Hi! Introduce yourselves here. :: Tibby sends greetings from Virginia!

[simplehiccup]

Hello Everyone!
We have cared for Tibby for 6 years. We rescued him in Hawaii after a sad beginning: shell trauma, underweight, foot trauma. The vets are unable to determine an age, but the best guess is that he was about 7-10 years when he first came to live with us. His shell condition has improved, he has gained some healthy weight and while his foot (some nails will never grow back the vet says) and shell may never look beautiful, he is healthier and at least more comfortable. When we moved to Northern Virginia a few years later, he was part of the family so we took him with us. We needed to use a special pet relocation service, so his plane ticket cost more than both of ours combined. It was well worth it once he arrived safely and was settled in to his new home!

We are happy Tibby came to us and enriched our lives. He has a great personality and is quite a little beggar! We have found a wonderful herp vet here in Northern Virginia and are happy that Tibby is constantly improving. I wanted to thank all of the folks who run this site and the people who post on it. I have learned so much about RES care and nutrition from all of you.

[simplehiccup]

This is Tibby a few weeks after he first came to us.
You can see the shell trauma and lack of past basking/drying-out opportunities (ie. scute shedding).


This is after months of dry docking, prescription Sulfadiazine cream applications and plenty of basking (we use Mercury Vapor bulbs). It was nice to see the shiny healthy scutes start to appear after the old ones fell off.


This is where Tibby lives-


The inside of his basking platform (a Turtle Topper that we lined to give him more privacy):


*Tibby has certain medical requirements, so we have to change his water much more often than normal due to his topical medications. He needs bi-yearly vet visits to help with shell/scute management. He eats his breakfast and dinner in another tank. We have made some minor changes to his environment since this photo was taken. We have added a shaded area in the water by draping a towel over the tank that gives him more privacy from us and allows him to get into a darker area if he desires and we needed to get a new filter.

[steve]

Welcome to the site! Despite the fungal and algae issues, his shell looks very good. How was his treatment outlined?

[simplehiccup]

The first concern of the vet was his weight. It was interesting, because the vet could tell he was low by feeling up underneath his shell near his arms, legs and neck-not initially by weight on the scale. They sent in stool samples to test, and I took him back after a month just to check on weight gain.
Because of the foot and shell trauma the vets took some initial x-rays. The original shell treatment was overnight dry docking with a different cream. This was until the scutes started coming off (after a few weeks) as you saw in the second picture. At first Tibby needed vet assistance (he used a special tool that reminded me of something dentists use) to help with scute removal, but now scutes come off on their own. The dry docking time was cut once all his scutes came off and we could deal with the shell underneath.
The Vet then prescribed the sulfa cream which was applied to poor areas of the shell with sore spots, pockets etc. (the plastron was the worst). After application he needed to be dry docked for 4 hours. That helped a lot and the treatment lasted about a year. Now we just monitor his condition and dry dock when needed. There are a couple persistent sore spots on his tummy that remained through the years that we still apply cream to-they look like little dents/pock marks in his shell-the vet says they are only aesthetic at this point and as long as we keep them very clean they will not trouble him,so we apply cream to them a couple times a week.
That is where we are today.

[steve]

Does he bask regularly? Did you do any shell maintenance, like scrubbing it with a toothbrush?

[simplehiccup]

Does he bask regularly? Did you do any shell maintenance, like scrubbing it with a toothbrush?

Thanks, Steve!
He does bask regularly. We used to brush him all over with a toothbrush after the first scutes came off. Now we only brush the couple spots on his belly before we dry him and apply the cream. He basks regularly-he spends a lot of time up there, actually. If he is not there, he is on the little underwater perch.

[RosesNKeeks]

I love when I hear about people taking such good care of their turtles Keep up the good work!

[simplehiccup]

Thank you very much! Our set-up is certainly not the most aesthetically pleasing, but we are always trying to improve. Now we have the know-how, thanks to this great website.

[Stefania]

Always nice to see the doctor`s good work and the patient's patience. How to say... hm... may be... The call of God was fortunate.

[sweety10189110]

He is such a cutie and look at those nails!

[steve]

He's becoming melanistic too.

[penelope]

Welcome!
His shell when you got him looks like how my escapee turtle, Jack, looked after a bad brumation.
I know how much effort and love it takes to help them recover.
I also relate to the special care. Jack never really became strong after that.
I truly admire your diligence!

[apondfortimmy]

I love when I hear about people taking such good care of their turtles Keep up the good work!

Seconding this.