Urgent Care :: baby Slider with RI

[kona1224]

Well its been about a week since I got my two sliders. After I got the turtles home Last sat evening I noticed that one of them had some swollen eyes. Anyway long story short the turtles ended up having an upper respetory infection. This was concluded by my vet. Curently we are taking both turtles in every three days for a total of 10 shots. After two shots I figured the turt would show some signs of improvement but I've had no such luck. I have two basking areas one at about 92-93 and the other at about 88-89 and my water temp is aound 79-80. The one turtle will not eat because his eyes are so swollen that he cannot see the food. About two days ago he ate and seemed to be doing better but now he seems worse. Im just looking for any advice for care for these little guys while they are getting their treatment. I've tried the cod liver oil on his eyes with no success. I just changed their water and am trying adding some aquarium salt (this helps fish out alot) to the tank with the new water.

Both turtles are 1" to 1-1/2"

My setup
90 Gallon
5% UVB
2 basking bulbs and docks
xp3

While there sick how often should I be changing the water?

Feel free to ask questions if you need more info.

Thanks for you time

[cam722]

You can up the water temperature a bit while they are sick. Are you using tap water for the aquarium? If so, maybe the chlorine/chloramine is irriating their eyes? Are there any other symptoms with their eyes, any puss along with it or are they just swollen and dry? As a side note, turtles often will lose their appetite while on antibiotics. You could try hand feeding them some chicken or tuna while they are sick in hopes of enducing them to eat until they are well.

Others will be along to offer opinions and ideas I'm sure.

[kona1224]

thanks for the response, I do use tap water and I've used an additive to take the chlorine out its called stress coat, I use it for my fish tank. Their eyes are swollen and dry no puss that I can see. How long can they go without eating before having problems with it? We have tried the hand feeding with tuna and chicken. The turtle did eat two days ago when his eyes seemed to be a little bit better. Im just worried that he may get to malnurished and it could have a negative effect on the recovery from the RI.

[RESCHIU]

did you try applying some turtle eye drop that could cure Vit. A deficiency?
I hope your turtles will feel better soon

[marisa]

Are the eyes stuck shut? When I first got my RES, he was sick and had swollen eyes. One eye was totally covered with a white film with the other one almost as bad. He basked for days and I'd have to put him in the water to get hydrated and feed him (he would try to eat if Reptomin Baby was held in front of him). Eventually he began rubbing at his eyes and finally when in the water the white coating came off like wet tissue paper. Does this sound anything like what your turtle has?

When you used the cod liver oil, how did you apply it and how long did you try using it?

I'd continue to try hand feeding tiny bits of something smelly in a separate container (water temp the same or a bit higher than the tank water) to keep the water cleaner. You might also try putting some liquid vitamins into the feeding water (you could use the ones for birds or even a children's liquid vitamin, Poly-Vi-Sol, if I'm remembering the name correctly. If your turtle's on meds, especially Baytril, he probably won't want to eat, but should regain his appetite after the injections are finished. But I'd keep trying to get him to nibble on something.

You could raise the water temp to about 82F for a while and see if that doesn't help.

Just curious, but did the vet give them a vitamin A shot? (If not, don't automatically request that they get one.)