Urgent Care :: RI Home care?? URGENT

[Cinlou]

Hello,

Well......looks like one of my turtles has a respitory infection!! Has all the symptomes. We took them out of the tank a few days back to clean it all out so I guess he must have caught a draft or something (could also be from a change in diet as we've realized lately that we were over feeding them and so now we don't feed them as much)

Now I know that a vet is always a better option but with my husband out of a job ....we unfortunately just don't have $120 to spend on turtle shots right now.

Besides putting the heat up in the tank (which we did) is there something else I can do? Vitamin drops of some kind?? Is there any kind of home remedy?

He is sneezing and breathing with his mouth opened and he has mucus around his mouth and he seems sleepier than usual but he still does get up and swim around and he is swimming normally and he is still eating but not as much..... he also seems to have lost weight.

My other dilema is that I have another turtle in with him and I do not want that one to get sick too but I am not sure how I can go about separating them as we are only equiped with one tank (water heater, lights etc..)

PLEASE I need help! Does the poor little guy have a chance? Is there something I can do for him? How can I save the other one without exposing it to cold etc.....?????????????????????????????????????????

Thank you
Cinlou

[RyanJ]

Without a vet visit and the required antibiotics, I'm not sure if he can make it, sorry to say. As far as isolating the sick turtle, you can make a temporary habitat from a Rubbermaid tub, 50 gallon would be best (not sure if they make them bigger than that). I hope someone has better advice, sorry. Good luck!

[megcornell]

If he's already showing mucus around his mouth, that's a pretty advanced sign of RI.

Your best bet really is a vet.

If you can't get him to a vet, keep him as warm as possible. Lower the water level if he has trouble swimming, sick turtles fatigue easily. If you have a second turtle, separate them ASAP as RIs are very contagious. Finally, do everything you can to keep him eating, even if it means feeding him tuna. Sick turtles need to keep eating to have a chance at recovery- they need all the help they can get.

While it's not "impossible" for a turtle to recover from an RI unaided, it is very difficult. Good luck.

[TheComputerGremlin]

Put the healthy turtle in the make-shift rubbermaid, they'll be able to handle the temp fluctuations better.

As for the vet, you can try to talk to a vet about a payment plan or a lowered cost. Considering all your turtle needs is antibiotics, you may be able to get them just to give you the shot. It's fairly obvious that the turtle has an RI, so it won't take an extensive exam. You don't need X rays, you don't need a vitamin shot (as they are often fatal in turtles, unless the vet really really thinks you need it).

[RyanJ]

ComputerGremlin has a good point, you know what your turtle has wrong with it and what it needs, so you could just get the necessary anti-biotics from a vet without the exam.