Urgent Care :: Sick turtle?

[Captain Rotundo]

I have had my turtle for 2 years-ish, got it when it was tiny and is now approx 6 inches in length.

I have never had an issue with his health at all, but now I have a worry.

Last week I decided to change the substrate in the tank to washed play sand, based on what I read on these forums. So I did an almost complete water change, added the sand, cleaned the filter, etc etc as usual.

after the change i noticed that the water temp didnt stay up and was down around 70, naturally I assumed that the heater was broken so I replaced it, the turtle may have been seeming to sleep more but I attributed this to the low temperature, and my own paranoia (checking constantly after the big substrate change!) - I also suspected that his eyes looked a little puffy, but when taking him out for inspection it wasnt so obvious.

Well today his water temp is back up above 75 but I notice that his eyes are swollen, and obviously so. Should I attribute this to the water change and if so what should I do? Should I just call a vet this afternoon (I confess I have never taken the turtle to a vet, and am now looking for one in my area) ?

[untsmurf]

When you changed his substrate, did you also change around his lighting? did you move it closer or get new bulbs?

[Captain Rotundo]

well I had switched to a new compact flouresent UVB bulb severel weeks ago, but the new tank has the water ( and this the basking dock) a few inches higher. Is the light irritating him, I susppected as much this morning and moved the light several more inches higher.

[untsmurf]

I think that might be why, wait for a few days and see if it clears up. If it doesn't we can look into other possibilities.

[Captain Rotundo]

How prevalent is this issue of the fluorescent lights causing puffy eyes? My first reaction was to get turtle eye drops, but they say they are to treat a vitamin A deficiency, I do not suspect a deficiency as I believe I do quit well to give him a variety of healthy veggies and what not. Ultimately I didn't want to buy a product that fixes a problem caused by bad care, I would be more than happy to adjust the care.

Of course this morning I gave him carrots to eat simply because I know they contain vitamin A.

[megcornell]

I've used the eye drops before for non-vit A related puffiness and they've worked. The zoo med drops are more for overall soothing, while the cod liver oil is more for deficiency issues.
I would turn the UVB light off for a few days just to give the eyes a complete break.

[Captain Rotundo]

should I get in the habit of reducing the amount of time the uvb light is on ?

[megcornell]

Each of my turtles get UVB three days a week. I switch between my turtles two tanks which is part of the reason, but also because in nature they may not get 7 straight days of sunlight so I don't feel like I'm cheating them.
You could try something like that, or you could shorten the duration of the exposure if you're worried about continued eye irritation. My concern with that is your turtle may not choose to bask during the 3 or 4 hours the UVB is on, but may bask at other times when it's just getting UVA light.
A properly placed bulb (of the right strength) shouldn't cause issues though.

[Captain Rotundo]

Well then the real question is, lets say I switch the uvb light to every other day, how can I gauge if the turtle is receiving adequate UVB ?

[imderanged]

I had this problem with the compact fluoreent UVB bulb. Moving it away a few inches did help. I also found out some of them have a "burn in" period, where they intially put off too much UVB but after a week or two of use their out put levels off. I used the Zoomed drops and they did seem to help. But I was concerned like you that my turtle wasn't getting enough UVB with the bulb so far away. Eventually I switched to a Mercury vapor bulb, and after that she basked more and shed her old scutes.

[steve]

It is possible to have a defective bulb continually put out high rates of UVB. This happened with my Reptisun 10. Even after months of use, it would still be able to cause eye swelling and irritation. I would recommended a replacement or a different type of bulb.