Urgent Care :: Is my turtle sick? (pictures provided)

[albobear]

Can anyone tell me if there is anything wrong with my turtles by looking at these pictures? thankyou

http://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i211/ ... ngbo1a.jpg
http://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i211/ ... ngbo2a.jpg
http://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i211/ ... ungbo3.jpg

[steve]

Poor little guy. He looks like he has an abscess and some sort of bruise or sore. I'm not sure about the shell rot, but there is definitely something going on. I would keep him separate from the other turtle, keep the water at 82F and get him to the best herp vet you can find.

[marisa]

Not sure about the dark spot, but the areas you pointed out look like it could be a fungus.

[CountryGirl68]

Definitely get your turtle to a herp vet and, like Steve said, you should keep him away from your other turtle or they can both get sick.

[albobear]

Thank you for your replies. I noticed today that the spot on the corner of his mouth is opened up.... i can actually see a hole in it

I booked an appointment with a vet but it's not until next week's saturday... is there anything I can do in the meantime to ease his pain?

[GPRenegade]

Im no expert but you might want to try sulfa dip, if it is a fungal infection your vet may reccomend it anyway. (You might consider making this a Bi-Weekly routine in the future to prevent external disease and infection.) This may or nay not help the shell.

Does the turtle have a good basking spot? Have you observed it basking enough? My turtle had somthing similar on its shell early on and I found out it was uncomfortable with it's basking spot and spent too much time in the water... It needs to be able to dry off.

[missibsu]

I wouldn't use the sulfa dip until it is recommended by the vet. In some cases it could actually do more harm than good. Until the appt, bumped the water temp up a few degrees. Keep the water really clean. If it looks infected, red or oozy, you could use some neosporin on the spot. Let him sit out of the water for about a half hour to absorb. Best of luck on the vet visit...he's in my thoughts!

[zuse]

One of my turtles had that when I first got it. It was like a "zit" like thing on the back of his neck and beside his eye. I got the little "seed" like thing out, and his eye and neck have healed and been wonderful ever since.



You can see the one on the bottom has a red area around his eye. With my fingernail I sort of brushed away something from the wrinkled eyelid area that looked like what you get when on human skin you have a clogged pore, and his eye has been fine ever since. The one on his neck scabbed over and healed after I did the same thing. He's doing great. (The one on top had other issues, though, and didn't make it).

[albobear]

I went to the vet today and the doctor told me that there isn't anything severe about my turtle's sickness, but rather my turtle has some vitamin deficiency. He injected some vitamin A orally to my turtle, and has informed me to buy some vitamin supplements.

Does anyone have recommendations for vitamin supplements? Should I get multi-vitamins or buy vitamins seperately?

Oh, and he also mentioned for me to get a water heater to up the temperature to 80 degrees Farenheit. Are there any heaters out there that might not be a good choice for turtles (in terms of safety)?

[marisa]

You vet didn't recommend anything? For reptiles, one good one is Herptivite by RepCal (who also makes a powdered calcium supplement that's quite good). The supplement contains beta carotene rather than Vit A, which your turtle can convert to Vit A without the danger of toxicity (too much Vit A can cause problems). This is a powder, which will fall off in the water, but you could moisten the pellets you give him, coat them with the powder, let them dry so the powder sticks to them and then give them to your turtle (or, handfeed your turtle the moistened pellets dipped in the powder if he will eat from your hand).

For turtles that are ill and have difficulty eating, some people have used Poly-Vi-Sol liquid vitamins (for infants and children) in containers of water that they feed their turtles in (don't just add it to the tank water) as well as liquid vitamins for birds.

I would try the Reptivite, since it's made for reptiles.

It would also be good to vary your turtle's diet more so he gets more nutrients from the food he's eating.

[marisa]

You vet didn't recommend anything? For reptiles, one good one is Herptivite by RepCal (who also makes a powdered calcium supplement that's quite good). The supplement contains beta carotene rather than Vit A, which your turtle can convert to Vit A without the danger of toxicity (too much Vit A can cause problems). This is a powder, which will fall off in the water, but you could moisten the pellets you give him, coat them with the powder, let them dry so the powder sticks to them and then give them to your turtle (or, handfeed your turtle the moistened pellets dipped in the powder if he will eat from your hand).

For turtles that are ill and have difficulty eating, some people have used Poly-Vi-Sol liquid vitamins (for infants and children) in containers of water that they feed their turtles in (don't just add it to the tank water) as well as liquid vitamins for birds.

I would try the Reptivite, since it's made for reptiles.

It would also be good to vary your turtle's diet more so he gets more nutrients from the food he's eating.

[albobear]

Thanks for the reply Marisa. I bought the ReptiCal multivitamins, and man do they ever produce a foul smell when mixed with the food! I think I might start feeding them in a seperate container, because the vitamin powder really dirtys the water.

Oh yeah... and about the dosage, how often should I use the multivitamin powder? I'm assuming atleast 1 pellet with multivitamins per day.

[marisa]

A separate feeding container would be good...

You bought the Herptivite? What is recommended on the container?