Urgent Care :: Puffy skin

[penguinking6289]

My RES has this puffy like over layer of skin on his front hands they kinda look like bubbled up skin or a blister does anyone know what this is? It kinda looks like his whole arm is shedding in one big piece?

[Vtolds]

a picture might help some of us.

[penguinking6289]

[SpotsMama]

How are his eyes? Any swelling, irritation, tendency to keep them closed?

[penguinking6289]

yes

[penguinking6289]

he keeps them closed alot and seems to always be scratching at them

[SpotsMama]

One of the symptoms of vitamin a deficiency is wide scale sloughing of skin and irritated eyes. You can provide vitamin a by getting some cod liver oil and putting a little on a q tip and dabbing it on your turtle's eye lids. You can also soak some pellets in cod liver oil and feed a few to your turtle several times a week.

However, whatever the problem is - vitamin a deficiency or something else - it's quite advanced in your turtle and he needs to be seen by a vet. If the vet says it's a vitamin a deficiency and wants to give your turtle a vitamin a injection, please be sure the vet is confident of the dosage. Several turtles on here have died recently when given vitamin a injections that were apparently too strong. If the vet thinks it would be possible to treat a vitamin a deficiency (if indeed that's what it is) with food supplements and eye drops then that would be good. However, your turtle may need something stronger like an injection since his symptoms are so extreme. The vet will need to be the judge.

Good luck. You need to get him in right away. Let us know how it goes.

[marisa]

Whether or not there is a deficiency, there is a good possibility that a fungus is involved here as well.

How long has he had this? I'm seeing some white patches on the carapace, which doesn't look very clean to me...From the little I see of the eyes, they don't look really swollen. It would be best to have him looked at, however.

How big is he?
What size tank is he in?
How much water is in it?
How often do you clean the tank and change the water?
Do you have correct lighting for him (UVB light and a heat source)? Does he bask?
What are you using for a filter?

[steve]

Is his arm sensitive? Is the skin hard?

Can you answer some of these questions?

http://www.redearslider.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2142