Urgent Care :: Fungus, shedding, or shell rot?

[edldani]

How big is your turtle? 4 inches
How long have you had it? about a week

What is the water temperature? Room temperature
Did you use a thermometer? no (we need to get one)
Are you using a water heater? no
How much water is in there? it's filled in less than half way so I'll say about 12 gallons?
Are you using a water conditioner? no
Are you using any filtration? yes

What is the basking temperature? 30*C/ 86*F
Is there a basking light? yes
Is there a basking platform that is easy to climb on?yes
What kind is it or what is it made out of? plastic
Is there a UVB light? yes. (UVA/UVB)

What have you been trying to feed it? turtle pellets, shrimp (plan to do it rarely though), carrots, romaine
When was the last time your turtle ate? an hour ago

How big is the tank/pond/enclosure? 30 gallons (way too small, we're getting a bigger one)
Is the tank near a window? yes.
Is the tank in a room with a lot of activity? sort of

Have you read the Basic Care section? yes
Have you searched the forums for similar situations? yes, and google too

Is there any other unusual activity/symptoms?
she's basking more than usually, and less aggressive to the other turtle


_____

My turtles are 2 years old and we just got them.
I noticed some discoloration on the shell and belly of one of the turtles, it looks like parts of the shell have been scratched off and I think it's fungus or shell rot... I've been scrubbing it with a soft toothbrush+ water and putting it in sulfadip, and scraping some of it off. I've managed to get about 5% off, it's not coming off easily. Today is the second day of treatment. The shell itself is quite hard, and I think it's also shedding.
But today I noticed a large piece of the shell on the belly of the turtle is coming off. It reminds me of a loose tooth for some reason. Underneath is yellow, like the shell, but there's no pattern. I don't know if it is just shedding it.

My other turtle has a bit of grey on her back, and I'm giving her the same treatment, I don't think it's severe.

We are looking/taking it to a vet but meanwhile I want to know what's wrong/ what to do. Please help. Thanks



Here are the pictures. Sorry they aren't clear, I had to use my phone because my camera was out of batteries.

Back
http://img2.pict.com/09/27/a6/1396147/0 ... c00045.jpg
Belly
http://www.pict.com/view/1396148/800/dsc00047

Part of belly flaking off
http://www.pict.com/view/1396149/800/dsc00048
http://www.pict.com/view/1396151/800/dsc00049

[untsmurf]

Back

Belly


Part of belly flaking off



there you go!

[untsmurf]

The images are really unclear. It's hard to see what's going on exactly.

Don't pull anything off as that may harm your turtles' shells.

do you know what kind of conditions they came from?

[jozzep]

Very unclear pics, but from a first look it seems the turtle was either wild caught, or kept in terrible water conditions judging by the algae build-up on the carapace.
The plastron looks like it has a little fungus from what i can tell.
Lets see if other opinions concur.

[edldani]

I got them from a friend who's been taking care of them for 2 years. When she gave them to me the shell was already like that, but neither of us realized this was a problem until I researched turtle care info.
And the shell only started flaking yesterday, which caught me by more surprise.

This isn't my turtle, but her shell looks a lot like this:
http://media.photobucket.com/image/turt ... C00406.jpg

I'll try to put of clearer pics of my actual turtle once I get batteries for my camera.

EDIT: I forgot to mention that when I feed the turtles (in a separate container) there's a lot of fuzzy-ish white-translucent flakes in the water. The one with the worse shell has more though.

[jozzep]

Seems like fungus....
You need to go for a vet visit and have him prescribe "silvadene" or whatever he decides.

[edldani]

Thanks. In the meanwhile (I need to find a vet first) what can I do?

[Kemul]

You can try dry docking your turtle. Put the turtle in a box, maybe put a towel at
the bottom. Put a basking light too. Let the turtle eat in water and go back to the
water 2 or 3 times a day. The idea is to keep the shell clean and dry as long as
possible.

[edldani]

I'll try with a basking light.
I dry docked them once in the dark (I read that somewhere, but idk) and they didn't seem to like it, so I had to put them back in the water.