Yellow-belly aqua terrapin      7/20/18
Hello,
<Hello Maria,>
Sorry to bother you.
<Not a problem.>
I found your site after searching on Google and I would like to ask you a question about my terrapin if possible.
<Sure thing.>
The problem is she cannot swim anymore, she cannot stand the water not for a minute and she is always basking. (temperature is right). It is not a respiratory problem either no fluid or anything wrong found in her lungs because I took her to a vet specialist and he took an w-x-ray and he told me that this is not the problem. he run some blood tests in order to see if it is an infection or something and i will have the results this coming Monday-Tuesday, he also gave her some liquid antibiotics for a week (she started them 2 days ago- i don't think they really help but let's hope so).
<Right. Now, when terrapins struggle to swim, it's often a build-up of fluid inside their lungs. Respiratory tract infections may be difficult to diagnose, but often the sick turtle will have a runny nose, may wheeze when it breathes, and may be lethargic and disinterested in food. The fact your vet ruled this out is positive, but I'd still keep an open mind, especially if you see some of the other symptoms mentioned. Other reasons for problems with swimming include constipation, egg-binding, and possibly some type of
neurological problem or bone injury.>
By this time what should I do? She likes to sit on the floor all day, dry and the only time she gets in the water is when I put her in my bath tub, put a very small quantity of water and feed her. she is still eating but with great difficulty due to the small amount of water but I can't put more because she is panicking and freaking out.
<Terrapins don't "need" to swim as such, provided they have periodic baths and access to drinking water. Of course it isn't normal for them to avoid swimming! But once they're happy and healthy, they will swim. So rather than forcing a terrapin to swim, it's a good idea to try and establish why it isn't swimming. It might be a health issue, or it might be an environmental issue. If there's another terrapin (such as a larger male) it might avoid going into the water at the same time. If the water is too cold, it will stay on land under the heat lamp. Conversely, if the water is too warm (perhaps you're using an under tank heater or a glass aquarium heater) it won't go into the water either. Focus on the terrapin and its happiness, and when it's ready, it'll go into the water.>
I wanted to tell you that for a very long period of time I've been giving her dry pellets to eat (i don't thing they are Koi pellets) - I will try to buy these next time, and a large quantity of different fruits and vegs. it
seems from what i have read that i wasn't doing well?
<Opinion is divided on products like ReptoMin. Most people think they're a good staple food, but some turtle-keepers think they're expensive for what they are, and substitute Koi pellets. Others prefer a diet based on fresh greens, such as Pondweed (Elodea spp.), with dried foods used only sparingly, if at all. Either way, you aren't likely to be doing any harm with ReptoMin, but you probably should add at least some fresh greens now and again. Fresh greens helps provide fibre, which prevents constipation.>
fruits are full of sugars and she must not eat them but very rarely? once a month ?
<Something like that. While terrapins will certainly eat fruits, they're a now-and-again thing, maybe once every couple weeks.>
Can you tell me if this is maybe the reason of her bad buoyancy in the water and maybe she has internal bacterial infection that can cause gas bubbles in the abdomen?
<It would seem unlikely. Assuming a diet based mostly on ReptoMin (or some similar, turtle-food product) with occasional fruits, your terrapin should be perfectly healthy. A little constipated perhaps! But ReptoMin has calcium and phosphorus, so its bones should be fine, and the fruits should provide a top-up of vitamins as well.>
If that's the case the blood tests would be able to show it?
<Hard to say; your vet will be able to advise here. But personally, I'd review diet, review the environment, finish the antibiotics as prescribed by the vet, and then see what happens.>
Thank you so much for an answer. I really appreciate it. My terrapin is 15 years old. I've had her since she was a baby.
Maria
<15 years isn't bad! So clearly you must be doing something right. Good luck, Neale.>
Re: Yellow-belly aqua terrapin     7/31/18
Hello,
Thank you so much for your previous prompt reply. I greatly appreciate it.
I am writing again because I am so worried about my terrapin.
<Glad to help, and understand your worries.>
Although I am giving her the antibiotics for 2 weeks now as the vet specialist suggested, she doesn't seem to get better. The vet told me that after checking her blood results he definitely sees a kind of inflammation in her body but he cannot tell why she doesn't want to swim any more.
