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Hi all,

Last night my wife noticed that one of my Yellow Bellied Sliders is squeaking when he breathes. My first assumption is that this is a respiratory infection. Everything else about him is normal, he is swimming normally, behaving as he usually does and has an appetite.

Please help me positively identify the problem and figure out exactly what to do next. I also need to know how to protect the second slider he shares the tank with from getting infected.

Lastly, if I need to take him to a vet, this would be the first time - and I don't know a good turtle vet in the Manhattan area who is accessible without a car (MTA trains only). Could anybody help me?

Best,

-MVB

FYI - the tank is set to 80 degrees, the turtle is about 16 months old, the basking area temperature I'm not so sure about, but it's a fairly new mega-ray and a turtle topper, so I assume it's as it should be OK?

The tank size is 55 gal, Mordin is aroung 3.5 inches (as is the other turtle Pinkman), Sunsun 150 gallon filtration, eheim jager heater.

I just set the water heat to about 83-85 degrees before leaving for work, as people have said this may help.

I forgot to mention his diet - mainly pellets and leaves. I give them reptomin sticks, flukers buffet mix (contains dried river shrimp & mealworms), occasionally river shrimp as a treat, and leaves every day, mainly romaine. I do mix it up occasionally for variety and give them a dried grasshopper or something. No live prey though.

Was he doing this while basking for a long time? Was the squeaking more of a croaking sound?

It was like a chirp. I actually heard it last night myself and couldn't figure out where it was coming from. I thought it sounded like a smartphone game sound effect.

My wife noticed he was the source after I went to bed. This morning I confirmed it myself. His breathing omits a high pitched chirping noise. If you hold a hand over him, you can feel the breath as you hear the chirp.

It isn't when he's basking, it's whenever he surfaces above water. He often swims up to see me, or sleeps with his nose poking out of the water - that's when you hear it.

I haven't seen bubbles, mucous, lopsided swimming or any other indicator of RI. Could he just have a leaf-fragment stuck up his nose or something?

Right now I'm thinking about holding off on taking him to the vet until I have something more conclusive to go on. He's only exhibiting one symptom of RI, so I don't want to stress him out unnecessarily. Does this sound like a reasonable response?

Is he overweight? I'd go as far as say that this isn't a real symptom of RI... others with healthy RES have experienced something similar. Of course keep a close look out for other symptoms and look up vets just in case you will need to use them.

I sometimes hear the chirping noise when my surfaces after long swims or when she's tired from all that begging she does
I'd say just wait for a few days and see what happens.

Hi all,

Steve, he's definitely not overweight, no. But that's where I landed, I decided to wait it out and the next day, the squeaking stopped. So I figured it was nothing... though it DID start up today again. I've been watching him closely however, and seeing as there are no other symptoms, I'm thinking it's just a strange thing he does.

Not totally strange but it does seem to stop eventually.

Hi guys,

This has been happening periodically since I first posted about it here, but I've not seen anything else to indicate that he had RI.

Last night though, he was squeaking louder than usual. When I went over to the tank, I saw him opening and closing his mouth, which isn't something I've seen him do before. I lifted him out of the water, and he opened his mouth VERY wide as I lifted him. Is that a symptom of RI?

This morning he was squeaking a bit, but it seems to have subsided yet again. I don't know if this is something I should do something about.

I have not seen it as a stand alone symptom of RI. Sometimes they open their mouth when lifted as an aggressive gesture. Did he retract in his shell a bit? If it still concerns you, then you might want to consult a vet. A prescription of antibiotics probably wouldn't hurt.