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I think my turtle is sick. He may have RI. I woke up to turn on the basking light, and he was "basking" with no light, eyes closed, legs stretched out. When i turned on the light, a few minutes later, he dived to the bottom of the tank, was in his shell eyes closed and just sat there. He was doing this practiclly half the day, yesterday. 5 min later he started swimming opening and closeing his eyes, They look really puffy & swollen. No pus. I put him in a temporary container to feed him, and i left him in there. Do you think he has RI? Please help. Thanks. Oh, and the temp of the water is 78 i don't hsve the basking temp yet.

Also, he doesn't open his eyes all the way. You kno how when they open the eye, you see the pupil then the green all around it? Well you could only see the green part at the top and half of the pupil. For a couple days now he has been haveing his eyes half closed like this.

Knowing the basking temp is very important. Get a thermometer if you haven't already. Basking temp should be 10 degrees warmer than the water.

Does he have any mucous coming from the nose or mouth? Is he eating? Is he lethargic or swimming lopsided? These are all signs of RI. You'll want to start looking for a herp vet too.

Should i put pebbles in less water? Like 2 inches?

Not unless he's having trouble swimming/getting to the surface for air.

Does he have any mucous coming from the nose or mouth? Is he eating? Is he lethargic or swimming lopsided? These are all signs of RI. You'll want to start looking for a herp vet too.

He has no mucus coming from the nose or mouth. He is eating, he just ate this morning. He isn't swimming lopsided.... Then what could be wrong... I'm going to search for herp vets. Bubbles. When he goes in the water, he lets out lots of bubbles.

Could just be an eye problem then. Do you use water conditioner? If not, the chlorine in the water could be irritating his eyes. If it's not that, it could be a vitamin deficiency.

Yea i do use a conditioner. It's NovAqua + Water Conditioner. What should i get for a vitiman defecency?

I think i'll get the turtle eye drops, i'll see if that helps.

As far as treating the vitamin deficiency, wait for someone more experienced to chime in on that. Most common is vit A. I remember marisa saying something about cod liver oil. Do a search on this site for Vitamin A or Cod Liver Oil and that should bring up some threads.

Is he rubbing his eyes at all? You could get some plain cod liver oil (get the capsules) and break one, put the oil on a q-tip and apply a little to the lids. Do this once or twice a day for several days. If it's a Vit A deficiency, you should see some improvement.

The thing is when i pick him up, most of the time he opens his eyes... In this case should i just put the oil around his eyes?

Yea he rubs his eyes in and out of water.

When they rubb at their eye does it mean it itches or what?

If his eyes are puffy and swollen and he's rubbing at them, something could be irritating them. He could have a bacterial infection in them. He could have a Vit A deficiency. It could also be the start of an RI. Even a combination of these possibilities.

I'd raise the water temp a bit to about 80-81F as well as make the basking area temp a bit higher as well. You could try the cod liver oil (I think he'll close his lids when they're touched).

Is he eating at all?