Reptile & Amphibian Forums

A month ago, my very young painted turtle started gasping. Everyone I spoke to said he had a respiratory infection. All the sources i visited for info on this said they usually die within a week, weel he lived nearly a month before he died from not eating. Now my other two turtles are doing the same thing. I isolated the first turtle as soon as i saw the signs, its been a few weeks since he died and now the others are gasping and not eating. Any ideas? could there be something in the water? Lacie143@thisis.com

died from not eating....in amonth?
a turtle?
never.
well , not likely anyway.
There are tons of stories (i could bore you with some of my onwn) of four, even six month hunger strike turtles from before we decided it was "okay" to tube feed them.
gaping is often a sign of respitorty distress and is sometimes a symptom of a bacterial infection which has aggravated the lungs.
Concomitant with such irritaion is a loss of appetite but if death occurs it is usually due to mass systemic spread of the bacteria and resultant organ failure or the turtle drowning on built up fluid in its lungs.
BUT
the good news is many turtles with these "respitory infections" respond very well to antibiotics.
As I write, i am looking at a thought-to-be-doomed false map turtle whose gaping (and not eating) persisted for a week before he was brought to me. A trip to the vet
three weeks of amakacin
later and now he eats more than i would like to feed him. But the recovery process is long. and yes, these things do seem to be contagious.
The red eared slider with whom he shared his tank died of the infection (eating right up to the last day)
I'd go see a vet soon
and quarantine the sick turtles.

If you are having this problem again, you should take a close look at your husbandry habits and make sure your housing situation is not contributing to them becoming ill.

can you give me an idea of what it could be. I have fish in there that are doing fine, i've had the tank set up since february and i am just now, the past month, having problems. These arent my first turtles, but this is definatly the nicest habitat i have created. They arent gasping anymore, when they were it wasnt often. Now they are just being lazy. I did have two comets in there that got rather large- 3 inches, so i took them out incase the turtles - 1 inch - were scared of them. They are now in my fish tank. i've never had this kind of problem. It is so bizar to me. I've had turtles- mainly box turtles- for atleast 7 years. I've never had one die. ive had them run away (ourside habiatat that *somehow* failed) and one was actually carried off by a bird while i was on vacation. My grandmother was watching them and didnt realize their were animals under the wire lid of the 'garden.' very sad. But never have they beenn sick. Any ideaS/?

The main culprits of respiratory problems are:

1) cool drafts

2) air temps below water temps

3) too low temps for a long period in general (though with painteds this would be rare)

I would suggest making sure no drafts are going through the tank (you can place a candle around different areas and watch the flame).

Then I would make sure your water temps are not exceeding your air temps. If your house is staying in the low to mid seventies, don't use a heater in the water at all, just use your basking lights. They can better handle cool water and warm basking then they can the opposite. Letting the water warm up to about high seventies is as far as I would ever let it get. basking temps can be, and should be, all over the place. I try to provide at least two spots, one in the mid 80s and one in the 90's, so they can choose where to sit.