff effect:

First, the failure of the adrenal gland secretion function;

Second, the continued failure of various internal organs The ischemic effect causes internal organ failure over time.

2. National factors that trigger stress response:

Turtles are very timid guys. External stimuli and changes in the environment may cause the turtle to react greatly, thereby triggering a stress response. Common causes include:

1. Severe trauma: such as falls and bites from the same type. The body reacts strongly to the injury, inducing a stress response.

2. Strongly stimulating treatment behaviors: injections, forced feeding and drug administration, and the application of highly stimulating drugs.

3. Strong external stimulation: such as thunder and continuous high-decibel noise nearby. Or bumps during transportation, hunger and thirst, etc.

4. Unadaptation to the new environment: In particular, the new environment has many threatening factors, such as multiple turtle species and turtles with very different body shapes being mixed together; and changes in food, water quality and other factors, It can also cause stress reactions in some more neurotic turtles.

3. How to prevent the occurrence of stress reaction:

The biggest harm of stress reaction is that the turtle will die suddenly in a short time. Normally, if a turtle is sick, it can persist for half a month or even several months before dying, and may even recover on its own without disturbing it. But if it is due to improper treatment or intervention, it may die in a day or two.

How can we prevent the occurrence of stress reactions in turtles? It is necessary to adapt to the slow rhythm of the tortoise, and all behaviors towards the tortoise must be as slow as possible, so that the tortoise can accept slow changes safely. This requires taking adequate preventive measures against various factors that trigger stress reactions.

1. Avoid and eliminate factors that cause turtle trauma: avoid turtles that are too dense to live together, and definitely avoid mixing turtles with large body shapes and different types.

Always closely observe whether there are aggressive elements in the turtle group, and if so, separate a small room for the aggressive elements to live alone.

When designing a turtle pond, you should avoid the possibility of turtles climbing up to high places and falling, and check whether there are sharp objects, slits and other dangerous factors. When entering a turtle farm, you must first look to see if there are any turtles under your feet before moving. You are not allowed to move backwards, unless your mother has installed an eyesight on the back of your head.

2. Treatment measures should be gentle: try not to use injections or force-feeding. Many turtles die the next day after injection or force-feeding. Don’t think that they died of illness. That’s the turtle’s original condition. I was so sick that I became very nervous. If I gave him an injection and some medicine, I would die from the stress. In terms of medication, try to avoid using highly irritating drugs. For example, there are rumors on the Internet that you can directly use potassium permanganate dry powder to spray the affected area on bean curd skin. This is no less than cutting your skin a few times and then spreading salt.

The atomized drug administration method used in the study has been confirmed by turtle friends in practice to be a very safe method of drug administration. So far, there has been no sudden death of turtles after aerosolized drug administration. .

Because the atomized medicine allows the turtle to absorb the medicine during breathing, everything is so natural, and of course it will not cause any stimulation or fright to the turtle.

3. The turtle farm should be quiet: when choosing a location, do not choose a noisy venue. When raising turtles at home, the location of the turtle pond should be away from TV speakers. When raising turtles at home, do not open a K bar at home. . If you don't be happy, the turtle will be scared to death. Another point is that lightning strikes unfortunately occur near turtle farms, and it is not uncommon for turtles to be frightened to death by the explosion. But how to protect yourself from lightning? I can only tell you that it is best not to install lightning rods near the turtle farm. Or if you see dark clouds over the ground, you should immediately take the turtle indoors and close the doors and windows tightly. Of course, those with few turtles can do this, but there is nothing that can be done for large turtles. Therefore, the location of the large field must not be in a high-lying area. If you install a lightning rod in a low-lying area, the lightning will explode elsewhere.

4. How to transport turtles: I have seen many people collecting turtles in large numbers. They use fiber bags to stuff the turtles and throw them into the car before transporting them. If you meet a speedster who wants to buy something, there will be lots of turtles on the road. Accelerating and braking suddenly, the turtle may have become stressed on the road. In this case, the buyer did not find out his own reasons, but instead accused the seller of being unjust for selling a sick turtle. I have also seen some cases online. The most convenient way to transport turtles is to use packing boxes instead of bags. If it is really necessary to pack it in multiple layers, the layers should also be separated by thick wet cloth to avoid direct collision and squeezing of the turtles. When driving on Yungui Road, you should drive more smoothly. In addition, you should also pay attention to the smooth transition between the temperature inside the car and the temperature outside the car. It is best not to turn on the air conditioner if you can.

5. How to transition to a new environment: There are a lot of experience posts on the Internet, so I will only briefly repeat them here. After the new turtle arrives in the new place, the light should be kept dark and the turtle should be allowed to stay quietly in a space for a day before being put into the pool. Some are particularly sensitive, such as Huang Bou, and the master created the method of slowly walking into the pool with a cage in the pool, which can also be used as a reference.

4. Manifestations and treatments of stress reactions:

Clinically, the primary organ affected by stress reactions is mostly the stomach, so gastric ulcers and gastric bleeding have become The basic pathological characteristics of rapid death caused by stress reaction. Of course, unless the turtle already has high blood pressure, it is possible that the blood vessels will explode immediately after being frightened and the turtle will die. However, gastric ulcers account for the majority of stress reactions. Symptoms include: the turtle suddenly becomes very low energy, its eyes are dull, it lies motionless, and its limbs, head and neck are unable to extend (retracting into the shell will increase the pressure on the stomach and make it more painful). If there is gastric bleeding, dark red oozes from the corners of the mouth. blood (because blood passes through the action of gastric acid), and then basically dies within 48 hours.

Once a turtle develops a stress reaction, it can be said that the chance of being rescued is very low, because most of the turtle has already had a perforated gastric ulcer, unless you know how to perform a gastrectomy.

Therefore, the treatment of stress reaction can only be preventive medication. The principle is to judge the probability that the turtle may have a stress reaction based on the factors that cause the stress reaction and the performance of the turtle. At this time, It is necessary to actively and timely implement anti-stress response treatment.

The main measure is to use glucocorticoids such as dexamethasone to combat stress reactions and ranitidine to prevent or fight gastric ulcers. If bleeding occurs at the corners of the mouth, hemostatic aromatic acid should also be used to combat gastric bleeding.

In order to prevent gastric ulcers from being complicated by gastric infections, and to prevent infections caused by the decrease in the body's immune function due to stress response, broad-spectrum antibacterial drugs should also be used rationally to prevent bacterial infections, such as ofloxacin, etc. drug.