baby red eared slider turtle w/ eyes swollen

[Erica_Ann]

I have a baby red eared slider turtle who is about 2 inches long. This turtle has his eyes swollen for the past 8 days and he has become more lethargic. He is in a 10 gal aquarium with a filter and heater which heats the water to about 80 degrees. There is a Dr. Turtle thing in there to help provide calcium and fight disease. I also use ammonia and chlorine remover for the water. There is 4 feeder fish in the tank as well. He has two basking spots, one stationary and one that moves with the water flow. He eats about 5 Reptimin turtle pellets a day. He won't eat other things like lettuce yet. There is a 7% UVB light on the stationary basking spot. I am now also giving him vitamin A eye drops for turtles which I got from a pet store. He has been on them for about 3 days. The pellet food also contains vitamin A. I will be getting him 2 other turtles to keep him company once he gets better. My question is should I be disinfecting his eyes in case its an infection? If so what can I use from home? I once used a dilute solution of hydrogen peroxide on my lizards before. Thanks for your help!!!!!
Erica

	Geek Auto Linker or Gallon Geek Auto Linker Gallon - United States liquid unit equal to 4 quarts or 3.785 liters

	Ultra Violet Radiation B Ultra Violet Radiation B

[JuliusSqueezer]

The eye drops should be all you need for treating the eyes. It's all part of the vitamin A defeciency. The poor health of this turtle is probably due to lack of UV and previous diet but it sounds like efforts are being made to correct all that. The bulb you are using may not be putting out enough. If you live in an area where going outside for awhile on sunny days is doable...do it. Natural sunlight for 15 minutes is better than a week under most UV lights. Lettuce is useless. There are other greens that are much better. Even romaine is just slightly better than usless but it's the better of the lettuces.

[Erica_Ann]

Thank You

[Erica_Ann]

The turtle is doing great now.

[JuliusSqueezer]

good

[Erica_Ann]

The turtle was doing good and is still doing all right but his eyes got swollen again. I think I have to take him to the vet since its been almost 2 weeks since this problem started. I am still putting the vitamin A drops in his eyes, and cleaning out the water on a regular basis although there is a filter. In case it is an eye infection I would like to clean his eyes with a disinfectant. What over the counter stuff can I use on a turtle? Thank You

[synnottpaul]

I have a similar problem, but I was told that the eye drops don’t work at all,
I changed my terrapins brand of food, a and used tonic salts in the water, and put him out in the natural sun everyday for the past month, his eyes are looking a lot better now. I was also told that the eyes could take months to heal!

Here is the brand of food on some of the ingredients.

King British Turtle & Terrapin complete food

Unique formulation inc. river shrimp, ocean shrimp, krill & vegetable pellets
With essential vitamins, minerals, trace elements of amino acids with with vitamin c. there is a website on the pack too www.sinclair-sahc.com
Try some chopped earthworms too - they are rich in protein.

Good luck, and I hope he’s on the mend!

[synnottpaul]

sorry, that link on the side of the pack was of no help, dont click on it