Pictures finally

Ichigo is doing a little bit better. Yesterday especially, she was opening both eyes and walking around a lot and ate some shrimp. Today her eyes were bothering her again. The tank has almost fully cycled and her ammonia and nitrite levels are about zero. Nitrate levels are lowering so we are almost there. I noticed today that her water pH level went down a wee bit too much after topping her tank off with spring water so I put in some tap water today to try to level it again to about 7. She is so sensitive..... compared to Pan-kun!

Pictures finally

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.

It's the water

Ichi is sick!!!!

Now Ichi's eyes are all puffy and closed shut! The vet that we had been seeing in NYC has given Dave who happened to be in the city today new eye drop medication but I am so worried! She looks so miserable and in pain. Please pray for her.
The last few days we have been trying to figure out what was causing it and haven't been able to pinpoint anything. I wish she could tell us what is wrong.

Ichi is sick!!!!

Our new house!

Sorry I haven't updated in weeks but we have been trying to move..... and finally made it upstate! This is our new house and we were able to go to the Agway and buy Ichigo a big stock tank and set her up. She seemed really happy but now she has swollen red eyes and it's horrible! I can't find her eye medication in all our moving boxes so I gave her drops of cod liver oil hoping that it will help. I will post pictures of both her, and Pan-kun next week. Please send good thoughts to Ichi........

Our new house!

What will be Pan-kun's new tank!

This is the new tank set up we are buying for Pan-kun. We will pick it up right before or right after we move to the country in two weeks. The current owners are moving to LA and don't want to ship it so we are taking it over. They were happy that it was going to another turtle owner. Much of it is custom built.

This is the basking area.

This is the custom filter.

What will be Pan-kun's new tank!

Wooooorm

Pan-kun found a dried worm today outside and was walking around with it in his mouth just like the fake mouse. It was cute but just in case the worm had some sort of badness... I took it away.

Ichigo is still doing well. I've found that she likes new foods, watermelon and green peppers. She is shedding an average of one scute a day and soon enough her shell will look much healthier.

Wooooorm

Wish I had my camera

While cleaning Pan-kun's tank this morning, I had him walking around the kitchen. He sniffed at a fake mouse that one of my cats had been playing with, picked it up in his mouth and started walking around with it. I really wish I had had my camera.

Wish I had my camera