General Care Discussion :: Is edema caused by lack of basking?

[kimberly183]

If you look at my female's (Sara's) photo in my avatar (she is on the bottom), she looks a little "puffy" near her neck. It really just came up in one day, lasted about 2 days, and this morning she looks back to normal.

Sometime told me it might be edema (water-retention). I know she is a shy basker and I was in the room where they live most of Saturday (when it started). Could this be what affected her - not basking much?

Yesterday, she basked much more, and as I said above, it looks like it's gone.

Just trying to figure out a dilemma! Thanks!

[industrial_girl_2000]

Is she puffy around her hind legs too? What is the water temp? How much & what do you feed her?

Reason why I ask is because some turtles are just fat but if it is just obesity, it will show around the back legs too.

Turtles normally don't "retain water" like people do.

[kimberly183]

Weird - would she get fat and lose it that quickly?

The water is kept at 80 - 82 degrees. They have a UVB on about 14 hours daily, and a halogen heat lamp about 11 - 12 hours. Basking area is around 88 degrees.

I was told they are only a little over a year old. His CSL is almost 5.5 and hers is about 4. We have only had them for 9 days. The first two days they had a little tuna, some poached egg white, and refused any vegetables or Reptomin. The third day, she ate 3 rosey reds, he ate 2. Then they started eating their floating sticks. Still refuse veggies, but I saw Sara with a little piece of mache in her mouth yesterday.


Daily food:
•About 12 Reptomin floaters for the two of them (essentially, their head sizes),
•Turnip green (single leaf) floating
•Some duckweed floating
•About 1 teaspoon of cuttlebone (they’ve never had that, either, so I don’t want them to glut)

•Twice since we’ve had them – one rosette of mache
•One day – shredded carrot (about 5 little peels)


Treats:
•Occasional tuna - 1/2 teaspoon shared
•Poached egg white on Sunday - 1/2 teaspoon shared

[kimberly183]

For some reason the above duplicated here

[SpotsMama]

I've seen swelling around the neck on turtles that have been diagnosed with having a vitamin deficiency. Why don't you get some cod liver oil and soak some pellets in it, let the pellets dry, then feed a few to your turtles every day for a couple of weeks. That should help if there's a vitamin deficiency. If the swelling comes back or gets worse, better check with a vet.

Here's a standard caution for anyone who's going to take their turtle to a vet. If the vet offers to give a vitamin A shot, first make sure the vet is positive your turtle really needs vitamin A and then discuss other alternatives to shots with the vet like eye drops with vitamin A, cod liver oil or food supplements. Several turtles have recently had very bad reactions to vitamin A shots and I think it's best that if vitamin A is needed (and often it's not) the safer methods be used instead.

Be sure your turtle doesn't have a skin infection. That might also make the skin look puffy and whitish.

[kimberly183]

Thank you for all of this helpful information! They have a vet appointment already set for next week - really just a check up since the previous owner was not the most knowlegeable about turtles. I will mention this, too.

She does look normal today - and she was sharing the spotlight earlier with her brother, so I know she is basking Plus, we get the big tank tonight - they should be very happy!

Thanks again!