Ignorance kills my pet

Hi all. I'm not expecting any feedbacks on my post.
I just wanna to express my bottled-up emotions as I just lost my malayan box turtle yesterday.
She was given to me by my neighbour about 10 years ago. (I was in Form 5 back then).
She was an intelligent yet a bit shy girl.
She likes to sniff my toes as a sign of curiocity (I think).
She was very picky with her food. She likes shrimps and fishball. Sometimes I fed her boiled fish.
She dislikes veggies and fruits though. I tried to feed her bananas and papayas but she didn't shows any interest towards them.
On weekends, I would release her in my backyard and let her explores it as during weekdays she was confined in a basin.
I don't think she will enjoy living in a standard size aquarium throughout her life due to her large size.

But, for the past 2 months, she seems very tired....always sleeps during the day.
She eats less and sometimes do not want to eat for days.
When I put her at my backyard, she would not move an inch.
After several hours, she will be in the same spot where I put her earlier.
The obvious symptoms of her illness is her mouth will be foaming and she displays some sort of an anxiety in her intestine when I put her on land.
Strangely, she didn't show these acts when I put her back in the basin.
I thought that maybe she was foaming due to the hot sun.
I never bother in sending her to the vet as I had bad feedback from the local Jabatan Haiwan (Seremban).
Several years ago, when I sent my cat for treatment, I asked the Jabatan Haiwan's vet whether he would accept to examine a box turtle & terrapins.
I was turned down as the vet said that he don't have any experience in handling them.
Up until today, I always have a negative perception that vets only will treat dogs & cats as they are the common pets.

I still blame my self for not being more sensitive towards her. Her death was caused by my ignorance!

Personally, having pets means you need to have full commitment in living with them.
Once you start to grow up and having jobs and other commitments, you must develop your exit strategy if you think that you can't rear them anymore.
Some will take the easy way by dumping them back in the wild or some public lake/pond garden or even worse...the sewage/drainage system.
You could pass your pet to your younger relatives if they are interested in them.
Yes... these turtle do look cute and exotic while they are still in their baby stage.
They are easy to carry around and look after since they are still small. But as time flies, they will grow up and so does you.
You will have other priorities such as studies, office/works, family etc.
Remember that these pets are also a part of your family and they deserve to be loved and cared unquestionably.
I just hope that others will not be as ignorant as I did to my pet. Farewell.