my sick red eared slider

Question
thank u 4 reading my qustion mine is my red eared slider has swollen eyes open mouth breathing, and not eating and light waight.  we bought her some of these zoo med eye drops and they really arent working and we also bought this book and my mom thinks a vitiman A difecency but i think it is a respotory infection witch is it? and i told my mom it is a serios condition and she needs to go to the vet but my mom wont take her do you know of anything we can buy her?  please answer fast and thanks febuary 26 09

Answer
It does sound like RI- water turtles do not get vit. A problems very often- although many 'beginners' books still say they do. While a vet should be consulted, there are some things you can try.

Boost water temps to 85-88F or so. Warm (but not hot) temps helps the immune process in turtles.

Make sure the water is very clean, ideally using a large external filter rated 2-3 times bigger than the tank AND sucking out the crud on the bottom and changing about 1/4th of the water every week.

Good diet, if it is eating. See the links below for more on that.

Use EITHER Turtle Sulfa Bath OR Stress Coat with Aloe Vera per directions to help treat secondary infections.

The eye drops sometimes help ease sticking eye lids or sore eyes, continue using them as long as you have them (but I would not have told you to buy any.)

Keep the turtle away from drafts, lots of noise and vibration, handling, etc.



For more good advice, try...
http://www.redearslider.com
http://www.austinsturtlepage.com
http://ww.turtleforum.com