Urgent Care :: Turtle hasn't grown and not eating - very weak

[poyc]

Hi all,

I'm extremely worried about one of my RESs. We've got four and have had them since October. Three out of the four have grown and thriving and the 4th one is still small.

On Sunday, the smallest one had a puffy eye, so I used an eye drop solution from the pet store. That fixed that, but we've noticed he's not eating and seems very lethargic. Also, it seems the other turtles are bullying him. We're going to buy a new tank just for him, but I'm so worried.

ANY advice is much appreciated.

[Starchick]

They're all housed together now? It could be that there's something off about your tank and it's affecting him because he's smaller and weaker, but I can't speak as to what might be going on.

I do think that if he's being bullied, you need to separate them as soon as possible. I know that in fish at least, extreme stress from bullying can lead to them getting weak and listless, turning pale and not eating. Has he ever seen a vet?

[grey goose]

Moving him to a separate tank is a good start. After that, set the water temps to 80F, and give him a few more days. But if he doesn't respond, It's best to take him to a vet......

[industrial_girl_2000]

Moving him to a separate tank is a good start. After that, set the water temps to 80F, and give him a few more days. But if he doesn't respond, It's best to take him to a vet......

Ditto!

[marisa]

Welcome to the forum. How big is he compared to the others? If he's in a tank that's too small for all of them and he's being bullied, the stress will affect his growth, not to mention he probably hasn't been getting his share of the food if the others are bigger (and probably better) at grabbing it.

Putting him in his own enclosure ASAP would be good, and keeping him a little warmer will help his appetite and should make him more active. As noted, though, if he doesn't respond after several days, taking him to a herp vet would be good.

[Rachel__23]

I had a problem with my baby RES a month ago. He stopped eating, basically didn't move, just floated around, not doing much of anything. I had some great advice from a reptile expert at the pet store. I boosted up the temp to 82degrees (boosts their immune system, especially for baby's) Gave him a new UVB bulb (a 10.0 UVB instead of the regular 5.0), he had a bath in Pedialyte (yes the dehydration stuff for kids, but the plain non flavoured of course) he spent about 15 minutes in it twice daily. In the bath he would actually eat a little, the easiest to get him to eat was blood worms and tubifex worms, as they're small. He didn't move or eat basically anything for a week, then woke up one morning and he was fine. Swimming like crazy, and he's been great ever since.