<Is she perhaps egg-bound? Have you asked the vet about that? It is quite common with female turtles. In short, whether or not the turtle mates, a female turtle will sometimes produce unfertilised eggs, a bit like a chicken does. It will be desperate to lay them. If they don't come out, they will rot, causing serious infection and eventually death. Getting the turtle to lay the eggs isn't too difficult though. All you need is a container with a mixture of earth and sand in it. Now, this might get complicated to set up, but the basic idea is this: change the aquarium you have so that you have a bit of water, the rocks, and then by the rock, a plastic food tub (or similar) containing the sand/earth mixture. The idea is that this sand/earth mixture is dry, warm, and easy to get to. Make sense? Don't worry that she won't have much swimming room. Not a problem for a few days or a couple weeks!>
It's not a respiratory problem, it is just an infection, could that make it impossible for her to swim? He told me to continue with the antibiotics but it's been 2 weeks now and they don't help with the swimming problem. She still has a great appetite and enjoys walking around the house and hiding behind dark safe places but when I put her in the aquarium (even without water at all !) she is panicking, she is acting like crazy.
<See, when females want to lay eggs, being in the water frightens them.
They want to be on land, because the eggs will "drown" underwater. Does that make sense?>
She eats every day in my bath tub (with a shallow water) and she is acting normal while she is eating. When she stops eating she is starting to panic! What else can I do? How long can she live outside the water?
<Indefinitely, so long as she drinks.>
It's been 2 months now that she cannot swim at all (and she doesn't bask either).
Please help me if you can.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1IHuOtGYHZEcVdNc6SFOWtejj-qB_upqL/view?usp=drive_web
can you see the video i have sent you?
<Yes, it helps a lot. The behaviour of this turtle is very similar to a female who wants to lay her eggs.>
please ask me if you need to know anything else...
thank you so much....
Maria
<Here's some further reading:
http://www.tortoisetrust.org/articles/Nestsites.htm
http://www.redearslider.com/reproduction.html
Your vet will understand what "egg binding" or "dystocia" mean, and this might help him/her pinpoint the problem. But see if the sand/earth mixture works first, and this will be a quick, inexpensive fix! Let us known what happens. Cheers, Neale.>
Re: Yellow-belly aqua terrapin (Darrel, Mick, can you look at this video and check my reply)     7/31/18
Oh Neale thank you so much again for replying!
<Welcome.>
I am sorry but I forgot to tell you that she is not egg-bound... We are now in month July 2018, she was egg-bound (for the second time in her life) in April 2018 and she laid 12 eggs till end of June 2018. She was extremely stressed out (you cannot imagine how much !), I did create this container you mention but she didn't like it, I tried to get her out in the garden, she tried to dig a lot in the sand but eventually she didn't like it either so she laid all her eggs (not in a row: 4-5 different times) in the water, in her aquarium (like she had done the previous year because back then we didn't even know that she could be gravid!).
<Understood.>
She couldn't lay her last 3 eggs (out of 12) so we took her to the vet and he made her a calcium injection so she did lay them so we thought that everything would be OK. After some days when we saw that she wasn't getting any better, in fact she got worse) and she couldn't swim at all we took her back to the vet and he made an X-Ray just to be sure she doesn't have more eggs.
<Good.>
The X-Ray showed that she didn't have more eggs, that's why we started the antibiotics to see if she will feel better (but she doesn't).
<Did the vet think a vitamin A or vitamin D injection might help?>
Do you believe that it is just STRESS because she had such a difficult period of time trying to lay her eggs and now she doesn't want to swim or even be near the water again? (only when she is eating she seems OK).
<There's certainly no need to force a turtle to swim if she doesn't want to.>
I am going crazy. Can I let her live like that for the rest of her life?
Feeding her only for 5 minutes in the bath-tab, drinking water and then letting her around the house, sleeping and hiding underneath the carpet and safe places in the house? For how long can she live like that?
<Some weeks, anyway. It's not a fun life for the turtle though. They should have at least the option of swimming, even if it's nothing more than a few inches of water that cools them down.>
If you tell me indefinitely, I will do that! but I don't believe she can because she is not even basking now. I've put the heating lamp on the floor but she doesn't prefer to go there under the heat. She likes to hide
under the carpet or other dark places in the house (but she seems to be OK when she does that..).
<She may be too hot. Is the water at room temperature or heated? In the "olden days" when I kept turtles as a child, it was common to put a heater in the water. We now understand this isn't ideal. It is much better the turtle can warm up on land, and cool down in the water. All reptiles need to have warm and cool areas that they can move between. This is how they regulate body temperature.>
I promise I will not bother you again. Can you please guess what it might be ?
<Honestly, running out of ideas. If a vet can't see anything obviously wrong, and antibiotics have been administered, then your turtle may simply be stressed or just plain nuts. Observation is probably the best move here.
Offer your turtle a range of foods, and a variety of places to sit, hide or swim. See what she does.>
Thank you so much.
Maria
<Good luck! Neale.>
Re: Yellow-belly aqua terrapin (Darrel, Mick, can you look at this video and check my reply)     7/31/18
Thank you very much Neale. I will follow your instructions and I hope she will not die from being out of the water for so long because it has been months since she is doing it...
