Posted: Tue Sep 13, 2022 1:39 am Re: Musk Turtles Eyes Look Swollen
Hey, I am updating this post for anyone else in need of help like I was...
so I took her to the vet and he was unwilling to treat her due to her being a hatchling. He pretty much just said go home and wait it out, make her comfortable etc.
I was able to heal her at home doing these things:
bumped the water temp to 84 degrees
treated the water with API turtle fix (supposed to help bacterial infections)
and bought a product called Reptaid which is designed for reptiles (i got the "baby version") - and it's basically a combo of plant-based ingredients, and the creators claim that it's helped plenty of reptiles overcome RI, parasites, and other illnesses... I gave it to her once a day via a syringe... I basically pissed her off to the point where she'd open her mouth and bite down on the plastic syringe, then I would shoot a drop into her mouth, make sure it didn't come out of her nose, etc. and just repeated this process for 10 days. It sucked giving it to her because she hated it, but on day 4 I noticed her lethargy went away, she began to eat and started exploring her tank. She then slowly got better and better, and by day 10 I felt comfortable taking her off the Reptaid.
She's grown since then and has healthy clear eyes, eats ANY pellet brand I give her, plus all her live foods, etc. She even begs for food, and like a true musk turtle is always foraging at the bottom of the tank.
I'm not making any direct claims, just my observation of this product based on my experience with it, and the circumstance that no vets around my area wanted to treat my hatchling, but there's hope! Upon doing research on Reptaid, though not much info is available for turtles, it seems to have helped plenty of bearded dragons and chameleons, so it's worth looking into.
I'm gonna post pictures of my Musk turtle Blue a little later. Just wanted to update this for anyone looking for info.