Urgent Care :: eyes and eating

[cdonnelly78]

Hi my 10 year old slider has suddenly stopped eating this whole week. Tonight she had a film on her eye. I took her out and washed off her shell, cleaned out her eye and tried to feed her a while later. She came up to the front of the tank with her usual eager hunger act, but when she gets her pellets she turns away. She even is turning away her lettuce. I don't know what else to do. I tried a different pellet food but she has even less interest in that. Please do not recommend other foods, I tried them when she was young and she likes nothing more than the two aforementioned foods. She has recently gone through a lot of shell shedding, sometimes seeming irritated and rubbing up against her rocks to I guess pull off some shell parts. I don't know what to do! Please help. I am going to drain her tank tomorrow and wipe it all down to make sure there's nothing bad in there. This happened 8 years ago and I had to take her to the vet where I had to learn to force feed her, she hated it and I hated it. Her tank is warm, there are no drafts and gets plenty of time with her heat lamp.
I appreciate any help-
Colleen and Nitro the turtle

[cdonnelly78]

I am filling out the survey, not sure if it helps
Colleen and Nitro the turtle

How big is your turtle? about 10 inches long, 6 inches wide, weighs 5 pounds
How long have you had it? 10 years

What is the water temperature? 82/83
Did you use a thermometer? yes
Are you using a water heater? yes
How much water is in there? 40 gallons or so
Are you using a water conditioner? yes
Are you using any filtration? yes--the filter is in the tank

What is the basking temperature? i don't know but it is warm
Is there a basking light? yes
Is there a basking platform that is easy to climb on? yes
What kind is it or what is it made out of? slate rock
Is there a UVB light? no, mine constantly break

What have you been trying to feed it? tetra pellets, hbh pellets, various lettuce
When was the last time your turtle ate? she ate one log tonight and spit it out. seriously ate....at least 4-5 days ago

How big is the tank/pond/enclosure? 70 gallons
Is the tank near a window? it's diagonally about 8 feet away
Is the tank in a room with a lot of activity? yes however nobody is home until around 6pm. so there is no activity from 7:30am - 6pm. it's just my boyfriend and i from 6-11pm

Have you read the Basic Care section? yes
Have you searched the forums for similar situations? yes

Is there any other unusual activity/symptoms? frequent shell shedding and rubbing on the rocks as if she was trying to scratch herself

[industrial_girl_2000]

How often do you change the water in the tank? Do you feed her in the tank?

First off, lower the temp of the water to about 75-76 degrees. Adult RES's like a cooler water temp. The fact that she is scratching herself a lot means she is shedding a lot (I'm sure you are cleaning out your water filter all the time with all that skin). You should see an improvement in her attitude once you let the water cool down a bit. 82 is WAY too warm for her.

Here's my story on feeding my RES: I have an adult RES that is over 20 yrs old. Before I found this website 2 yrs ago, I had only fed her pellets & some other random things like fish, cooked chicken, etc. I knew she was supposed to eat veggies but I didn't know how to get her to eat these foods after SO many years of only having pellets. I started off slowly, mixing some veggies like carrots & collard greens with cat food & feeding her this mixture with a spoon. She ate it up. Eventually, I used less & less of the cat food till I was able to just feed her the raw veggies without mixing. Around this time, I also introduced some fruits like berries & a grape & she ate those like crazy all of a sudden! I never knew she would eat these things, but RES's really like things that have bright color, like raspberries, cherries (you have to remove the pit before feeding), & blueberries. FYI - I never mixed the sweet fruits with cat food. I only mixed the different lettuces/collards/carrots with cat food....you know, like a "meat stew." feed with spoon so you don't get bitten, LOL.

Adult RES's are notoriously stubborn about trying new foods, especially after so many years of pellets (and who can blame them? They never knew it was edible, LOL). You just have to get a little creative. I hope my story will help you with your turtle too.

Lastly, when you took her to the vet 8 yrs ago, what was wrong with her? Did they ever tell you?

Also, can you post a pic of your big girl? If she is overweight (can't pull her head all the way in her shell without a bunch of fat bulging out), then it might explain why she isn't eating.

