Urgent Care :: Sick res / won't eat

This is not a substitute for qualified and relevant veterinarian care.
Read this before you post a new topic here.

Post Posted: Thu Jan 14, 2021 6:42 pm   Sick res / won't eat

Hey!

Situation is like this.. We've had red eared sliders for 30 years.. Got them when we were kids. They are currently living at my parent's house. Female one passed away couple of years ago. Took it to vet and everything, but she didn't make it. Sad day. May she rest in peace.

Now the male one has stopped eating.. he is not moving much.. mostly eyes closed on the bottom or shallow water. I was a bit shocked and angry when I heard he hasn't eaten for 3 weeks. I took it to vet asap. It's now 4 weeks without eating. (this should have not happened.. but sometimes life just happens) He has swollen eyes, won't keep them open in the water. Left eye is hardly ever open.. the lid (don't know what to call it) the gray part anyway stays on.. sometimes it is half open. Using dexamethasone as medicine. It's almost a week now and no improvements. He also got one muscle shot of antibiotics and so far two doses orally. It looks like it's getting weaker and weaker. It sure is still angry and tries to bite you when assembling medicine.

He is not eating anything. We've tried to feed it with tweezers.. putting the food (small pieces of prawn) as deep as possible without hurting the turtle.. if you poke him with a finger and he tries to bite you... the prawn disappears, but when you put him back in the water he immediately pushes it out. Usually there's lots of air also which comes out as a giant bubble. This only happens if you try to feed him on dry soil with the tweezers. Today vet gave him some medicine which should have weakened the gag reflex but it was no help.

After reading some previous posts.. I today took out the basking area and removed most of the water.. he can still get under the basking light on a rock but in a way he's still half in the water. Water is 29C or so. Don't know if change of environment just adds more stress? Thought behind this was that he wouldn't drown and would mostly stay in warm water.. (to boost those antibiotics) Before limiting the amount of water, he still liked to go on dry land.. sometimes even under the basking light.. but I wasn't sure if he was able to control amount of time under the lamp anymore. Room temperature is 22-24C ish.

Any ideas? Anything I can do? Taking him back to vet tomorrow.. more antibiotics. Not sure if we are going to force feed him with a tube. Taking him to vet ain't easy.. snow and [----] cold outside. :D

Guess I just have to keep my finger crossed and pray he pulls through?
dodie
 
Posts: 1
Joined: Jan 14, 2021

Post Posted: Thu Jan 14, 2021 11:24 pm   Re: Sick res / won't eat

What does the vet think is wrong with your turtle? What was the setup like? (water volume, temperatures, uvb lighting, basking setup, etc)
User avatar
steve
Site Admin
 
Posts: 31430
Joined: Apr 11, 2005
Location: New York, NY
Gender: Male


Return to Urgent Care

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 18 guests