09/05/2026
Meet Peewee!
Peewee is a hatchling spiny softshell turtle who came to us with some very significant developmental abnormalities. Peewee was transported from Werling Wildlife Rehabilitation & Education Center in northern Indiana, dropped off to a secondary transporter, Mara, in Cincinnati who then drove 2 hrs south to us at around midnight last night.
This would not have been possible without them & we are so grateful for their passion & drive (literally) to get Peewee to us!
From the moment we met him, it was clear that Peewee’s body isn’t developing quite the way a typical softshell’s should. He is unable to independently bring his head and neck into a normal forward position, and both his right front and right rear limbs are noticeably underdeveloped and deformed. Despite this, he has movement in all four limbs and can move his head from side to side. He even tried to bite us during examination 🥺
Tonight, we introduced Peewee to extremely shallow warm water to see what his reaction would be and he was immediately interested. While he isn’t currently able to swim normally and instead spins in circles, we noticed something encouraging: his underdeveloped limbs were moving much more freely in the water. He also drank on his own, which was exciting since we didn’t know if he could do that due to the positioning of his neck.
Tomorrow, Peewee will be getting radiographs so we can take a closer look at his spine, neck, limbs, and overall skeletal development. Those images should help us better understand exactly what we’re dealing with and, most importantly, whether there are rehabilitation options that could improve his mobility and quality of life.
For now, Peewee is safe, warm, hydrated, and being closely monitored.
He may have entered this world a little differently, but we’re going to give this tiny guy every reasonable opportunity to show us what he can do!
Welcome to the Scaletuary, Peewee!