[marisa]

Just from the info you gave---aside from a bigger tank, you need to find out what the basking area temp is (with a thermometer) and your turtle needs a UVB light (even if they break. I have to ask, though, if they do break frequently, and it's the glass that's breaking, are you sure they're UVB lights? Florescent UVB lights have never broken for me (unless I dropped them).

If she's showing no other symptoms, perhaps the change of season is affecting her appetite. Is it getting a lot cooler where you are now?

To me, (again, in the absence of other symptoms), a 10-year-old turtle that hasn't eaten in 4-5 days may or may not be a cause for concern. How long had she not eaten when this happened before? You said not to, so I won't say to try other foods, BUT keep in mind that just because a turtle refused certain foods when young doesn't mean that they won't be eaten later on. My turts have gotten "sick" of foods and after not having had them for a while have gone back to eating them. They also eat foods they wouldn't touch as hatchlings.

The rubbing of the shell is your turtle's way of trying to help the scutes shed. It sounds like they're coming off on their own, so I wouldn't try to pull them off. You said your turtle sheds scutes frequently---how often? Do the new/underlying scutes look healthy?

[SpotsMama]

How is her eye doing now? Does your turtle lay eggs? Does she act like she might be wanting to lay some?

[cdonnelly78]

I took all of your advice and nothing has worked. I drained her tank a few days ago and lowered the temp to the upper 70's. It worked for one day, and she ate. Ever since she has barely touched anything. Her water fouled within a few days (it's cloudy), that's bizarre, and now I have to drain it today. She's done shedding her shell but now her shell seems browner. Her eye is fine but I'm just really worried that I'm losing her. She hasn't layed eggs in over 5 years or more so I don't think it's that. I've taken her out of the tank, let her do her walk. I bought new food, she doesn't want it. I offered every type of lettuce, I think she ate a bite of it while I wasn't looking and that was it. I tried grapes, she refused them for a while and eventually bit into one. I don't know if she swallowed that one bite though. She did her hungry dance last night but I'm so frustrated, she doesn't want anything I can offer. The night that she actually ate I fed her a cat treat (those small hard ones). She ate two of them.

The last time she stopped eating was years and years ago. I had two hatchlings originally and shortly after one died, she lived. I bought two more for a total of 3 hatchlings in the tank, and one of those died giving me my present 2. After the 2nd one died she stopped eating and seemed depressed. That's when I had to take her to the reptile vet and give her special medicine and force feed her. She recovered a few weeks later. I don't recall him ever saying what was wrong with her, the vet just told me what I needed to do. So for a few years I had her and my male in the same tank. My male turtle become hormonal and wanted to mate and acted out on it, chasing her all over the place and making her and me bananas (he was always harassing her with what I call the hand jive dance). The final straw came when I came home to find him with his jaw wrapped around her neck and I couldn't get him off for a good 5 minutes. He is not a nice boy and never has been. Since then they have been living in separate tanks. She has been fine since.

Today I'm going to offer her the cherry tomoatoes and more lettuce, maybe she will take a grape or a cat treat again. I'm desperate. It's been almost 2 weeks now and she hasn't eaten one whole meal. However, she is having bowel movements. Not sure what she is putting out, but she has them.

As for the UVB, it's not the bulb that breaks but the unit. It just stops working or takes forever for it to kick on. I'll go get another one today and see if that helps. Her tank is large, maybe I am off with the gallons, but I'll measure it later. I bought it from a local shark aquarium store. Since then they have put out wider tanks but I've only seen one model that really is bigger and it would take up half of my wall. It's one of the largest tanks I could find.

I will put up a picture of her later as I am at work.
Thanks for the advice,
Colleen and Nitro

[cdonnelly78]

here are pictures of nitro from tonight. her tank was cleaned out and i managed to get her to bite down on a grape (which you can see traces of on her mouth in the pics). her tank is 48x18x21 and is 3/4 full.

she is basking but not swimming around much. normally when i go in to clean her tank she follows my hands around and gets in the way and makes a fuss. tonight she just sat there. still not eating

i put the reptomin canister behind her for size comparison. she also has some white spots on her as you can see on her shell in the pictures. the bottom of her shell has not fully finished shedding and i tried helping her with it tonight but left well enough alone....you can see some of the differences in the one pic. is it time to go to the vet?

