General Care Discussion :: Turtle with swimming issue

[smokey988]

I have 2 RES which are about 30 years old and we finally built them a home last year which I posted some pictures of last april http://www.redearslider.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=39987.

My concern is that the one turtle still has a problem with buoyancy while the other is completely fine. The turtle with the troubles when spend all her time on the log basking and occasionally will fall off the log or stretch for food and fall off and struggle to swim like she is panicking. For many years the turtles were in shallow water so we never really noticed this issue.

She is 30 years old and the water temperature is kept between 80-82f.

What I do is when I am not home to watch her I will put her back in her old tank which only has about 7 inches of water in it.

At first I thought I would introduce her to deeper water slowly but that did not work. She simply has no buoyancy and tries to swim rather than float like the other turtle .

Does anyone have any suggestions? Does this sound like an RTI?

[steve]

The buoyancy issue... can she surface and float? Is the water level deep enough that she couldn't tip toe? If her old tank had the water level risen, would she have the same difficulty?

[smokey988]

The buoyancy issue... can she surface and float? Is the water level deep enough that she couldn't tip toe? If her old tank had the water level risen, would she have the same difficulty?

Hi Steve,
She cannot float. She will try and swim to the surface. She can reach the surface on her old tank by tip toes or on a rock. If we raise the water in her old tank she would do the same thing and try to swim not float.

[smokey988]

I did a short video and posted it on youtube of her condition and lack of ability to float.

https://youtu.be/6Yvfucp-3o0

[steve]

She looks great for a 30 year old RES. Is it possible the current in the water is a bit too much? How does she do if the filter was off?

[smokey988]

She looks great for a 30 year old RES. Is it possible the current in the water is a bit too much? How does she do if the filter was off?

With the filter on or off it does not make a difference. I finally found a herp vet about 100 miles from me so I and going to take her in just to be on the safe side and see if maybe she does have an ongoing issue. The problem with our local small town vets and I am sure it is the same everywhere is that they loose focus of the animals and only see $$$$$$.

[smokey988]

She looks great for a 30 year old RES. Is it possible the current in the water is a bit too much? How does she do if the filter was off?

Hey Steve,

I figured i would just let you know the results after going to see the herp vet. It turns out she is obese and suffers from dwarfism (internally a full size turtle, externally not) which is hindering her buoyancy. Because of these 2 thing together she can't get enough air into her lungs to become buoyant. The vet did say if she could loose a bit of weight it may help her a bit but don't expect her to be 100% because of the dwarfism.

[steve]

Thanks for the update. Interesting observations from the vet, I don't think I've heard of that kind of explanation before. What are you plans going forward? Murtle going on a diet?

[smokey988]

Thanks for the update. Interesting observations from the vet, I don't think I've heard of that kind of explanation before. What are you plans going forward? Murtle going on a diet?

His advice was to gradually decrease the amount of food she is getting along with slowly lowering her water temperature from the current 80/82 down to 75/76.

[steve]

Sounds like a smart plan, good luck with her treatment!