What are the symptoms of turtle pneumonia?
Pneumonia in turtles is generally caused by temperature changes, mostly in spring and autumn. The tortoise’s pneumonia can be divided into the following three stages:
In the early stage: the tortoise pneumonia is caused by a cold, so in the early stage there will be symptoms such as runny nose, poor spirit, slow movement and so on; and Careful observation by the owner will also find that the turtle’s mouth will have white mucus and it has been floating horizontally in the water. In addition, when tortoises are sick, they will become fond of drinking water, and they will drink a lot of water.
Mid-term: After the turtle’s disease progresses further, it may go on a hunger strike or eat less, and secondly, the turtle’s breathing rate will become faster and faster, especially when it is put into the turtle. When swimming in the box, the rate of mouth breathing will be faster, and the owner can see it more intuitively.
Late stage: This stage is the turtle, which will have difficulty breathing because its nostrils are blocked by snot, or make a sound like a baby crying, and when the owner puts it into the water to swim, it will float sideways situation; at the same time its head will be lowered, because it has no strength to look up.
How is tortoise pneumonia treated?
1. Isolation, warming and resting: After the owner finds that the turtle has pneumonia, he should immediately isolate it and raise it, and at the same time replace the water in the turtle box, and it needs to be disinfected if conditions permit. Sterilize to avoid infecting other healthy turtles. Then it is necessary to warm the water in which the sick turtle is raised or put it in the sun in shallow water, as this is a great help in relieving the disease; usually the turtle will start to get better in about a week or so.
2. Drug treatment: if it is in the early stage of pneumonia, the owner can also use gentamicin and normal saline to inject turtle legs for treatment; if the turtle’s pneumonia is severe, azithromycin or amoxicillin can be used It was treated with water bath, and the water ratio was 0.5g of medicine/500ml of water, and the medicine was soaked in water once a day.
In addition, in the process of treating tortoise pneumonia, the environment and water temperature of the turtle box must be kept stable at about 28°C, and there should not be any obvious temperature difference, otherwise the turtle’s condition will be aggravated.
