General Care Discussion :: Turtle Eyes

[queenjane]

Tank is pretending to be a pirate.

His left eye is closed and the eyelid seems to be puffy and swollen. I've had this issue before with both eyes and I treated them with that special brand of turtle eyedrops.

I've gone ahead and moved his UVA/UVB lamps back further a few inches, but I'mwondering, what's the deal with his constantly puffy eyes?

The water quality is fine, and he gets those eyedrops once a week.

Is there anything else that could be causing puffy eyes other than the lamps?

[TheComputerGremlin]

Do you treat your water for chlorine/chloramines? A simple tank conditioner like ReptiSafe is useful. How far is the lamp now? If you have a 5.0% UVB bulb, I believe it should be 12 inches away. Also, I wouldn't administer eye drops (as they are medicine) each week, but only when needed. Otherwise, the body will become accustomed to them and they won't work as well when actually needed.

[steve]

Did the swollen eyes return when you moved the UVB closer?

[SpotsMama]

Many things cause swollen eyes. Too strong UVB, chemicals in the water, water that isn't clean, infection, injury, illness (respiratory infection). Also vitamin deficiency - expecially vitamin a deficiency.

If only one of your turtle's eyes is swollen, I'd be suspicious of injury or an infection in that eye. If it doesn't clear up pretty fast, you may need a prescription from a vet to treat it.

If the drops you mentioned are Zoo Med Turtle Eye Drops, then it's unlikely the eye problem is a vitamin a deficiency since the drops contain some vitamin a. If you go to a vet, be sure he/she knows your turtle has been getting vitamin a in the drops because some vets tend to give vitamin a shots at the drop of a hat, and it's hard to judge the correction amount of vitamin a - too much is toxic. We've seen some instances of turtles having really bad reactions to vitamin a injections so recommend vitamin a (if it's needed) be administered another way - in food or the Zoo Med drops.