red ear sliders and laying eggs

Question
I have a red ear female slider who is eight years old.  She stopped eating in July and I took her to a reptile veterinarian he thought she had an infection and we treated with antibiotics. She started to eat some.  But was acting strange she even got out of her tank and thank goodness didn't get hurt. Shortly after that she laid eight eggs in her tank. Since she is our only turtle they were not fertile. She started eating again and I felt we were out of the woods.  Just this week she was eating less and started her strange behavior on her basking station and in the water.  When I came home tonight again she laid five eggs all broken open. These two events occurred about three weeks apart. How often do turtles lay eggs?  Is there something wrong?  What do I do? Thank you for your time and Help.  Janet our turtle thanks you too!

Answer
Older water turtles often lay infertile eggs. There are several theories for this, ranging from stress to getting rid of chemical or hormonal build-ups.

Egg-laying events generally happen over a couple weeks. 3 weeks would be a bit longer than average but not too unusual.

Between the infection and the escape, stress sounds like a good guess.

I would recommend making sure the cares, diet, and housing are solid, and letting the poor thing rest for a while. A good site for cares comparisons is http://www.redearslider.com