All Turtles Message Board

Gracey-mae06 · Guest Joined: 06 Nov 2006 Posts: 1

hi there I am just new to this board, I just acquired two turtles, they are both red sliders I belive, one of them is 19 years old and the other is 3. They have been together for 3 years and were previously in a elementary school classroom. When the school moved they no longer had space for the little fellas, so i have given them a home. I do have some experience with turtles, having had two of them several years ago. Despite this the 19 years old turtle is exhibiting some behavior I have never seen before. I have had them for 3 days and I have noticed that the older of the two the 19 year old is sneezing frequently and seems to be wheezing when he breathes.

I was just wondering if anyone had any ideas on what has caused this. I don't know if the condition was preexisting or not, the wheezing is sometimes quite bad. I was wondering if turtles can get "colds"? or if being in colder water could have created the problem?
They were perviously in cooler water and seemed to be in a somewhat dominant stage. however this was only for a brief period of time. Since I got them I have put them in proper temperature water.

the other question is about interaction, when the two of them turn face to face they gently slap their front legs against each others," like across between a game of patty cakes and a Inuit "Eskimo" kiss. it seems like a friendly gesture, but the younger one does seem to bite the older one sometimes. so i wanted to know if the leg slapping is a friendly behavior or a aggressive behavior.

thanks a lot

oh one more piece of info the older of the two is missing half of his back right legs. it was bitten off be a raccoon years ago , i don't know if this changes anything or not but i know with some animals it can.

turtle_grl77 · Level 4 Joined: 18 Nov 2005 Posts: 985 Location: Florida

First of all welcome. I think your turtle may have a resp infection, should see a vet. And the other is the mating dance I guess. Perfectly normal.

donnam · Posted: Thu Nov 16, 2006 10:22 pm Post subject:

Hi
I'm new to the site also, but not to res,that surely signs of resp infec,I thought I could nurse mine through it , but it's very serious, and usually reguires a vet visit, with meds you have to give via needle in alt leggs every day for a week, you need a vet thats a herpatoligist, I think. good luck Confused