Urgent Care :: help me with my sliders, please

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Post Posted: Sun Feb 26, 2006 2:50 pm   help me with my sliders, please

I was so excited when my hubbie brought home two three week old sliders. We we out and bought a 20 gallon tank, with filter, water heater, and set up the tank with about half water then an area for them to climb to bask with the UVB light in the tank with no glass covering the light. we did not set up a seperate light for basking until about a week ago and it has been a month, and we are just using a desk lamp with 60 watt bulb. the water is consistantly at 80. my sliders were attempting to eat after the first days then they just stopped. from what i can tell they haven't eaten then for weeks. i have tried to pry their mouths open to force feed them but no success. we have been trying baby shrimp, and the pellets. Then they started to show some swelling in one eye on each of them. i did put a little neosporin on them and it looked better. they have just been basking all the time. well this morning one of them died. the other looks bad and i have already spent 200 on the tank and set up so going to a vet really is not possible right now. what can i try before the other meets the same demise.
lillie
 
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Post Posted: Sun Feb 26, 2006 3:09 pm   

If you can't take him to a vet it's doubtful the remaining turtle will make it if it's showing the same signs of sickness that the other turtle showed.

You can try a bit of cooked chicken to entice the remaining turtle to eat. Remember that turtles eat underwater so make sure that your feeding attempts are while the turtle is in the water.

I hope the little guy makes it. Look around the site and make sure you have everything needed for a healthy habitat to see if there are any improvements you can make on your part.
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buffyfan9005
 
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Post Posted: Sun Feb 26, 2006 4:11 pm   

What is the water temperature? The water temp for hatchlings should be 78 but I'd turn the heater up a little while he is sick to about 80-81, and the basking temp should always be about 10 degrees higher than the water temp. Upping the temps will help kick in his natural immune system. But without vet intervention the other will probably have a long hard struggle to recover if he is even able to.

What are some other symptoms that he is showing? Lop-sided swimming, open mouth breathing etc?

I'm sorry for your loss and wish you luck with your other baby.
Last edited by sonyj on Sun Feb 26, 2006 10:06 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Post Posted: Sun Feb 26, 2006 6:55 pm   

Sorry to hear the news. It sounds like the poor things were already ill when you got them.
You might try applying some plain cold liver oil to the lids with a q-tip for a few days. If he's lacking Vit A, it should help.

Since he's so small, it's unlikely that a herp vet would be able to treat the remaining baby (or want to). But I'd try to find one anyway, you never know.

Keep the remaining one warm, as recommended above (I'd even go a degree or two higher with the water temp for a while), and keep trying to get him to eat. You could try feeding him in a separate container and add some liquid vitamins to the feeding water (childrens or ones
for birds will work).
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