Austin's Turtle Page:

ATP Medical - Eyes and Ears

although Vitamin A drops are not recommended due to their toxicity.

They also have a Forum so it might be worth searching through that to see if you can find any information or even joining and posting. Do bear in mind though that it is an American site!

We did have one with a scratch by her eye caused by another unintentionally and bathed it with cod liver oil. However, it smells somewhat and despite bathing after leaving her dry docking for a while when she returned to her tank mates they went crazy thinking she was food. Obviously she was removed quickly - we found it really didn't work and she need antibiotics.

 

The vet I saw said vitamin A deficiency didn't require antibiotics so she gave me antibiotic eye drops instead her eyes are still closed. Should I continue with the eye drops she gave me instead of the vitamin shop bought ones? This is why I'm changing her vet she really wasn't very useful I just really am desperate to get her to eat and to open her eyes a month is to long.

 

also ive just read you can force feed with a syringe mashed up sweet potato like a baby consistency BEFORE YOU ALL TRY TO HUNT ME DOWN im just asking is this something to consider to get her to eat do you think?

 

VItamin A shortage is a potential killer and I hope to see the industry wake up and release more info about it. IN fact it was this very topic that started me writing my latest book. It was an article for PRK about vit A that ended up getting out of hand........

but, pure vit A does have a toxic level if supplied in a pure form, much the same as D3 does if provided for as a supplement.

on the other hand vitamin A can be produced inside of the body in a very safe way through beta carotene. If you use B.C supplements or feed plants etc. that are high in B.C this will help greatly. But you can also use fish and eggs and crustaceans of course.

I would want to know from the vet juts how depleted it is and what would be the safe level of supplement to use in a pure form. you can then use the pure form to balance the blood levels and then move to a maintenance of B.C.

this needs careful vet monitoring. Bloods will be required

john

 

on the other hand vitamin A can be produced inside of the body in a very safe way through beta carotene. If you use B.C supplements or feed plants etc. that are high in B.C this will help greatly. But you can also use fish and eggs and crustaceans of course.

As far as I was aware we didn't actually know if reptiles could do this?

"A source of preformed vitamin A may be required because it is not known if reptiles can convert carotenes to retinol (vitamin A), although it is likely that herbivorous reptiles can." From Merck Manual

I would want to know from the vet juts how depleted it is and what would be the safe level of supplement to use in a pure form. you can then use the pure form to balance the blood levels and then move to a maintenance of B.C.

this needs careful vet monitoring. Bloods will be required

john

Thing is though, again, it's not quite as simple as a blood test in most cases. Not only due to reasons such as small animals / lack of funds etc, but also:

"although a blood sample is relatively easy to collect, a vitamin A assay of the blood sample may not yield a meaningful result. This is because retinol binding proteins in blood tend to maintain blood levels of vitamin A at fairly stable levels unless liver stores are severely depleted or in cases of hypervitaminosis A" (Schweigert et. al., 1991).

 

I posted this on my other thread so ill post it here to just a quick update on her and also to add to what i posted earlier her eyes seem to be easing there is a tiny gap opening up instead of being totally sealed

she picked up today when I switched the lights on this morning she was swimming about, gave her her first eye bathe with the cod liver oil this afternoon her eyes are still closed BUT the new filter I got last week has a foot long spray pump so I thought if I put some food in her tank and the pump swirls it about it may look like live food. No word of a lie she was like a shark and devoured dried shrimp,pellets, and repti sticks I just put a bit if everything in whilst she was eating and she ate it shell need a clean out tomorrow though lol but total different turtle to yesterday. Just wanted to let you know her little bit of good news and hopefully have some more soon. Thanks so much for everyone's advice hopefully she's on the mend x

 

Great news keep up the treatment it will take many weeks. You then need to sort the diet s does not happen again
We only feed tetramin Koi food with added colour enhancers and have had no problem with these pellets for many years and as a bonus do not foul the water

 

I dont normally feed her in the tank but its due to be fully cleaned tomorrow and thought there was nothing to lose so tried it and for some reason it worked. Im still going to keep her vet appointment on wed though just to make sure nothing else is going on. The diet is DEFINITELY having a huge over haul lol ive researched hugely and took on board everything everyone has posted and made a turtle bible to keep checking up on am not even joking . Im just really pleased for her as she must have been miserable.