Why has my turtle got swollen closed eyes?

Question

Its a map turtle and he seems to be getting better after a week of pet shop bought eye drops. Why did this happen?

Answer 1

Eye infections are the result of poor diet (usually vitamin A), dirty water, or stress- and often all three at once.

Home treatment is often effective, but if there is no improvement after about a week, a vet should be consulted.

External eye drops provide only temprorary relief and not really any cure.

Try this:
1. Boost tank temps about 5 degrees. For a map turtle, this means that instead of 75-80, we'll go about 80-85F.
2. Clean the tank VERY well. Scrub the walls and substrate. Work to keep the water clean.
3. Boost the basking temps, from a typical 85-90 to about 100F (Maps like warm basking sites!)
4. Review the diet. This caresheet talks about diet, and other things: http://www.austinsturtlepage.com/Care/caresheet-northern_map.htm
5. Leave it alone. Avoid handling it, making a lot of noise near it, staring at it from overhead, etc.

We often find that turtles with swollen eyes are being kept in tanks that are too small, poorly filtered (if at all), poorly lit (usually no allowance for UVB lighting, which helps turltles so much!)- and all of this is usually because they got bad care advice somewhere.

Besides the above link, try the main site ( http://www.austinsturtlepage.com ) for more ideas.

Answer 2

If a turtle's eyes are swollen, often shut, they either have an infection (conjunctivitis) or a Vitamin A deficiency. Either way, they again will require antibiotics to recover. It will NOT get better on its own. A turtle with swollen eyes will stop eating and become listless and eventually die without treatment. If the infection is severe, the eyes may have to be lanced, something ONLY a professional should ever do. The antibiotic of choice for my vet was triple antibiotic with neomycin, polymyxin B sulfates, and bacitracin zinc.

Swollen eyes usually are due to a vitamin deficiency (Vitamins A and/or D). Turtles need plenty of Vitamin A for their eyes from Vitamin A and B-carotene which are provided in meats (as Vitamin A) and caretonoid-rich foods like mango, carrots, sweet potato, tomatoes, etc. I test for Vitamins A and D in foods as part of my job as a chemist so I know which foods are good choices. Reptiles including turtles should also have their diets supplemented with reptile vitamins by coating some of their food in store-bought reptile vitamin dusts. UV radiation from full spectrum natural sunlight or full spectrum fluorescent lights is needed for turtles to make Vitamin D. If turtles do not get the proper lighting or diet, their eyes will swell up and often seal shut. If changing to a good diet and lighting does not fix the problem, then antibiotics will have to be applied (triple antibiotic). Sometimes conjuntivitis (infected eyes) is not related to diet or lighting but that is more rare. In severe cases, a vet may have to lance pus out of infected eyes.

Answer 3

There's a couple of things that can cause this.

You're not keeping the cage clean enough, which makes it very easy for infections to take hold.

Or the turtles not getting enough vitamins and minerals in its diet to keep its immune system running properly.

Answer 4

Maybe something got in it's tank and tainted it somehow.

Answer 5

EYE INFECTION!

Answer 6

you probably gave him/her something it didn't need