Sick terrapins….HELP!!

[skeebo1969]

skeebo1969

October 16, 2006 at 6:16 pm #24141

Hi all my name is Thomas and I joined the group about 2 weeks ago, I guess. I have 4 DBTS, 1 northern, 2 centratas, and 1 texan. All 4 are hatchlings… Only the first 3 are in the same tank together becuase I just recently purchased the Texan and have him in his own tank. About 5 days ago one of the centratas took ill in the span of about twelve hours. Wednesday of last week I woke up and fed them and all three seemed normal. I left for the day and when I got back one of them fell off the basking platform and started to float. I was a little concerned because his eyes were closed and it looked…. like he was dead. I picked him up and had trouble getting him to respond, but he did.. His eye lids were swollen and I immediately started thinking RI because of the lethargic behavior in addition to the eyes being swollen. Both the other seemed to be acting a little tired to and one also had swolen eye lids. By the next day they could barely open their eyes and were basking profusely… they seemed very tired, but suprisingly the all ate very well.. Friday after much worry, I took them to the vet. He ruled out RI after an examination and some questions (about listing, etc.) He then took stool samples and an eye swab culture… The stool samples came back negative for parasites but the eye culture had .. I may say this wrong, bacteria spikes of some sort??!! He told me to get them some natural sunlight periodically throughout the week to them. He has me giving them tetracyclene baths daily for 30 minutes and vitamin bath twice a week.. I’ve been doing this now since Friday and it does not seem to be getting better. The northern seems a little better … One of the centratas seems to be getting worse to tell the truth.. he still eats though.. I did a 90% water change and have been doing 50%daily since this all started. I have adequate filtration and have been doing 50% water changes weekly. I also use the declorinator when I add water, even letting it sit for 2-5 minutes to cure before adding to tank. I have both UVA and UVB lighting on the tank (reptisun 10.0), heat lamp… I feed them reptomin daily and turtle delight twice a week as a treat.. The water temp use to hover around 78-80 degrees, but since this has happend I turned it up to 85 degrees… Please help me someone, I feel like I am killing these guys… I have maps, painteds, musk, a snapper, various cooters and sliders (in other setups of course) so i would think that would rule out a contaminated water source… I don’t know.. Thomas

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