Urgent Care :: PLEASE HELP RED EARED SLIDER IN DESPERATE CONDITION

[christy]

hello, completely new to turtles, and we just found one in a small tank very abused, set out to die by the dumpster, in horrible smelly water, its been eating i guess freeze dried KRILL, i might not know too much, but that doesnt sound right, and this thing must be near death. its scared to death,and we dont know what to do for the poor guy, the tank he came in is a cheesey plastic "turtle tank" that appears to be entirely to small, he or she is about 7-8 inches long from head to tail. and i did discover its a red eared slider. i tried feedin it some dandilion leaves and a grape, it wont eat so far. unfortunately, we dont have means to get a bigger tank at the moment, just found him tonight. want to know what i can do right now to help keep it comfortable and what it might possibly find irresitable to eat. PLEASE HELP, we have a soft spot for abused and mistreated animals and we would love to try and save him. Everything short of a vet, we cant afford that for a few weeks. also, the poor thing smells horrible because of the water he was in, very nasty!! anything safe to clean his shell with? Regular water just aint cutting it!

[untsmurf]

Get a soft toothbrush and gently scrub his shell. That should clean him right up. If it doesn't get clean, he might have shell rot.

For the tank, you can but him in a rubbermaid tub until you can get him a tank, pond, stock tank, or whatever you can manage. Just make sure he has something to get out of the water to dry off. And put a light over that (the basking area) to raise the temp about 10 degrees. Until you can get him a UVB bulb, you can take him outside for that. Just watch him so he doesn't run off.

You can get some turtle pellets (Mazuri and Reptomin are the best). To get him to eat them, try soaking them in tuna juice. They also really like sweet potatoes.

The main site has tons of info, so give that a quick read through for starters.

[octpusgirl8]

Oh dear, poor thing! I'm glad you found him! The most important thing right now would be to find some kind of container that would allow him to swim a little bit and get some clean water. Get him a tank ASAP of course, but for tonight a big plastic storage bin or something similar would do the trick. You can use a paper towel or a soft toothbrush (gently!) to clean the shell. He might not eat tonight, i'm sure he's pretty upset over everything that's been going on. Tunafish might entice him to eat a bit, but don't worry if he won't eat tonight. Read up on all the basic care and habitat info on www.redearslider.com if you haven't already, it's a great place to start learning about turtle care.