Posted: Fri Jan 27, 2012 12:38 am Re: Algae to Sepsis in 4 Months
The plot thickens.
After seeing some real funky, slimy, yellowish poop, I took it to the vet. It turns out that Penelope had a very high number of flagellates. So now it all makes sense -
The unsanitary water (as explained at the beginning of this thread) led to an increase in flagellates > the increase in flagellates led to a compromised digestive system > the compromised digestive system made her eat less > by eating less, her body wasn’t able to support itself *and* the flagellates > less food and more flagellates weakened her immune system > her weakened immune made her a prime target for other illnesses (i.e., like shell-rot, fungus, respiratory infections, etc.) In Penelope’s case her immune systems was poor, which explains why she couldn’t handle the bacteria created / related to the algae on her shell. She also got respiratory infection – now, I’m still not sure if one led to the other, or if they both kicked in at once…
Anyway, I was told that these little flagellates are common in turtles, so it’s an overload of them that create the problem. Most common cause – unsanitary water
I didn’t catch on to the slimy poop until yesterday. Since Penelope was barely eating, the flagellates ate whatever went in and it never made it to the other end (poop). After 5 weeks of metronidazole, the flagellate count was just barely low enough to allow her to poop a little bit – and well…you heard what happened from there. The vet increased the dosage of metronidazole, now we have three more weeks on that and baytril.
Here is the kicker – the parasite test I could not afford the first time I went, turned out to be the only way to get to the root of the problem and find these flagellates (now I know why my vet pushes for those fecal exams) – after seeing how hard I was trying, the vet cut me a break on the test ($25 instead of $171). So, it never hurts to ask.
I did some searching on the web and most sites explained the same symptoms: diarrhea and dehydration, some weight loss, they get noticeably lethargic, you might start seeing undigested food in their poop, and their poop becomes slimy. If untreated, they can die.
So…myself included…when you notice that the tank is dirty, and you say to yourself, “I'll do it in a just a couple more days, because I’m too tired to clean it now" You may want to think twice.
If you think cleaning the tank one is a chore, you may end up with a much larger chore. Namely: 8 weeks of dry-dock trying to keep the temperature between 80-95 at all times (and yes that means ALL), except for the few minutes between walking from the dry dock to “swim bucket” to eat –the water must be between 80-95 degrees, so you might as well tack on some time for playing the hot-water / cold-water mixture until the temp is just right (use a digital thermometer), then a perfect-temp Betadyne bath once a week, followed by a perfect temp rinse, and back to her dry-dock until the next day. She can’t go in her tank anymore until she is better…
And when the vet said between 80-95 degrees she meant it – I got a little ‘talking to’ for letting the temp drop to 78 degrees for a few hours once or twice – I don’t know why she is so adamant, but she is and I trust her – so, yeah - - - all that fretting over the temperature is not an over exaggeration.
And that is the story of the week.
"I know up on the top you are seeing great sights, but down at the bottom we, too, should have rights"
~ "Yertle the Turtle and Other Stories" by Dr. Seuss ~
