General Care Discussion :: Is he healthy? still contagious?

[shelach]

The first day I brought this new little baby turtle home he fliped over and I saw that parts of his neck and legs, as well as parts of his shell were pink! After some reading I determened it must be blood piosoning. I kept him seperate and started a tetracycling treatment. I changed his water every day for 10 days adding tetracycling, continued to change his water every day for another 2 weeks, and now every other day. Total 1 month.

He is no longer pink anywhere. He has started to grow, and eat more and beg.

MY QUESTION IS, how can i be sure he is well enough to go in the big tank with my other two RES. Could he still be contagious?

[SpotsMama]

Hopefully he's well, but even if he's no longer infectious with whatever caused the blood poisoning, he could be carrying some other sort of infection - like a respiratory infection - that is lurking but not yet symptomatic. Consequently, the recommendation is that a new turtle be quarantined for 90 days before mixing with other turtles.

Here's some discussion of it:

http://www.redearslider.com/cohabitation.html

Another thing to consider is that it's dangerous for a small turtle to add him to a tank with larger turtles. Are your turtles all around the same size?

[shelach]

they are all babys. one is a tiny bit bigger than the other two. The biger one and a smaller one get along well in the tank. no signs of hostility. I think they even enjoy eachother.
Im not so concerned with that as infecting my healthy turtles.

90 days. thanks for the info.

what, if any are the signs of a healthy RES?
or that the blood poisoning is gone?

[marisa]

How pink is pink? Are you sure he had blood poisoning? What was his behavior like?

[shelach]

I did alot of reading when i first got my RES. and even more when i adoped a sick one.

The bottom of his shell was light pink. very light like pink lemonaid. and only near where his limbs come out. his skin around the nech and limbs had a very light tint of pink too.

From what i found on the internet it looked like a very early stage of a blood poisoning. He was a little slow and genrely pale. He didnt act realy sick, didnt eat alot but still ate. His red ears were also very pale. almost white.

Now he is eating more, begging, and swimming around. His shell and skin are not pink at all. He is even growing and sheding. He has turned a nice healthy color and his ears are bright orange.