Reptile & Amphibian Forums

hello,

I got a RES turtle for Xmas, I've had her for a month now and she was doing fine till about a week and a half ago. She used to be active and eat the food I'd give her, but now she doesn't eat, or if she does its not much, she barely moves, she just sits on her landing and sleeps. everyonce in a while I see her like she's struggling to breathe, there are no liquids coming out of her nose, but I haven't ruled out a Respiratory infection.
I have her in a 30 gallon tank, with a filter, water heater, and two basking spots (one with a basking light, the other without), I also hava a full spectrum light, and I keep the temp around 78-81. theres plenty of water and space for her, and I clean the tank every week, with partial water changes every 3 days.
I'm I doing anything wrong? any advise would help... I know I should take her to a vet, but I'm beyond broke, I'll see if friends will help on that.
thanks in advance. ZmDf

here is a pic of when she used to be livelier...

ok so that didn't work....nevermind about the pic

Hi i can't tell you whats wrong with your turtle but what are you feeding her? When i brought my turtle mine did exactly the same was swimming everywhere and always feeding then just stopped and just stayed on his rock all day didn't eat for around a week then he slowly got better and now he is fine. i first thought he was ill due to he had eaten his first fish and the fish could have been a bad one! but I'm am thinking more of a stress problem as mine is fine but does not like being disturbed at all and swims away like mad when i go near him. when you change the water where do you put the turtle? Try and leave her for a few days if possible let her really settle in. Hope you can get an answer from someone with more no how than me. Good luck
Andy

Hi there, thanks for your response.

I put her in a one gallon tub, with a rock. and while I feed her I clean her tank. She used to eat fine in there, after she calmed down from the transfer, and once placed inside the tank again she would swim like crazy, I know she doesn't like to be carried. but now she wont struggle to get out of my hand.

anyway, it turns out it is a respiratory infection of some sort, she can't dive underwater no matter how hard she tries, and she mostly basks, sometimes under the heating lamp, other times just on the dry landing. I placed her in the one gallon tub with enough water so she didn't float (oh yeah, she floats, that's a bad sign), and I placed a few small fish and pellets, she tried going for the fish but gave up after several attempts, at least got her moving some, then she ate some of the chicken I placed as an alternate non-moving food.
she's fighting at least.

I have a vet appointment later today, I will post how that goes later.
Gambare Angie!!! (that's her name, and gambare is japanese for something like 'keep trying')

OK, so I took Angie to the vet, and now she is doing much better. He sais it wasn't a respiratory infection, but just in case gave some intibiotics. I still havent seen her eat, but he says that since I leave her in a small tub with the food pellets, that they dissolve and she sollows the food particles as she swims, so that she would be ok anyway. She is more active again, and will soon get a companion, but not until I'm sure that she is not sick, wouldn't want to get the other turtle sick.