Swollen eyes, can't open, wheezing
Posted: Fri Apr 19, 2019 9:48 pm
Our RES 4-5 y.o. (estimated, previous owners didn't have a clue), 7 inches long, 23 Ounces, have a problem with swollen eyes, sometimes wheezing and complete loss of appetite.
She lives with us for 1.5 years, in 64 gal. tank with three goldfishes, water temp. 93 Fahrenheit, food - mostly shrimps, some red chicken meat and some Reptomine Baby.
Appetite loss started a month ago and progressed, we thought that she prepared to lay eggs, as she did the same time year ago, but no (still no eggs feels when palpated).
The wheezing started about 2 weeks ago, the same time she started swimming with closed eyes, then about week ago her eyes swelled and made her almost blind, since then she didn't eat anything (though her appetite decreased progressively during last month).
She don't dive at all (surface balance is perfect, she still swims pretty fast, but wants to get out of water in just about half an hour) and sometimes wheezing quite loud.
We assumed that combination of not clean enough water (we used to clean canister filter and change 2 pounds of charcoal in it monthly, but didn't for 2 month by then, only few water replacements) and cold air - our turtle spends half of the day with us, freely moving around apartment, sometimes sitting for hours in pretty cold places, so she can catch a respiratory infection.
Now we twice a day put her into smaller container with warm filtered water (changed each time) for about half an hour each time (until she wants to get out). When swimming, she mostly put head downward and in container can be seen few 0.3 inch long transparent threads similar in texture to human snots.
We visited few local herpetologists, did a 0.4ml of viamine A injection, it was Eleovit (1 ml contains: vitamin A - 10,000 IU, vitamin D3 - 2000 IU, vitamin E –10 mg, vitamin K3 - 1 mg, vitamin B1 - 10 mg, vitamin B2 - 4 mg, vitamin B6 - 3 mg , cyanocobalamin –10 µg, biotin - 10 µg, nicotinamide - 30 mg, pantothenic acid - 20 mg, folic acid - 0.2 mg and auxiliary substances: lactoalbumin protein hydrolyzate - 0.2 mg, glucose - 50 mg),
and then prescribed course was:
1. For two weeks twice per day: subcutaneous injection of 0.25 fl.oz. Ringer's lactate solution (once per 2 days added 0.04 fl.oz. of сalcium gluconate). Turtle drinks normally herself! And pees a lot regularly, sometimes she pees when pulled out of water, I clearly see a stream then, and so did vets during manipulations with head/palpation...
2. Rinse eyelids with saline solution and then put Actovegin in gel/ointment (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Actovegin) under her eyelids. It's basically extract from calf blood and also contains polypropyleneglycole/ethanol...
I refused both of the above, and asked few different herpetologists (there are few in Kiev), the answers were pretty much the same:
1. There is no need to use stethoscope as 'we can't hear anything, she's not a human'(quote) - the only test was rapid push on the head to force it inside the shell, as no liquid was thrown out from nostrils 'no problems with breathing tract'.
2. I insisted on respiratory infections test, the answer was 'there is no such thing as respiratory infection for turtles, only pneumonia rarely exists'(quote).
3. The combined 1/2 fl.oz. subcutaneous injection daily is harmless as 'turtle is empty in the inside'(quote).
After vitamins injection our turtle became much less active and mostly sleeping, today we setted 60w incandescent light bulb (distance about 12 inches) and she starts to lay/sleep under it.
I'm asking for advice here, because all of the above makes me think that our local vets are dangerously unqualified.
I understand that remote advice is risky, but swelled eyes induced almost complete blindness and starvation, it really makes me worry, so such advice might be better then nothing or above stated prescriptions.
Should I use any antibiotics (no local vets talks about them) dissolved in smaller tank when she swims? Dissolved in eye drops/saline solution?
Should I try to open and rinse eyelids with small syringe (without a needle of course) with saline solution? Can it help or only make it worse?
Thank you in advance.
She lives with us for 1.5 years, in 64 gal. tank with three goldfishes, water temp. 93 Fahrenheit, food - mostly shrimps, some red chicken meat and some Reptomine Baby.
Appetite loss started a month ago and progressed, we thought that she prepared to lay eggs, as she did the same time year ago, but no (still no eggs feels when palpated).
The wheezing started about 2 weeks ago, the same time she started swimming with closed eyes, then about week ago her eyes swelled and made her almost blind, since then she didn't eat anything (though her appetite decreased progressively during last month).
She don't dive at all (surface balance is perfect, she still swims pretty fast, but wants to get out of water in just about half an hour) and sometimes wheezing quite loud.
We assumed that combination of not clean enough water (we used to clean canister filter and change 2 pounds of charcoal in it monthly, but didn't for 2 month by then, only few water replacements) and cold air - our turtle spends half of the day with us, freely moving around apartment, sometimes sitting for hours in pretty cold places, so she can catch a respiratory infection.
Now we twice a day put her into smaller container with warm filtered water (changed each time) for about half an hour each time (until she wants to get out). When swimming, she mostly put head downward and in container can be seen few 0.3 inch long transparent threads similar in texture to human snots.
We visited few local herpetologists, did a 0.4ml of viamine A injection, it was Eleovit (1 ml contains: vitamin A - 10,000 IU, vitamin D3 - 2000 IU, vitamin E –10 mg, vitamin K3 - 1 mg, vitamin B1 - 10 mg, vitamin B2 - 4 mg, vitamin B6 - 3 mg , cyanocobalamin –10 µg, biotin - 10 µg, nicotinamide - 30 mg, pantothenic acid - 20 mg, folic acid - 0.2 mg and auxiliary substances: lactoalbumin protein hydrolyzate - 0.2 mg, glucose - 50 mg),
and then prescribed course was:
1. For two weeks twice per day: subcutaneous injection of 0.25 fl.oz. Ringer's lactate solution (once per 2 days added 0.04 fl.oz. of сalcium gluconate). Turtle drinks normally herself! And pees a lot regularly, sometimes she pees when pulled out of water, I clearly see a stream then, and so did vets during manipulations with head/palpation...
2. Rinse eyelids with saline solution and then put Actovegin in gel/ointment (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Actovegin) under her eyelids. It's basically extract from calf blood and also contains polypropyleneglycole/ethanol...
I refused both of the above, and asked few different herpetologists (there are few in Kiev), the answers were pretty much the same:
1. There is no need to use stethoscope as 'we can't hear anything, she's not a human'(quote) - the only test was rapid push on the head to force it inside the shell, as no liquid was thrown out from nostrils 'no problems with breathing tract'.
2. I insisted on respiratory infections test, the answer was 'there is no such thing as respiratory infection for turtles, only pneumonia rarely exists'(quote).
3. The combined 1/2 fl.oz. subcutaneous injection daily is harmless as 'turtle is empty in the inside'(quote).
After vitamins injection our turtle became much less active and mostly sleeping, today we setted 60w incandescent light bulb (distance about 12 inches) and she starts to lay/sleep under it.
I'm asking for advice here, because all of the above makes me think that our local vets are dangerously unqualified.
I understand that remote advice is risky, but swelled eyes induced almost complete blindness and starvation, it really makes me worry, so such advice might be better then nothing or above stated prescriptions.
Should I use any antibiotics (no local vets talks about them) dissolved in smaller tank when she swims? Dissolved in eye drops/saline solution?
Should I try to open and rinse eyelids with small syringe (without a needle of course) with saline solution? Can it help or only make it worse?
Thank you in advance.