Red Eared Slider Eyes Closed & Swollen

Question
QUESTION: I Have 3 pet RES all a year old & their shell size is 4". Recently as i had to make an outstation trip i requested my friend to come home & feed them regularly. It took me more days than i expected to return & in the mean time the tank water got messy. When i returned 1 of them had swollen eyes at first, but now his eyes are closed & swollen. So I seperated him in a tub & change the water daily. His eyes opened slightly 1 day but then closed again. Since he cant see with closed eyes, he cant eat pellets that i put in. So i tried takin a prawn close to his mouth & surprisingly he eats & searches for more, which i give him. So his food intake is about ok i guess. So its been almost a week now that his eyes are closed. Their diet consisted mainly of pellets other than live guppies, small snails, cuttle fish bone, prawns. Now im feeding him only (well cleaned) prawns.
I mostly use well water for them. The water temp is usually 27-30C here. There arent any signs of coughing or sneezing. I've gone through a lot of sites.
Plz Advice. Plz reply by the earliest. Me & my turtle would be very thankfull to you.
Awaiting your reply. Thank you

ANSWER: Swollen eyes in a RES is usually a sign of an infection. It is always best to seek a vet's help with infections, but the basic home care would be to...

1. Offer clean, warm water (in the range you are is OK, but maybe a little warmer) with as little stress as possible.

2. Try to relieve the eyes with eye drops, either commercial turtle eye drops, human eye drops, or a vitamin A oil dripped in the eyes. Apply to lubricate and cleanse daily. Keep the turtle out of the tank for about an hour.

3. Try to fight the infection with ONE good antibiotic treatment, either a turtle sulfa dip, or a fish medicine like 'stress coat'. Most fish antibiotics require you turn off the filter, but stress coat does not.


Honestly, the odds are a lot better with a vet's care (unless the vet claims it is a vitamin A issue- which is rare in meat-eating water turtles. If he claims this, make sure he does the proper blood test before treating).

You can get more info at
http://www.redearslider.com
http://www.austinsturtlepage.com
http://www.turtleforum.com

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Thanks a million for your reply. It helped me cure my turtle of which was an eye infection due to dirty water. I followed your step 1&2 all the while. Couldnt get to step 3 cause we dont get any antibiotics like turtle sulfa dip or stress coat here in India, which are atleast easily available. I wouldve had to order them & that would take a long while. So i just did without it. Changed the water clean & warm twice a day & vitamin A oil dripped in the eyes & kept turtle out of tank for little more than an hour. Fed him prawn once a day cause thats the only food he was lookin to eat when he was sick. Now thanks to you he is all well back swimming in the main tank with his other 2 mates happily. :-) Please also suggest some good filter's so that i can choose from whats available here. Presently i was without a filter due to the previous one being too small for the tank now as my turtles have grown a lot from the time i bought it & the old filter cannot handle the load. My previos filter was submersible. Thanks again

Answer
I don't know where 'here' is, but you can get great advice from either this article- http://www.austinsturtlepage.com/Care/waterquality.htm or by asking people at the http://www.turtleforum.com, where there are people from all around.

I'm glad things worked OK!