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[megcornell]

She's a beautiful girl!

So far a lack of appetite and extra basking are the only symptoms you've seen?
It could be something as benign as just her slowing down a bit with the change of seasons or it could be an illness like the early stages of a respiratory infection.
Have you tried bribing her with some turtle "junk food" like tuna. Most turtles find it irresistible and it may be enough to boost her appetite back. However, if you still can't get her to eat after this weekend or if new symptoms appear I'd say it's time to call your vet. In my opinion, even if it's nothing, it's always better to be safe than sorry.

[marisa]

The eyes look OK from what I can see. No other symptoms?

She looks a tad overweight to me. How many pellets do you feed her at a feeding? My RES does eat somewhat less in the cooler months and tends to be pickier about what he eats. If your turtle is pooping, she must be eating...

[Hoooneylynn]

wow your girl is beautiful!!! she looks A LOT like my girl, except for the shell... my turtle has the same face, it was like looking at my own turtle hehe.. even my boyfriend said omg! that could be karlyn's mom!! she does have little fat bags, but ive also noticed you said shes 10 years old... cutie!

[megcornell]

I wasn't sure if she was overweight or if that was just loose skin from carrying clutches of eggs.

(edit) I suppose I should clarify... I didn't mean she was gravid, I just thought I remembered hearing about how females tend to get little sacks of skin from a lifetime of carrying eggs...

[SpotsMama]

Nitro is a really beautiful girl. She looks good to me except, as mentioned above, she seems overweight. She can probably go for awhile without eating without harm. Still, lack of appetite in a turtle that normally eats well is puzzeling.

I don't think she's gravid because gravid turtles act anxious and try constantly to climb out of their tank. Apparently she's doing just the opposite - slowed down and basking more.

Here's my opinion on a vet. you know your turtle's normal behavior really well after 10 years. If her behavior is concerned you - and has continued to concern you for weeks - then if it were me I'd trust my instincts and take her in. One thing I can think of that a vet could do is x ray her to see if there are any eggs inside.

If you take her in, be sure the vet is a herp doctor who knows about turtles. A vet that only sees dogs and cats is not going to know what to do. And, if you take her in, here's a standard caution: If the vet offers to give a vitamin A shot, first make sure the vet is positive your turtle really needs vitamin A and then discuss other alternatives to shots with the vet like eye drops with vitamin A, cod liver oil or food supplements. Several turtles have recently had very bad reactions to vitamin A shots and I think it's best that if vitamin A is needed (and often it's not) the safer methods be used instead.

[steve]

In the first and fourth pic, her inner mouth looks a little reddish. Is that the grape?

I would not count out trying new foods... they can surprise you sometimes.

As for the little fat bags, I've seen older male aquatics with them too - most notably from Barb Reader's well kept cooters.

[cdonnelly78]

good news....she is eating! yay! she is eating pellets, no veggies though. but i'll take that. she is still basking a lot and not doing much swimming but she seems less lethargic. the fact her appetite came back is a good sign. yes, that was a grape remnant in her mouth in the one picture. the vet i use is specifically a reptile vet. i'm going to monitor her for a while and see if anything goes downhill but i'm just thrilled she is eating.

i'm curious about the gravid turtle. my male turtle is CONSTANTLY trying to climb out of his tank and makes a fuss, he goes nuts sometimes. he escaped 2 times last week but was easy to find. what does it mean if the turtle gets like this? is there something they want other than to get out? he is also 10 yrs old but is much much smaller.

thanks for the positive feedback! she is my beautiful girl! to hoooneylynne-can you put a picture up of your turtle? i'd love to see nitro's twin!
Colleen

[megcornell]

Glad to hear her appetite has returned!
I would suspect your male is just really rambunctious. Make sure he can't escape because RES are surprisingly good climbers- if there's a way to get out, they'll find it. I suspect you're sure he's a male right? Usually gravid females display signs of uneasiness and try to get out of the tank when they're ready to lay a clutch.