Urgent! Sick turtle - we need your expertise Painteds4Life!!!

[on:]

There are two baby red eared sliders at the pet shop right now, and one seems totally happy, but the other is having problems. He just wants to sleep under the heat lamp all day and wont eat and seems weak when he is in the water. He also seems to float - he has a hard time getting to the bottom of the tank. What's going on with him? What can we do to help? I don't think we have a turtle vet here...

[Reply #1 on:]

I'm definitely not a turtle expert but here are some links that might help:

http://en.allexperts.com/q/Turtles-3543/red-eared-slider-2.htm Regarding the temperature he needs to be kept at. He might be getting cold.

I also read something saying that baby turtles seem to "float" because they're not good at swimming yet. Not sure if this is true. And I don't even know if your slider is a baby.

I couldn't really find much...  Hopefully Painteds is on soon. Good luck and it might be worthwhile to quarantine him for now.

[Reply #2 on:]

thats never what you wanna hear that the turtle is sleeping all the time and it floats. Does he lean to one side while swimming? Does he have bubbles or discharge coming from noes or act like its breathing from mouth?

To me it sounds like a respiratory infectionn which can accelerate to pneumonia quickly, and will usually be fatal.


Thing you can do to help: You can see if you can seperate the turtles, because just like humans colds can spread, Raise The temperature of the water to 85 degrees, keep the enclosure very clean.

Thats the best I can offer and if things dont change it really does need vet medical care.

[Reply #3 on:]

Alright, thank you both. There is an empty tank next to him that is still set up for turtles. We`ll set him up in there.

He`s looking a little better. My boyfriend has red eared sliders and he said that it might be constipated, so we gave him extra veggies and I think he ate some of it. He has one foot that doesnt seem to work very well, but today he is swimming better and not floating so much. And no, he doesn`t breath from his mouth or tip to one side... He just seems to have problems moving around in the water.

Any suggestions as to what to feed him? I`m doing a bit of research online...

[Reply #4 on:]

Just to be sure raise the temp and everything still like i said, turtles will do there best to hide there sick.

For food the pellets work fine, but only feed the amount that could fit in there head if it was hollow, and provide Romaine lettuce and kale as much as they want. Also the dried shrimp which is more of a snack but that usually can get a turtle to eat if its having trouble feeding.

[Reply #5 on:]

Just a quick update (forgot this was here!)

I increased the temp, and he seemed to like that and got better quite fast, returning to his normal self. He, and his brother, have since been sold, and this particular store is nice enough to inform people looking at getting turtles that they have a lot of needs, so most go to knowledgable and understanding homes.

[Reply #6 on:]

I always like happy ending, thats good to hear ^^

[Reply #7 on:]

Paranormal, just wondering if this little guy ever found a home

[Reply #8 on:]

Yes, I believe he is now a happy pond turtle