<So long as she can drink and bathe, and doesn't overheat, she'll be fine.
In short: give her a tank with a low, shallow basin of water to cool down in, clean water to drink, and the heat lamp kept away from the cool water.
Terrapins and turtles will dry out quickly, which is why they need easy access to drinking and bathing water, even if they don't want to swim. Look up "dry docking" turtles in Google to see pictures of this sort of set-up.>
I will also tell the vet about the vitamin a and d injection....
<Cool.>
Maria
<Good luck, Neale.>
Re: Yellow-belly aqua terrapin     7/31/18
Hello,
Thank you so much for your previous prompt reply. I greatly appreciate it.
I am writing again because I am so worried about my terrapin.
<Glad to help, and understand your worries.>
Although I am giving her the antibiotics for 2 weeks now as the vet specialist suggested, she doesn't seem to get better. The vet told me that after checking her blood results he definitely sees a kind of inflammation in her body but he cannot tell why she doesn't want to swim any more.
<Is she perhaps egg-bound? Have you asked the vet about that? It is quite common with female turtles. In short, whether or not the turtle mates, a female turtle will sometimes produce unfertilised eggs, a bit like a chicken does. It will be desperate to lay them. If they don't come out, they will rot, causing serious infection and eventually death. Getting the turtle to lay the eggs isn't too difficult though. All you need is a container with a mixture of earth and sand in it. Now, this might get complicated to set up, but the basic idea is this: change the aquarium you have so that you have a bit of water, the rocks, and then by the rock, a plastic food tub (or similar) containing the sand/earth mixture. The idea is that this sand/earth mixture is dry, warm, and easy to get to. Make sense? Don't worry that she won't have much swimming room. Not a problem for a few days or a couple weeks!>
It's not a respiratory problem, it is just an infection, could that make it impossible for her to swim? He told me to continue with the antibiotics but it's been 2 weeks now and they don't help with the swimming problem. She still has a great appetite and enjoys walking around the house and hiding behind dark safe places but when I put her in the aquarium (even without water at all !) she is panicking, she is acting like crazy.
<See, when females want to lay eggs, being in the water frightens them.
They want to be on land, because the eggs will "drown" underwater. Does that make sense?>
She eats every day in my bath tub (with a shallow water) and she is acting normal while she is eating. When she stops eating she is starting to panic! What else can I do? How long can she live outside the water?
<Indefinitely, so long as she drinks.>
It's been 2 months now that she cannot swim at all (and she doesn't bask either).
Please help me if you can.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1IHuOtGYHZEcVdNc6SFOWtejj-qB_upqL/view?usp=drive_web
can you see the video i have sent you?
<Yes, it helps a lot. The behaviour of this turtle is very similar to a female who wants to lay her eggs.>
please ask me if you need to know anything else...
thank you so much....
Maria
<Here's some further reading:
http://www.tortoisetrust.org/articles/Nestsites.htm
http://www.redearslider.com/reproduction.html
Your vet will understand what "egg binding" or "dystocia" mean, and this might help him/her pinpoint the problem. But see if the sand/earth mixture works first, and this will be a quick, inexpensive fix! Let us known what happens. Cheers, Neale.>
Re: Yellow-belly aqua terrapin (Darrel, Mick, can you look at this video and check my reply)     7/31/18
Oh Neale thank you so much again for replying!
<Welcome.>
I am sorry but I forgot to tell you that she is not egg-bound... We are now in month July 2018, she was egg-bound (for the second time in her life) in April 2018 and she laid 12 eggs till end of June 2018. She was extremely stressed out (you cannot imagine how much !), I did create this container you mention but she didn't like it, I tried to get her out in the garden, she tried to dig a lot in the sand but eventually she didn't like it either so she laid all her eggs (not in a row: 4-5 different times) in the water, in her aquarium (like she had done the previous year because back then we didn't even know that she could be gravid!).
<Understood.>
She couldn't lay her last 3 eggs (out of 12) so we took her to the vet and he made her a calcium injection so she did lay them so we thought that everything would be OK. After some days when we saw that she wasn't getting any better, in fact she got worse) and she couldn't swim at all we took her back to the vet and he made an X-Ray just to be sure she doesn't have more eggs.
<Good.>
The X-Ray showed that she didn't have more eggs, that's why we started the antibiotics to see if she will feel better (but she doesn't).
<Did the vet think a vitamin A or vitamin D injection might help?>
Do you believe that it is just STRESS because she had such a difficult period of time trying to lay her eggs and now she doesn't want to swim or even be near the water again? (only when she is eating she seems OK).
