So long story short, I became the owner of an official Chinatown red eared slider about three years ago when my sister had to move for a job and was unable to take her turtle with her. Over the last three years, I've lurked on the website here trying to find out how to raise a turtle since I've never been a pet owner before. Fedders has a decent setup: 29 gallon tank, with a heater, UVB lamp, warm basking dock and a rock-free, regulated light timers, glass-bottom tank. He is fed Reptomin floating sticks every other day with the occasional shrimp and tank cleaned every couple weeks. He's always acted very active and pretty normal until about a month ago.
I came home from being away for the weekend and he would barely move. It was like he had turned into a zombie turtle and would just stare into space and he no longer would beg or follow my finger or anything. He would sleep on his basking dock too. He was very lethargic and it was hard to get him to move. I would toss a few food sticks into his tank and he would still eat them. Very rarely, I would witness him blow a bubble out of his nose and yawn. This went on for a few days and I began searching online for what could be wrong and like a sick human browsing Web MD became immediately terrified that Fedders was dying. I took him to a local vet who specializes in reptiles/exotic animals and they did a full check-up including an x-ray and blood work. The vet gave me Baytril to give him every other day along with a laxative because there were several pebbles found inside of him that he must have ingested when my sister had him. He was still pretty lethargic for a few days but would still eat and poop. When the vet called a few days later and said the blood work was fine and he only had a slight calcium deficiency, I was pleasantly surprised. He started to get slowly better and since the vet found nothing wrong, I cut the medicine off the next week. It seemed like for the last week and a half, he was back to his normal turtle self.
I cleaned his tank on Monday night and he was swimming back and forth all over his tank when he got back in. Tuesday afternoon when I got home from work, he was really lethargic again and I noticed he would not stop kicking at his tail, something I had noticed on occasion (but much more rarely) when he was acting strange a few weeks ago. I thought maybe he could have an obstruction but there were two large poops in the tank and since I had just cleaned it, I knew they were fresh. He's also been swiping at his face a lot, even when he's not eating. He wouldn't eat any food sticks or shrimp. He also slept on his dock the last two nights. I came home today and he was basking but got off when I tossed a few food sticks in and he ate them. I've taken him out of his tank and let him walk around and he's been more active than he was in his tank, just like when he was acting strange a few weeks ago. His living conditions are exactly the same as they have been since I've had him. I'm at a loss at this point and really stressed out because of the last month.
A few questions: Would a respiratory infection/pneumonia show up on an x-ray and/or blood work or could the vet had simply missed it? Should I take him back to the vet for another check-up? Should I start him back up on his medication? Should I take his poop up to the vet to get tested? Could he be impacted or constipated and still poop normal-sized turtle poops? Any other suggestions?
A few other tidbits on him. He's around seven-years-old, male and approximately three-and-a half to four-inches. I know his tank is not big enough for him and I have purchased a bigger tank. I'm in the process of house hunting however, so I don't want to set it up until I get into my new place. I am still really worried and I just want him to be back to his normal turtle self. Thank you for your help, it's nice to meet everyone and sorry for the novel. I'm just out of answers and hoping someone can point me in the right direction.
