Urgent Care :: i think its dieing!!!

[SpotsMama]

I'm sending you and your turtle my positive thoughts.

[koch]

thank you very much.

im not optimist anymore to be honest. im so physically tired coz i wake up during the night to make sure everything is alright.

i have another vet appointment on monday. im scared he will say that it is best to put her down as she may be suffering.

it a difficult situation as i dont know what it exaclty wants, it keeps opening its mouth wide as though he would be screaming if he could.

HELP!!!!

[SpotsMama]

Take a deep breath, clear your mind and get some rest. I know you'll do your best. It's sad that things are so difficult right now but your little turtle is lucky to have someone that cares.

[koch]

Hi everyone

i went to the vet yesterday, and as i dont want the turtle to be put down they gave her an injection. the vet said that i need to go every other day for an injection, and in the mean time i should put a small amount of water in a tub with a drop of glucos powder to stimulate its eating.

this is to be done for three days only, and then to try to feed it meaty stuff.

the vet said that its shell has softened up and so its losing nutrition.

its not looking too hopefull however i feel she is more active now!!!!

any suggestions?

[flutterby]

As for "meaty stuff" you can try boiled chicken breast. But I don't know if thats good for long term.

[marisa]

Just to get him eating, you could try a little canned cat food.

[CountryGirl68]

You need to make sure you have a UVB light for the turtle; I saw you previously posted that you "think" it's UVB. The package for the bulb would specify UVB if it is. The UVB will help your turtle absorb calcium and harden his shell.

[SpotsMama]

A lot of the turtles love fresh shrimp.

[koch]

hi,

the UVB is UVB coz i got it as a package from the nursery. my porblem is that i only have one tank with the UVB and the healthy turtle is in there and i cannot mix the two.

it still hasnt eaten, ive tried prawns into tiny pieces and also dried shrimp, but it just wont open its mouth when she sees the food.

can i just ask is it normal for her to being "playing dead", once in a while it just floats on the water and when you pock it it doesn't move! i come back and then its fine moving about?!?!?!!?

it has its second injection this evening at the vet so i see how that goes.

oh and i bathed it in glucose and water but that didn't help.

[scripta_elegans]

I think maybe switching the UVB light between the two turtles so they each get 12 hours of it might be a good idea. in any case the sick one needs it more than the healthy one right now, so i might try to split the time between them?

[cam722]

I'd agree with scripta_elegans with regards to the sick turtle needs the UVB more than the healthy one. When you feed your turtle you are feeding it in the water right? I've never heard of putting a turtle in a glucose bath.. where did you get that recommendation? Just curious If your turtle is on an antibiotic, sometimes that makes them not want to eat so I've heard. Others can comment on that since I've never had to deal with that situation.

Just as a side note, the fact that you have only one UVB is one of the reasons we recommend that people only get one turtle because of the potential cost of having to set up more than one full and proper habitat for each individual turtle. A lesson some of us had to learn the hard way

[koch]

the vet told me about the glucos bath, yeah i am feedin in water.

i guess i didn't know that about having just one!!

how close the UVB light have to be before its bad or dangerous?

[marisa]

The glucose bath sounds similar to putting the turtle into Pedialyte.

What brand and strength of UVB light is it? Most regular flourescent UVB lights (5% UVB strength) are most beneficial at 6-8 inches away from the basking turtle. You still need to use a light for heat, though (use a regular lightbulb for this).

[koch]

hi

i went to the vet yesterday and gave her another injection. they told me that if it doesn't start eatin then there is no pointo f giving it any more injections!!!

they recommended that i buy live blood worms as the movement initiates them to eat etc. anyway i cannot stand touching things like that so i dont know what excatly to do.

the vet recommended that i should put them both in the same aquarium but with the sick one in a plastic tub like it is on the water. so its floating and the other turtle cannot get to it, but it is still using the UVB light for both.

this morning it didn't look great to be honest. but lets see what happens.

im not sure where to get blood worms either, but ill find out some how.

the regular light bulb wasnt heating up the water when i was using it before.

lets see what happens.

thanks

[CountryGirl68]

Pet stores that sell reptiles usually carry worms. I hate all kinds of insects so when I feed my turtle worms, I use a tweezer to pick one up and drop it in the tank in front of the turtle.