Hey everyone. I was hoping for some guidance or general advice. I will just post what has been going on with my turtle and hopefully someone knows better than I do. Please feel free to be very blunt and honest as to anything done wrong here so I may change it promptly.
Turtle has eaten Wardley Reptile Sticks for as far back as I can remember. Over a decade for sure. 12-15 sticks per day. Not sure if this is overfeeding, but he always put them down like he was starving every time. Almost 3 weeks ago, I stupidly did not order more of his food in time ( can't find these in stores anymore ) and the shipping time was about a week. I didn't want to let him go a week without eating so I bought something similar at store "All Living Things" brand reptile sticks. He ate them normally. But 2 days on this I noticed after feeding him these, a TERRIBLE odor came from the tank. I don't know if it was some chemical in the food reacting to the water or what, but I stopped giving it to him and waited another 3-4 days before his regular Wardley sticks arrived. I gave those to him and he ate them no problem. Then for some reason the next day he didn't want to eat. I had to clean all the sticks out of the water after an hour because he hadn't touched them. Another couple days went by, and he wouldn't eat, and he became very sluggish. No excited swimming, wouldn't even look at the food, just sat on his rock looking kind of depressed. I looked up online a few things and one thing I found was to raise the temp of the water. He normally always sits at 78-82-degree water so I pumped up the radiator in the room and got him to about 88-90 degrees. A few days of this did nothing except produce abnormally large bowel movements. So I figured that brief food change I did constipated him. He still remained sluggish and sad looking however, and still wouldn't eat, even after all the bowel movements. I made an appt for the vet but no one could see him for another 5 days after this. So I just kept his temp warm and everyday tried to put one food stick in and he wouldn't even look at it.
Also during this week and half period of problems, his eyes appeared to be foggy, on and off. They appeared to be irritated almost like if you have been in the pool too long. He would sometimes close them more often than not and always rub them with his arms.
I should add that I moved 8 months ago to a different state. The water where I live is extremely hard and full of chlorine. So something new that I never had to do before, is use water conditioner before adding the water to his tank. I use Reptisafe brand by zoomed. It has dechloraminating agent, synthetic organic polymers (colloids), chelating agent, and electrolytes in it. Removes ammonia and chlorine and stimulates slime coat. I also treat the water once a week with a little bit of Biological Turtle Cleaner by ExoTerra brand for reducing and controlling odors and organic waste.
The vet today said the following things:
He needs a bigger tank because his shell is wrinkled. (See photos) He is currently in a 30LX12HX12W tank which has been his home for over 15 years.
I was feeding him too much.
I need to clean the water and filter weekly. ( I cleaned the water every couple months and the filter every 4-5 months. The filter is designed for a tank/amount of water twice as much as what he is in so everything always appeared extremely clean and never seemed like it needed that much cleaning).
I need to try feeder fish to get him excited to eat again?
I should have a heater lamp to go along with what I already have (a underwater heater and uva and uvb reptile lamp that stays on 8-12 hours per day).
She also said all this might be his age catching up with him because these aren't supposed to live that long? Not sure I buy that. I have talked to other turtle owners with old sliders, even a guy on a forum one time said his was 45 years old.
Anyway here is a link to pictures of his eyes and shell as close and clear as I could get.
http://imgur.com/a/zW959Thank you for your time and consideration in this matter.