Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hello,
My male 3-toed box turtle got sick last summer (swollen eyse, loss of appetite). I took him to the vet, and got Baytril antibiotics prescribed to inject every other day for 10 days. He made a full recovery, had a great rest of the summer, and hibernated just fine. Well, this past week-end, I found him in his hide, with the same symptoms as last summer. My question is; Should I start with the Baytril injections again, using the leftovers from last summer? The expiration date says 07/08, it has been kept at room temperature this past year. Or, is a trip the vet in order? He has been brought inside and is being kept warm.

Take your turtle to the vet and have a culture done to see if another antibiotic is necessary.

Just out of curiosity, how is that you have leftover Baytril?

Hello,
Thanks for the reply. A culture was never done last summer, the vet said that he had "some type of infection" and that Baytril would help him out.
I used the prescribed amount for the time period as instructed, and only about half of the medication was used. Maybe they give you extra to account for errors?
Just out of curiosity, how is a culture done, through a blood sample?
On a different note, my picture keeps attaching to any post I do, how do I delete it?

You know, I'm not exactly sure how cultures are taken....I would guess just swabbing, possibly blood work too. The point is, if your turtle has a recurring infection, it might need a different drug to knock it out.

I asked about the leftovers because, on the occasions when I've had a turtle in need of antibiotics, the vet has sent me home with a supply of 'loaded' syringes, so I never had any 'extra' after running the full course.

I don't know about removing the photo. Sorry.

Are his eyes swollen shut? If so, thats the
cause of the lack of appetite.

Does he have signs of a respiratory infection,
runny nose, foamy mouth?

I've had that several times and I usually put them
in a plastic tub with a heat pad (under the tub)
or a basking light. I make sure they get a good
soak every day and it clears up.

Since you have the baytril, I'd probably try that and
keep him warm and hydrated, although if there is no sign
of respiratory infection, maybe try the "warmth and
hydration" first.

Thank you for replying. His eyes are swollen shut, but I have been soaking him in warm water. When I do the soak, his eyes open up, but about 1/2 hour later they are closed again. No runny nose, no foamy mouth, no gasping motion or noise. I have a heat lamp on one side of the tub he's in, and he's been sitting under it. I will try the Baytril, I just wanted to make sure it was safe to use after sitting for a year.

I had the same problem with my Ornate. The vet told me to put A&D Vitamin ointment on both eyes (also the baytril). Make sure it says Vitamin ointment. Mix the A&D vitamin ointment with Triple antibiotic ointment and put it on three times a day, while soaking in warm water. He also said to up the heat in her vervirium (I had to keep her in a vervarium with a lot of plants for humidity). I did this for 7 days, and finally by the 8th day she opened her eyes and after that just got better. Good luck.

Where do you find the A&D ointment? I've never
seen that before. Could definately use it right
now.

By the way, the ornate you have photo looks very
much like my Dottie who dug her first nest of the
season Saturday night.

Yeah, I have used and abused leftover Baytril without any problem.

I've got two 3 toeds like that, main problem seems to be eyes.

We've had a very unusual (for late May) long run of cool, rainy weather and I'm seeing more problems.

Funny how you never know what they're carrying: the first ever time I had a turtle develop URI/ ear infection symptoms, the vet did the surgery and gave the turtle a course of antibiotics (after culturing the bacteria). Things seemed to improve right away.

I over wintered the turtle inside, and by spring the ear infection was back, culture showed different bacteria, so a different antibiotic was used, turtle has been fine for years now. If we had just repeated the original antibiotic, it wouldn't have had any effect.

I'm late on this but I have to agree with Steph, the best thing to do would be have this cultured to find out what it is.
The reason is because when you find out exactly what the bacterium is then the vet can either look in a book to find out what works on it or if the culture has been sent to a lab then the lab that runs the test will send a print out that will tell the vet exactly what antibiotics will kill it.

I had this problem with Janie so the vet prescribed an antibiotic that has worked for her with other turtles. Didn't work on Janie. At the time I happened to have fresh chloramphenicol on hand that was compounded into strawberry flavor that our vet had prescribed for my rats. So the vet worked out a dose for Janie.
We used that for Janie and it did work. If it hadn't our next step would have been blood work & a culture.
If we had kept her on that first antibiotic she would have only gotten sicker.
-----
PHRatz

Hello,
Thanks for all the replies. I just wanted to report that after a couple of Baytril injections, my turtle is starting to improve. His eyes are not swollen shut anymore, but he still is not back to his old self yet. I will continue treatment and look forward to him getting his appetite back and returning to his outside enclosure with his three pen mates.