Urgent Care :: Is it RI or brain damage?

[Pavitra]

I have two RES, have had them for about 8 years. Yesterday I changed the water in their tank.

I don't know if the water might have been too cold but I found the bigger one upside down on the bottom of the tank, unconscious. I flipped her over and she seemed to swim away just fine. The littler one has been active, swimming around, basking, eating voraciously, no problems. The water in there now is about 72 degrees.

A couple hours ago I found the bigger one on the bottom of the tank again, not moving, and lying there in a way that I knew wasn't normal for her. When I tapped the glass she tried to swim up and she landed hard back on the bottom and bubbles came out of her mouth. I pulled her out right away, she peed on me, closed her eyes and then went entirely limp, to where I thought she was dead.

She tries to move every few minutes and then it seems like she's so tired or her muscles won't work and she just puts her head back down. My husband told me last night the littler one was nipping at the heels of the bigger one like it knew something was wrong.

I'm going to keep her quarantined and warm. She is starting to perk up more, managed to scratch me when I checked on her, but still seems to wear out so fast - I'm worried about a respiratory infection or that she may have temporarily drowned and then got brain damage. I wonder about the latter because she seems to have no muscle tone now and her movements are somewhat jerky. She has taken a few steps but then again wears out and just wants to lie there.

This is so hard to see in her when she's normally so feisty and she's the one you'd have to worry about biting your fingers off. I can tell she still has the fight in her, but she doesn't have the strength - she perks her head up when I come over like Mommy, please make me better.

The clinic where we usually go says they don't have anyone available today, and I don't know who else might be able to help. Should I wait until my vet's herp doc is back in the office tomorrow or should I keep looking for someone to take care of this today?

[TheComputerGremlin]

If she regularly sees someone you trust, I'd wait the extra day. If there is no open mouth breathing yet, I doubt it's an RI, at least one in an advanced stages. It sounds like she has some other problems, though.

If you have a small container, keep it filled only about a shell's worth full and keep her in there, that way she doesn't have to become fatigued swimming up to breathe. You should also keep a very close eye on her to make sure she doesn't get flipped back over again. She may have suffered some brain injury, but don't let that idea cloud your thoughts and maybe miss another important symptom.

[Pavitra]

I've made an appointment for tomorrow afternoon. It's the soonest they could get her in... all the other places I called, same thing, but I'd have to wait even longer.

I'm keeping her in a small tub, had her in some shallow warm water earlier but now now. Should I keep her in water constantly or just soak her periodically - I don't want to make things worse. I've never had a sick turtle before and everything I read just says see a vet, but not much on what to do until you can actually make that happen.

[Pavitra]

Small update: She's been sleeping a lot in her little tub the past few hours and every time she wakes up, seems more alert, looking around. I put her in a small container with warm water just now to help her rehydrate and warm up.

Her color looks better, especially in her eyes, but one of them is a little gooey, my amateur guess is eye infection. But her muscle tone's improving too - she had limbs like a newborn baby when all this came down and now she's jerking her feet back if I gently squeeze her toes. Her breathing seems better too.

[SpotsMama]

How frightening! I sure hope she continues to improve.

I agree that you did the right thing to wait until she can be seen by a herp vet. She's not showing the typical RI symptoms though that could be the root problem.

As an 8 year old female, I would assume she lays eggs from time to time. Is it possible she's having difficulty with eggs?

If she's had a near drowning experience, the vet may want to administer antibiotics to prevent RI or pneumonia from developing in her lungs.

I can't think of anything for you to do now other than what you're doing. Just keep her warm and very clean, avoid stress.

Good luck. Please keep us posted.

[Pavitra]

Thanks... she's continuing to gain her strength back. She was walking around the tub I have her in this morning looking up like hey, anyone gonna let me out of here?

Her hiss still doesn't sound right so I'm keeping the vet appointment.

I thought of the egg problem too. I did find a couple of eggs for the first time at the bottom of the tank not too long ago. I've since read up on providing a place for turtles to lay eggs and I'm going to put that into practice - don't want her to become egg-bound, that sounds agonizing.

Her tank mate is also female so I'm not sure which one of them laid the eggs. Nevertheless, will have to give both of them the same time out of the tank to do that. But her roomie still seems to be doing great so hopefully if she has something contagious I got her out of there before it spread.

[SpotsMama]

If you suspect an egg-bound problem, ask the vet to x-ray her. Eggs would show up in an x-ray.

Glad she's getting stronger.

[Pavitra]

The vet thinks it's an infection too - he noticed a couple small areas where her tank mate had nipped her and thinks something got in that way. Gave us 10 doses of antibiotics we have to inject into her butt once a day.

When DH put her back in the tank ("because the vet said it was okay" - never mind that I had said to WAIT until we had a water heater to make sure the water was warm enough) she sank to the bottom gagging and gasping. So she's remaining in quarantine. Vet said he's pretty sure the infection is not contagious so at least we don't have to worry about her tank mate.

We've also found out the basking ramps we got were disintegrating Threw those out - I've since found something else that we might be able to use instead. We also cleaned out the water again to make sure there aren't any more toxins. I also got the heater for the tank and letting it do its job.

[Pavitra]

Another little update... Honu (the one who's been sick) is on the mend again. After waiting a couple days I put her back in the tank this morning after getting the water temp to between 75-80 degrees.

She is really doing good in there, ate a little bit and so far Tortuga's not nipping at her. The vet had worried that Tortuga was aggressive towards Honu and that's why things went down like they did, but I think she only nipped at Honu a couple nights ago due to being freaked out over Honu being sick.

We're continuing to give the antibiotics, it'll probably be about another week before those are done.

[marvonio]

Your information has given me hope for Myrtle (see "paraplegic Myrtle" in this forum)...She's in quarantine and we're hoping for the best! Thanks...