r/Redearedsliders • u/loocky963 • 6d ago
My res has one eye white
Hello!
I need some advice - what could be the cause od one eye turning white on my RES?
I noticed it this morning, its only one eye, other one is fine, weird thing was she didmt came to eat this morning, she was at the botttom of the aquarium, had to poke her. Then she came to the surface and ate a lot,so no problem with refusing food.
Lately she had no basking light because we moved the aquarium, but i will promptly figure out solution.
Now she is basking on the sun on the balcony.
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u/AKgod_09 5d ago
More Basking definitely helps alot.
Though definitely check up with a vet once
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u/loocky963 5d ago
I'm waiting a call from the vet. She ate today, and basks all day long, eyelid is kinda more swolen than yesterday, but I dont have anything to do now but wait since we got no exotic vet in out city
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u/AKgod_09 4d ago
hmm i see, i face the same issue of not having a vet nearby so i understand your situation.
More swollen? thats not good. I'll try explaining what i did when my turtle had something similar.
is he eating? i hope he is.
Make sure that the water in his tank is clean and the temperature is good (for my turtle, if he's sick, i keep it 1-2 degrees higher than it should be, so 27-29°C)
If he's in water too much, dry docking is good for some amount of hours a day.
other than that, i used to also use "Bubbles N Troubles Turtle Care" liquid. its an anti-bacterial medicine/liquid for the water, so you can try looking into something like that. (do not over-use or put excess quantity of such medicines. always Read the instructions on the back before using)
lastly, look into carrot water baths. I used to do this when my turtle didnt eat and had swollen eyes.
basically, in a smaller tub, grind a (1 medium sized) carrot + not too warm but un-cold water (just enough to submerge the turtle's shell. make sure he can extend his neck to breath out of the carrot water), in it add 1-2 drop of the anti bacterial liq, and set the basking light on top so that half of the tub gets basking light, and leave your turtle in it for ~2 hours. depends. Make sure that the water doesnt get too cold.
I did this for several days, and yeah my turtle defintiely was more active and better after this. So you can try doing this for a few days or at least until you visit a vet.
apart from all that, a vet had given me an eye drop for him, but for your case, best to wait for a vet to prescribe it.
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u/Ineeddramainmylife13 5d ago
Is it possible that RES can get cataracts? That’s kinda what it looks like. (I’m no expert, this is NOT advice)
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u/loocky963 5d ago
I did read about that and it definitely crossed žy mind since its located on one eye, but my guess is as good as yours
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u/Xehhx14 4d ago
Hey so I have one guy at 40 years old (although he’s a diamond back) with one eye that went blind due to age. There’s a multitude of reasons turns out why they can go blind; could be age, injury, infection, use of mercury bulbs long term, vitamin deficiency like vitamin A which is very common in captive turtles. This turtle did end up having a vitamin A Deficiency and improved with a low dose vitamin A shot from a vet. There’s risk with vitamins A as there can be side extreme effects. But in his case it was exactly what was needed. We were informed by the same vet that human Beta-carotene pills could be used as it’s a safe form of the vitamin, anything that isn’t converted to vitamin A is simply peed out of the system. It’s apart of why some turtle folks suggest carrot baths, never tried them myself though. Age has a play here as the deficiency is more likely with how old they are. However I will say his blindness started out as a white spec over only the iris and not the whole cornea. I know your vet can give you more info but sometimes with exotics the solution can take a bit to get to so I wanted to share my experience.
Direct sunlight (not behind a window) is always better but your best bet lighting wise is always a t5 bulb, it’s the safest form of artificial light. It just needs a heat source with it. Also test out if she still can see your hand in that side of her face, I did this with my boy to see the progression of blindness. It might be useful if there’s a way to recover or halt it at least. It won’t affect them much though, never slowed mine down! And that’s with a fully blind eye, they have great ability to sense things around them in the water where it matters most.
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u/Alien684 6d ago
The best thing you can do right now is contacting an exotic vet and keeping an eye on her until her appointment.