Urgent Care :: swelling around hind legs?

[megggan]

Hi I'm new, this is my first post.

I have 5 RES turles. (too young to determine the sex of each) They're in a 20 gallon tank right now, as they're all still pretty small. They have a UVA and UVB light, a filter and a basking dock. They all eat reguarly. I feed them ReptoMini, and one a week I put ReptCal on their pellets (as I've had a bad experience with a turtle I had before getting soft shell). I haven't been feeding them any other kinds of food yet; I wasn't sure what to give them. I've recently heard red-leaf lettuce is good, and a friend of mine feeds hers berries and sometimes small fish, so I might try those.

4 of them are the same age. I got them about 2 months ago, and they were ABOUT 4-5 weeks old. The 5th one (Pokey) I've had for 8 months. I bought him and another RES (Malcom) in a store in Florida, so I knew NOTHING about taking care of them or anything. The women at the store even told me I should feed them 3-4 pieces of food A WEEK! I had those two turtles for about 5 or 6 months when I noticed Malcom's shell was a bit softer than Pokey's. I'm a "regular" in a pet store near my house, so I took Malcom in there and asked about his shell. They told me it was soft shell from not having the right conditions the turtles need. I got everything I needed to take care of them properly, but Malcom still passed away.

After Malom died, I was worried that Pokey would get lonely by himself, so I purchased 5 more RES turtles. One passed away alreaydy, but not because he was sick, he ate half a plastic leaf. (The plastic plants have since been taken out!)

Today, I noticed that one of my turtles has swelling around his hind legs. There are no visible marks indicating injury. He's eating normally, and is still as active as usual. If anything, I did think he might be basking a bit more than he usually does, but I'm not really sure. Any ideas as to what this could be? This picture isn't very good, but it does show the swelling. If a better picture would be helpful I could get one tomorrow.



PLEASE HELP! I love my turtles so much, and every little thing that seems unusual worries me![/img]

[steve]

Doesn't seem like anything is wrong. If it's only those areas that's "puffy" and there had been no recent injury then I'd just keep an eye on it. What have you been feeding him?

[megggan]

I've been feeding them only ReptoMini right now, and once a week I put ReptoCal on their pellets.

The turtle with the swelling around his hind legs has also been shedding his skin for about a week now. I've heard that you can bath him gently with a washcloth to remove some of the skin, but I've also heard that it's best if you just let it fall off naturally, so I haven't tried to bath him. He still looks swollen today, still only around his hind legs. Still doesn't seem to be acting any differently then normal and eating a usual.

[Tomny912]

Megggan,
I have three RES the oldest and is about three inches in size. I have no idea how old it is but it was only about an inch and that was in Aug 07. I discovered the same "swelling" on mine last week. Though the turtle seems fine away. Now this turtle thing is new to me but since we both have the same concern maybe this is normal as the moderator said. I do know they eat like hell and the begging is constant. When I got the first RES it would not eat those reptile sticks, but would eat the Krill from my fish food stock... I think that's why the RES grew so quick.... after going away for a few days and only having duck weed and plants to eat it was glad for the repo-sticks. I thought the swelling was just a fat turtle.

[SpotsMama]

Is the turtle with the puffiness around his legs still shedding skin heavily? Is he/she shedding more than the other turtles? How do his/her eyes look?

[megggan]

Yes, he's still shedding skin heavily. The other turltes aren't shedding at all. His eyes look fine, just like the others.

[my_manuelita_turtle]

Sorry for the question... did your turtles ate normal when you first brought them home. My baby turtle (1 inch) is eating barely nothing and Im kind of worry. I´ve had her for 2 weeks now.

[megggan]

my manuelita turtle: where did you get your turtle? My 5 were shipped from Florida in a tiny plastic bowl with no water, just damp paper towls. There was no room for them to move around, so when I took them out and put them in their tank they were VERY active from being confined in such a small space for so long..

They didn't eat much for the first couple days, so I took each one out and kind of force-fed them. By force-fed I don't mean MADE them eat, I just held each one and held a piece of food in front of them until they ate it. I did this for a couple days, while still putting food in their tank. After about a week or so they just started to eat the food out of the water. What are you feeding them?

