Urgent Care :: Stiff turtle

[JupoiUrzici]

Hey guys,

One of my turtles has a problem. It won't move. When I take the turtle out of the tank and put her on the floor she will stay in that place for days sleeping with her head leaning forward. In the tank is the same.
I took her to the vet and they've told me that it's RI and started an antibiotics treatment. After 5 days of treatment nothing changed. What could my turtle have?

My turtle weighs ~600g and she is 10 years old. The water temperature is set at 27 degrees Celsius. She eats normal.

[steve]

How much water is in the tank? Does she have a basking area? Where there any other symptoms besides being inactive? What medications are being used?

[JupoiUrzici]

The are ~ 150l in the tank and she has a basking area. I did not notice other symptoms. For me it looks like she is in pain for some reason.
If your asking me for the medication brand, I don't know what kind the vet is using, I only know that it's antibiotics.
I can provide photos of my turtle if you think that would help.

[JupoiUrzici]

It seems that she moves odd on the floor and she puts some serious struggle to move for like 6-8 inches.

[steve]

Was the vet a herp vet? How is her swimming?

[JupoiUrzici]

I have no idea what is a herp vet.
She doesn't swim anymore. For that reason I've moved her into a small basin with shallow water (2-3 inches deep). For what I can tell she has a hard time moving her back legs and also she sleeps with the back legs spreaded to her side (1st photo).
I'll take her tomorrow for an x-ray and i'll also ask to run some blood tests.

a few photos:
http://tinyurl.com/o73gydz
http://tinyurl.com/ohls8xg
http://tinyurl.com/oocpvr3

[steve]

A herp vet is one who specializes in reptiles. The turtle in the picture is a he and in pretty bad shape (shell-wise).

[JupoiUrzici]

So I went to this other vet who is a herp vet. He did examine the turtle very carefully and said that it's definitely RI. He started an antibiotics treatment which is administered in 2 ways: injections and trough inhalation (the turtle stays in a sealed plastic box and some vaporized antibiotics is pumped in for 30 minutes). The vet injected some vitamins as well to help recovery.
At his recommendation I've increased the water temperature to 30 degrees Celsius.
The treatment will go for 7 to 10 days.
After the treatment it's done, i'll post an update (hopefully good news).

Regarding the shell, he did say that it is deformed due to a lack of calcium which occurred sometime in the past. The vet said that it's fine now but he did suggest that it would be good to put some calcium in the tank (he showed me a small piece which is made of calcium and dissolves over time in the water).

[steve]

I'm not sure about the meds through inhalation (or at least using it both ways). I also don't get vitamin injections, seems like vets constantly do this. As for those calcium blocks, they usually contain medications that should not be ingested, so we don't recommend them. Let us know how things progress.

[JupoiUrzici]

Hey,

Over the last week, I left my turtle with the vet, so that she can keep an eye on my turtle. The treatment went well and is over now. After I took back my turtle, she was better (by better I mean that she started to move again and that she did not sleep anymore all the time). Today I've put the turtle again in deeper water to see if she can swim. Surprise: the turtle went down in the water like a brick and after a few minutes she started walking on the bottom of the tank, not swimming. She tried to get some air but didn't manage to rise to the surface of the water. Instead of swimming, she actually tried to push on her back legs to get some air, but again she didn't manage that either. After this I've pulled the turtle out of the water and for now is sitting on the floor.

Tomorrow I'll give it another try with the swimming and if things aren't going well I"ll take the turtle to the vet again.
To be honest, I am a little worried that my RES is not getting better. What more can I do?

[steve]

How long has she been out of water?

[JupoiUrzici]

The turtle was out 6 or so hours. In the last month though she was only in 2 inches deep water.

[JupoiUrzici]

Today, I've put the turtle again in deep water. The RES still went down like a brick, but she did try to swim to get some air a few times. She did struggle to get air, but she managed to do that on her own. For what I can tell for sure is that the turtle can't float.
I've also noticed that her feces are green (it looks like shredded spinach with some tiny eggs inside the feces).
I've called the vet, and she told me that it might be some parasite and I need to take a sample for analyses.

When I'll know more, I'll post the updates.

[steve]

What's her diet been like? Can you put her in shallow water (supervised) and slowly raise it?

[JupoiUrzici]

Hey,
I just wanted to post an update. My turtle is feeling much better, she started moving again. I really don'y know what was the issue, cause the vet couldn't find anything after blood work was done. Anyway I've changed her diet a bit and that might have helped also.

Thanks