Eastern Long Neck Turtle REALLY sick Any HELP and ADVICE appreciated!

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Jaded

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Hi All,
I am looking desperately for help with my Eastern Long Neck Turtle. He has been unwell for a few days now. Maybe Tueday/Wednesday I first notice something wrong. He was on the dock sleeping (never does this) and wouldnt respond to sound usually comes looking for food when he hears someone. Anyway he finally woke and we put him in the water to feed him. From then on he was on the dock every time I went out and never ran back into the water like he normally would. Started to eat less by Thursday.
I took him to the vet Thurday night and they could not help me because everything looked normal. So they referred me to a specialist for reptiles and I went on the Friday. They looked him all over. His shell was perfect, his body was fine there was nothing unusual about him physically at all. They checked in his mouth and everything was normal. The only thing they noted is he was a bit thin which they assume he had slowly not been eating as much as normal and started loosing weight which cant really be seen on the surface (she felt his body inside his shell.) The only other way to find anything wrong is blood tests but he is quite small and she said they wouldnt get enough blood to do all the tests theyd need to. So I was prescribed a general antibiotic to fight any internal infection he may have. This is a needle I need to give him every 3 days. He had the first dose Friday at the vet.
After coming home that day he will now not eat at all. He sleeps alot and he will not swim by choice. I put him in the water twice a day to attempt to feed him which he will not eat. He does not really swim just floats. When he does swim he still just floats but not lopsided at all just straight. When he is on the dock, he just sits there with his head laying along the dock and he sleeps alot. His eyes are often closed.
I am just at wits end there is nothing else I can do for him besides his antibiotics and persisting with offering him food. (he eats a mix of things mainly turtle blocks but he has blood worms as a treat and the odd live fish.)
I guess I feel Ive done all I can do for him by getting him looked at by a specialist but I would really like to know whats wrong with him. I have googled and read so many things and Im really no closer to a solution.
If anyone has any ideas Id really love to hear. Although ultimately Id love to be able to heal him and get him back to normal, I really would just love to know what is actually wrong with him.
As I said everything else about him seems perfectly normal as far as his shell and skin etc so whatever it is has to be an internal problem.

I apologise for the long post, I wanted to add in as much detail regarding whats been going on as possible.
Thanks in advance for any help you can offer.
 
ok
first off turtle blocks arnt a good main food for the turtle , feeder fish , crickets , cockroaches , ect , ect .[ anything thing in the wild that can fall or live in the water where the turtles live are fair game] .
what is the antibiotic , as in name . because there are antibiotics that can cause great pain and even kill turtles .
 
what temp is the water sounds like he wants to hibernate...how old is he??
feed him lots of fish also could have a rspiratory infection.
 
He is about 14 months old I believe. We got him at around 8 months towards the end of last year. The temperature of the water is 26 now at the specialists advice. It was at 24 but she suggested putting it up a tad while he seems unwell. With the turtle blocks we often put calcium in the middle and its not all we give him. We do offer live fish but he eats the blocks more. We could throw in some crickets because we have crickets on hand for our frog.
I did think of the respiratory infection but I read that they dont seem to float straight when they suffer from that and he is floating perfectly level. Im sure its not just hibernation because he actually lays limp on the dock he has gotten progressively worse over the past few days. He did actually go into the water on his own this afternoon which he wasnt doing and he floated around, swimming slowly before getting out again. He seems really weak. He would not take any food again today while he was swimming.
The antibiotic we got says "fortum" on the label. We went to a turtle specialist so I hope they havent given us something that can harm him further.
I really think the outlook is grim but I just dont know whats going on.
 
Why dont you google australianfreshwaterturtle. you may find all the info you need.
 
Being a long time reader of this forum, I thought this might be a good place to try... Thanks anyway...
 
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i think peter is referring to the australian freshwater turtles forum...which would probably be the best place for info on turtles on the net that i know of.
 
How is the water quality - regular large changes, good filtering, etc? Turtles can foul their water pretty quickly, especially if you are feeding them in the same tank as the one in which they live. If you're not doing this already, try feeding in a separate tank (even just a cheap plastic one), get the water from the main tank, throw the water away when the turtle has finished feeding and top the main tank up with fresh water. One way or another, I recommend replacing about 20% of the water every week. Activated charcoal in the filter would also be a good idea (but not if you're putting medication in the water because the charcoal will absorb it).
 
hi :) i know this is an old thread but just wondering if you found out what was wrong with your turtle? i have a turle here, exact same symptoms as what yours had, hes lived in a pond in my backyard for the last five years or so, im not sure how old he is but anyway, i took him to the vet today who said he had septicemia and gave him an injection which i need to repeat every 3 days. i have 2 weeks worth of injections and the vet said id need to take him back in 2 weeks to get checked again. i spent all morning googling 'sick turtle floating eyes closed' and this is what i kept coming up with lol so hopefully this info helps someone :)
 
have u tryed blood worms mine loves it healthy as too and blood worm is easy to put on a spoon and put in the mouth
 
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