feeding sick turtle

Question
I have red ear slider, approximately 6 mo. old, 2 in. carapace. I have had for 4 months and he has been eating and growing well. Recently, I have been treating bacterial infection with antibiotic injections (last 2 days). While the overall demeanor of turtle is improving (i.e. more movement, return to water from basking area), he is still not eating. Do you have any advice for feeding a turtle unwilling to eat? Thanks.

Answer
The stress of the injections, and the action of antibiotics on the stomach often put turtles off their feed. Do not worry about it quite yet- give it about 5 days.

You do not give any info on the infection, but many infections turn off the appetite as well. I cannot help but wonder what sort of infection a baby turtle can have that needs injections- there just are not many that come to mind.

About the only other thing I can suggest is that I often find the basic cares to be glitched, which often causes the initial problems. I always tell people with sick turtles to use a good website as a guide and compare what they do to what the site suggests. My favorite sites for Red-ears are:
- http://www.redearslider.com and
- http://www.austinsturtlepage.com