<There's certainly no need to force a turtle to swim if she doesn't want to.>
I am going crazy. Can I let her live like that for the rest of her life?
Feeding her only for 5 minutes in the bath-tab, drinking water and then letting her around the house, sleeping and hiding underneath the carpet and safe places in the house? For how long can she live like that?
<Some weeks, anyway. It's not a fun life for the turtle though. They should have at least the option of swimming, even if it's nothing more than a few inches of water that cools them down.>
If you tell me indefinitely, I will do that! but I don't believe she can because she is not even basking now. I've put the heating lamp on the floor but she doesn't prefer to go there under the heat. She likes to hide
under the carpet or other dark places in the house (but she seems to be OK when she does that..).
<She may be too hot. Is the water at room temperature or heated? In the "olden days" when I kept turtles as a child, it was common to put a heater in the water. We now understand this isn't ideal. It is much better the turtle can warm up on land, and cool down in the water. All reptiles need to have warm and cool areas that they can move between. This is how they regulate body temperature.>
I promise I will not bother you again. Can you please guess what it might be ?
<Honestly, running out of ideas. If a vet can't see anything obviously wrong, and antibiotics have been administered, then your turtle may simply be stressed or just plain nuts. Observation is probably the best move here.
Offer your turtle a range of foods, and a variety of places to sit, hide or swim. See what she does.>
Thank you so much.
Maria
<Good luck! Neale.>
Re: Yellow-belly aqua terrapin (Darrel, Mick, can you look at this video and check my reply)     7/31/18
Thank you very much Neale. I will follow your instructions and I hope she will not die from being out of the water for so long because it has been months since she is doing it...
<So long as she can drink and bathe, and doesn't overheat, she'll be fine.
In short: give her a tank with a low, shallow basin of water to cool down in, clean water to drink, and the heat lamp kept away from the cool water.
Terrapins and turtles will dry out quickly, which is why they need easy access to drinking and bathing water, even if they don't want to swim. Look up "dry docking" turtles in Google to see pictures of this sort of set-up.>
I will also tell the vet about the vitamin a and d injection....
<Cool.>
Maria
<Good luck, Neale.>

Re: Yellow-belly aqua terrapin (Darrel, Mick, can you look at this video and check my reply)     8/31/18
Hello Neale,
Can I please bother you with one more question?
<Fire away.>
My turtle is a little bit whitish (face and shell) - do you thing it is dryness because she stays out of the water a lot? is it dangerous? i try to put her in the water (i bought her a new pool and she seems to enjoy it gradually (at first she was panicking from the first minute but now she eats in there and she stays a little bit longer..).
<Cool.>
or it can be from taking a lot of calcium in her diet? I noticed that these pellets i am giving her don't contain calcium (they write that they contain a lot of vitamins but they don't mention calcium) so i decided to give her calcium dust supplement (because she was also gravid laying all these 12 eggs and she couldn't lay the last 3 ones and when the vet made her the calcium injection she did lay all of them), so i thought she doesn't take much calcium...Maybe i am wrong? i should stop giving her calcium supplements?
<She's unlikely to overdose on calcium. Calcium salts are easily excreted by reptiles, so it's unlikely they'll take in too much at one time -- unless you're absolutely crazy and ramming cuttlebone shells down their throats! So adding calcium powder to reptile food, or leaving them a cuttlebone to nibble on, is all perfectly safe.>
thank you so much for your reply. i am attaching 2 photos to see how "white" she seems....
<This is quite normal for turtles that aren't in the water too much. The shell dries out, and the older 'scutes' (from the Latin, scutum, meaning shield) dry out and flake off. This is absolutely normal, even healthy. If the scutes don't come off, it's actually possible for the shell to become deformed or infected with fungus. Indeed, your turtle's shell looks fine, and if it smells nice, she's probably in good health. Infected shells have a nasty, rotten smell. Very distinctive!>
Maria
<Hope this helps, Maria. Cheers, Neale.>

Re: Yellow-belly aqua terrapin (Darrel, Mick, can you look at this video and check my reply)     8/31/18
Thank you so much Neale. You are so cool.
<My students wouldn't say that!>
You are a web reptile doctor!
<Actually, I'm a doctor of rocks! Fish (and turtles) are just for fun.>
Please continue what you are doing - it is absolutely amazing...You help so many people who don't have an easy access to a professional vet in their area...
<And thank you SO much for these very kind words.>
Thank you,
Maria
<Good luck, and keep us posted. Neale.>

Re: Yellow-belly aqua terrapin     9/1/18
sorry to ask.....what s exactly a rock doctor ????
<Oh! I mean my PhD is in geology. Specifically, ammonites.>
Maria
<Take care, Neale.>