Urgent Care :: Eye infection and not eating

[jrohr]

I have a slider, about 4 inches. We have had him/ her for only 3 weeks but he has developed an eye infection/ inflammation. This is day 5. He has been basking in this time, almost all the time, with eyes shut, reluctant to open. We saw the vet yesterday. He gave us antibiotic drops for eyes. My concern is that he is not eating. Is there any way to get food into him without stressing him? I am afraid he will get weak and then sicker.
He is in 40 - 50 gallons of water, heated at 80 degrees, pond filter and we have a UV light. He has water lettuce, regular lettuce, pellets, goldfish, rosy red fish to eat. I have never seen him eat anything but a bug couple weeks ago (but think he was eating fish and live plants). I added crickets. He just ignores them as they walk around. Added a vitamin supplement, but he won't eat anything so it doesn't matter.
Initially the water was cool, which maybe why he developed the eye problem. I thought that room temp water was OK with a basking heat lamp. Found out that is not the case with RES and added the water heater. We have a second turtle which is fine and eating like a champ. I want to do something, but not sure what else to do at this point. Help please if you have any experience nursing a turtle back from this. I understand they often do not eat if they have closed eyes, but is there anything I can do?
By the way, he can open his eyes. He just does not seem to very often now.
Thanks for any advise!

[steve]

Did the vet say anything about his weight? Where did he come from? Are the turtles kept together? Did they get along? Has there been any change since the medication?

Two things I would try.
1 - Some cod liver oil on the eyes.
2 - Get a small plastic container, just big enough to hold him. Add 50% water and 50% Pedialyte (unflavored) and let him soak and drink. If this works, try leaving in some crumbs of pellets, so that him might drink some in.

I should mention:
1 - Keep the turtles separate.
2 - Look into using a good turtle pellet
3 - Do not leave his side when he is in the small container. If he flips over, he might drown.

[jrohr]

Yesterday evening after work, he had his eyes open for a while and was milling about in the pond! I don't know that this is enough to really conclude that he is on the recovery path, but it is encouraging. Later he basked and kept eyes closed. I did not see him eat, though he did poo so it seems he must have eaten something.

The vet took his weight but did not seem concerned. Both turtles were purchased at a local garden center, I am not certain where their turtles come from. They do not often have them though. The turtle with the eye issue we call Chip. He was in trauma in the past, a chip is missing out of the edge of his shell and you can see where the shell was cracked and had healed, the bottom too, cracked in the past but healed. The vet did comment on that. It seems it happened some time ago but healed ok. I do wonder what happened to the poor guy to cause that, what his background is. The two turtle were together when we got them. They get along very well.

I will see how he is doing this morning. We have a plastic container we have been placing him in to administer the eye drops and can make that work for Pedialyte. How long do you think I should wait around the medicated eye drops to apply the cod liver oil? Jut thinking I don't want to wash out the meds. My daughter loves these guys, is out of school for summer and will help me out so Chip is not unattended.

Thanks for the helpful input. I will keep you posted.

[steve]

With the cod liver oil, it can be applied when out of water but if there is an improvement, I would wait before using it.

[jrohr]

Update on Chip -
This morning he had his eyes open and was eating one of the bigger fish! I didn't think the turtles could eat the larger ones and there are still plenty of small ones. And Chip is the smaller turtle! I am so glad he seems to be feeling better and is eating again.

[steve]

Great to hear!