[industrial_girl_2000]

Based on the picture, I think he is slightly overweight. They will bulge around the back legs when they have a little extra weight on them.

In the mean time, I recommend that you not get any more turtles. 5 is a lot, and once they get bigger/older, they will literally require a lot more expense & care. I have ONE adult RES & she is extremely demanding on my attention/time/money. I've had her for almost 18 yrs now (!).

I know the babies are so cute & I know it is hard to resist when you see them at the pet store, but just take care of the ones you have. Don't add more for now because they eventually grow out of their tanks & you have to buy extremely large tanks (which can be expensive!).

I love my Sheba, adult RES's make wonderful companions, but more than a couple can be hard to manage sometimes.

[my_manuelita_turtle]

I have Reptomin Baby, I put one stick per day, and right now there are 4 sticks on the bottom because she didnt ate them. I also put pieces of lettuce, she takes bites from that at least. And I gave her shrimps last week and she devorate it, but I cant give that to her every day. So I dont know what to do. Where I bought her, they have the turtles in very sad conditions, but she has been 2 weeks with me, today I put the water a little bit warmer to see if that works...

[SpotsMama]

Overeating can cause turtles to shed more skin than normal. Temperatures that are on the warm side can do it too, but since only one of your turtles is shedding heavily, it's probably not related to temperatures.

Sometimes turtles will shed skin for awhile then the shedding will subside for awhile. If this little turtle's heavy shedding keeps up it may be that he/she has a bacterial or fungal skin infection. You can treating him with Zoo Med's Turtle Sulfa Dip. It should be available in most pet stores and doesn't cost much. Just follow directions on the package.

[megggan]

Thanks so much for the advice! I have another question though: how do I go about feeding him less? I probably do overfeed them, I'm always worried that I'm not feeding them enough or that a couple didn't get enough.

As for the Sulfa Dip, I already have that! I didn't even think of putting him in that. I'll try that, just as a precaution.

industrial girl 2000: Don't worry, I won't be getting ANY more! My fiance and I are already planning on their next tank, which will take up just about a WHOLE WALL in our living room. He didn't think so many was a good idea in the first place, but I'm a huge animal lover, I just couldn't help it! And I love RES turtles; they're not like any other animal, and they have such different little personalities. It's not hard to fall in love with them. I won't be getting anymore RES for a looooong time. Maybe I'll get a hamster. haha

[SpotsMama]

Here's a link on turtle nuitrition with lots of helpful info, including a section on pellets and how much to feed:

http://www.redearslider.com/index_nutrition.html

In a nutshell, imagine that a turtle's head is hollow (not the neck, just the head) like a thimble. Then imagine how many pellets it would take to fill the hollow head. That's how many pellets a little turtle should get every day. When they get to be around 4" long, then they get this much every OTHER day. On the link above there are pointers on pellet quality and feeding the turtles vegetables that you need to know.

Since you've got so many turtles, it's going to be difficult to make sure each one gets his/her fair share and that one doesn't hog it all. To make sure each gets the right amount you should feed them separately in separate containers. If some of them are too shy to eat outside the tank, then feed a shy one in the tank while the others are outside the tank.

[megggan]

Also, how much food is too much? I feed them about 10 pieces of food in morning, and they DEVOWER it. Then I usually feed them 5 or 6 pieces later in the day and they eat that up too! I know they're known beggers, but there's so many of them that I'm afriad that one didn't get enough!

[SpotsMama]

16 pieces a day for tiny little turtles is too much. Check out the advice about the hollow head rule and see what you come up with. Here's a link where how to do this is demonstrated very well:

http://www.redearslider.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=11368

Turtles are expert beggers. They will act like they are starving even when they've just eaten. Also, they will keep eating until they throw up even when they don't need it. You have to be the strong one and make sure that they get enough and that it's good quality but that they don't overdo it and get obese. It's just like with kids. All kinds of health problems including premature death will follow from severe overfeeding.