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By Lorraine | 27 May 2020 | 0 Comments

What Is A Respiratory Disease and How to Prevent?


You have found that turtles will float in your aquarium, and you already know that your turtles will get respiratory infections, so you should know what they are?

What is respiratory disease?

Turtles, like humans, have a pair of lungs that breathe air. Just like humans, annoying bacteria, viruses, and fungi enter their lungs, making them sick.
When these fluids begin to accumulate in the turtle's lungs, they begin to affect their buoyancy. As their condition worsened, they could not dive into the water and became very sleepy.
 


The initial symptoms of respiratory infections are as follows:
1. Bubbles or mucus may occasionally come out of your tortoise or nose.
2. Didn't eat that much.
3. It stays on its sunburn longer than usual. 

As respiratory diseases become more and more serious, the symptoms become more and more obvious:
1. The turtle turned over in the water, meaning it jumped from side to side.
2. It becomes very dull.
3. Its eyes may swell.
4. It began to gasp. This happens when more and more fluid accumulates in its lungs.
5. Once you know that your turtle may have a respiratory infection, the real challenge begins. 

In fact, treatments for turtle respiratory infections are not always effective. But it is better than nothing, at least the turtle has a little life.
The most important thing you can do is to raise your turtle's body temperature. Unlike humans, turtles are cold-blooded animals. This means that they rely on the external environment to regulate body temperature.
When humans get sick, our body temperature naturally rises to fight the disease. Turtles cannot do this by themselves, so they need a little outside help from you.

 

Steps you can do to help the turtle

If you start to notice the warning signal from RI, please do this:
1. Find a small plastic box or bathtub. You will want something smaller than your fish tank, both for hygiene reasons and because it is easier to control the temperature.
2. Add a few inches of distilled or treated water to the bathtub. You need enough water to cover the entire turtle shell, but also to allow the turtle to stay underwater without having to swim up to breathe air.
3. Adjust the water temperature to near 85 degrees Fahrenheit. Raise the sunlight temperature from 90 degrees Fahrenheit to 95 degrees Fahrenheit. Make sure no cold wind enters the room.
4. Cover the top of the bathtub with a towel or something to increase the humidity. The closer the humidity is to 75%, the better. 

If the turtle is still in the early stages of development, this treatment usually works well. You will see signs of improvement within a week or two at most.
If you do not see any signs of improvement, you may need to consider dry docking. You may need to dry it because at this time your turtle will be extremely sleepy and will not swim at all.

To learn how to dry a sick turtle, please click on an article I wrote.

How to prevent respiratory diseases?

The best way to fight against respiratory diseases is to prevent it from happening!
 
Here are the things you need to do to prevent respiratory infections
1. Make sure no airflow enters or blows into your turtle's aquarium or fence.
2. Check to make sure that your turtle's basking temperature, water temperature, and air temperature are warm enough. When the temperature drops below 50 degrees Fahrenheit, respiratory infections often occur.
3. In addition to temperature, low humidity can also cause RI. Many popular pet turtle species require 60% to 75% humidity. Make sure it suits your species.
4. Use an ultraviolet light for aquarium for 8 to 12 hours a day. It is also helpful to have 30 to 60 minutes of outdoor sunbathing once or twice a week.
5. Make sure your turtle gets enough vitamin A from their diet. Usually, this comes from dark green leafy vegetables, or cooked carrots or sweet potatoes...

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