sick yellow bellied sliders

Question
I bought three yellow bellied sliders in Florida 7 days ago.  they sold us a little 1 or 2 gallon tank with a flip top lid.  The tank came with aquarium pebbles and they added some water from the tank the turtles were originally living in.  the turtles are small babies, about a one or two inch shell.  maybe the size of a silver dollar.  very green, lively and healthy looking.  they also seemed very active when we brought them home.  once we were home, we set them up in a real aquarium tank and we did everything that they told us to do as well as asked questions at a local pet store.  today is day 7 and two of our turtles suddenly died.  I was busy today and didn't take a really good look in the tank this morning.  but latter this afternoon, I went to take a look and check on them and I noticed that two were dead.  I believe that one of them or maybe even both had died many hours before I found them dead because when I took a quick look at them this morning, the two who were dead later this evening were in the same location/positions they were in this morning when I peaked at them.  I noticed that both turtles have slightly swollen looking limbs.  not all limbs but maybe two feet on each turtle and the feet that were swollen also looked light in color, like a white sort of color.  I also noticed that both dead turtles had light colored tails too.  all of the turtles while healthy and alive had dark feet and tails.  I still have one turtle alive but he looks very sick.  he also looks like he's going down fast.  I was really hoping that there is some way I could save him if his disease is curable.  my kids are really upset about the new turtles dying and I think both of them think there is hope that the one surviving turtle will not die.  I am very confident that unless treated, he will die very soon, I fear within the next few hours or before morning at the most.  the only solution possible at this time of night would be to clean the tank and add new water so this is what we are planning to try for now.  he is walking funny, and slow.  he's wobbly and appears to really be struggling to walk and swim.  he is still going in the water and swimming around a little but I can see that he's struggling with swimming too.  then when he climbs back out onto the big rock, he falls slides off and back into the water a few times until he finally succeeds at climbing on the rock.  the tank smells.  not like a typical smelly aquarium tank but smellier than that.  but it is possible that the smell is because the two other turtles were dead for almost a day before they were discovered (since I believe they died in the middle of the night last night and we found them dead at around 8:00 PM tonight)  I doubt he will survive long enough for you to give me advice, but I'm hoping that I get lucky and you happen to read this some time tonight...  any advice would be appreciated.

Answer
Hi Shannon, I am very sorry to hear about the two turtles. Usually teh turtles that are sold off the street and other places besides pet stores are very sick to begin with and was probably nothing you did wrong. And most often they are also wild caught adding sickness and stress.

However the only thing you can do right now is to take him to the vet. I am not medically trained and can not tell you what he has but it might be a respiratory infection.

Raise the water temperature at least 5 degrees air/basking temp 10 degrees and hope for the best until you can see a vet. Make sure the enclosure is very clean. Limit the amount of water as well, as swimming is good for him but enough so he can swim but keep his head up as well. Usually when a turtle has a respiratory infection they die from drowning because of loss of energy and being "drained" just as we are when we are sick. And not actually so much from the sickness. Its treatable but fatal if not caught early enough. Again I can not be positive that it is RI but thats what it is sounding like

HOpe you can find a vet soon, best of luck, and again I am sorry for your loss

-Yexalen