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I got this baby turtle for about half-a-year, everthing was going on fine and he ate a lot and liked to move around.But 2 days ago, he suddenly refused to eat and started to stay on the rock for a long time. And yesterday, he seems to have trouble breathing, like having the hiccups and was puffing up once every few secs! But his nose doesn't seems to be block! Plx help!!

Hi, I am STRAYKINGFISHER, You can call me STRAY, I have two turtles of my own for about 8 or 9 months now, your turtle sounds like it has what is called RI, Respiratory Infection, or pneumonia, it needs to see the vet as soon as possible, your turtle could die from RI, I hope your turtle gets better

Definetly sounds like RI. Get to the vet asap. Until then, separate him if he is living with another turt. Bump the water temp up to 80..higher temp will help him fight the illness. He will need to see a vet to beat this. Good luck, and let us know how it goes.

Here is two link to herp vets, one is for the U.S. and the other if for other countries:

U.S.: http://www.arav.org/USMembers.htm (Click on your state)

WORLD: http://www.arav.org/WorldMembers.htm (Click on your country)


I hope that helps.

Until you get him to a vet, keep him out of any drafts and breezes. I'd keep him even a bit warmer--about 82F for the water temp (does he have a water heater to keep the water at a constant temp?) and around 90-91F for the basking area temp. Don't delay getting him to a herp vet. He may need antibiotics to kill the infection.

Thx~apart from keeping him warm,is there anything i can give him to eat,coz he hadn't ate for few days!

also wht usually cause RI on turtles? is it the water or temperature change?so i can try to prevent the other one catching it...

The best way to prevent the other one from getting sick is to separate them. Turtles usually won't eat when they're sick, so don't worry about that. He can go quite a while without food. Have you seen or talked to a vet?

Keeping the water temp. constant will help in preventing R.I., also monitor the basking temp., make sure that it is about 95 deg., if the basking temp. is not hot enough for the turtle, it may decide that coming out to bask is not worth the effort and stay in the water, also sudden drafts will play a part in R.I.

Cool drafts, breezes, water temps that are too cool all can contribute to RIs. If you want to try to get him to eat, you could try feeding him in a separate pan of warm water (temps like those suggested above). You could also try putting a little liquid vitamins in in the feeding water (children's vitamins are supposed to be OK) so he gets some nourishment. Try really smelly foods. A turtle that's sick and hasn't eaten in a while sometimes will "forget" how to eat and needs something with a strong smell to get him going again (tuna rinsed in water, boiled white chicken meat, bits of sardines in water, things of that nature).

He didn't make it.... The medicine didn't help much, and he died today...

so sorry for your loss

Best wishes from Tampa - its easy to get attached to the little ones.

My condolences Serena

I am sorry for your loss, I wish it would've turned out better.