Thursday, September 18, 2008

It's the water

So we've basically figured out what happened to Ichigo's eyes.
The water where we now live that comes out of the tap is Alkaline and reads about 8.8 so we got a bunch of spring water and switched to that. The pH now reads around 7.5. Then we realized that we neglected to read more about filters and had no idea that the tank takes weeks to cycle and the newly added water had Nitrite spikes up the wazoo. We are trying to deal with that by adding Stress Zyme beneficial bacteria but also found a refrigerated product that claims to help the cycling even faster which we ordered and should be here via Fed Ex tomorrow.
We went to see a new vet who also thought it was the water last week and he gave us a different antibiotic eye drop but now that we are trying to build the beneficial bacteria in the tank, I am stopping the use of that which could kill some of the bacteria we need.
She is very active all day long but was having trouble with her appetite so I've started feeding her tuna in a separate small tank. Our old vet had suggested we get her to eat ANYTHING that she will put in her mouth just to get her digestive system going again so I've gone to her favorite stinky food.
She isn't getting any worse and I think is slowly, very slowly getting better, opening her eyes for longer periods of time each day.
I know she had a slightly red right eye even before we moved so there may have been something going on before we moved and the water changes made whatever she had blow up.

A few of you had mentioned it might be the UV light, but I am using the same one I have been using since we got her in May so it can't be that. I measured how far it is from her dock and it is not too close. I wish it were as simple as just being the light.
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2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi Hanna,

Oh I'm so glad you guys figured out it was the water. Whew. Very Sherlock Holmes for heaven's sake! I know how gut wrenching it is when your baby is sick and you don't know what causes it.

I wish Ichigo and all of you good health and good fortune in your new home.

denise

Hanna said...

Thanks Denise! She is doing better although today wasn't such a good day for her, one of her eyes was really bothering her. She is so sensitive, unlike Pan-kun the other turtle we have.