Urgent Care :: New roomate

[tmnt_III]

So my roomates friend moved and now we have his turtle.
It looks like a res but doesnt have the RE's
The previous owner obviously didnt care for the turtle very well.... dirty water sorry lamp no heater etc...
he does however have a decent floating ramp bask spot which he now loves since i put a nice hot halogen lamp over it.


hes about 5 inches
water temp is now 78
bask spot around 90

there is a filter
the turtle has lots of energy and eats
the tank is too small (maybe 20 gallons)

his shell has been peeling since he got here a week ago.
and both the top and bottom look pretty bad
ive read over the care section and know he needs some more UV light and a heater

here are some pics
i want to adopt the guy for myself and if i do id like to get him a much nicer home
but is there anything i can do to help with his shell?
Will it get better on its own?

[SINI5T3R]

Looks like my River Cooter but the bottom of the shell is different ...

and its shell looks reallly dirty, you should get a wet toothbrush, and brush off his shell in the sink, will make it look SO much nicer.

[tmnt_III]

hmm river cooter... sounds cool!


ok ill give it a brush and post some more pics

[tmnt_III]

well the cooter does not like getting scrubbed
i got some of the peeling shell off but not all
perhaps ill scrub again in a few days.is all that black stuff on the bottom shell rot?

[blackforces get you]

shell rot probably would be a lighter color dontcha think? like white-ish right?

if the black on the bottom doesn't feel soft or has a smell then it shouldn't be shell rot.

it probably might be a sign of ageing and its how it was born.

[coreyvht]

thats a map tuetle

[coreyvht]

i mean turtle

[tmnt_III]

shell rot probably would be a lighter color dontcha think? like white-ish right?

if the black on the bottom doesn't feel soft or has a smell then it shouldn't be shell rot.

it probably might be a sign of ageing and its how it was born.

thats good to know... its not soft or smelly.
i was comparing to all the pristine undercarriages of your RESs and all that darkness on mine made me worry a bit.

[blackforces get you]

it should be part of the shell color. i wouldn't worry much about it but if your really concerned keep an eye at its shell!

[SINI5T3R]

yeah the top does sort of look like a map turtle...

[steve]

Do you have a clear shot of his plastron (bottom shell)?

He's going to shed soon, which would do a lot of good. You might also want to clean him up a little and do a thorough inspection.

[Diamondbacks4Life]

Its a False Map Turtle to be exact ^_^

[rsour24]

it's a map turtle.

[tmnt_III]

hmm false map/map wikipedia time

as for plastron pics.. i think the second one is ok
its so hard to hold him upside down and shoot at the same time.

i did give him a very good scrub yesterday with a toothbrush

its clear his top is shedding and im going to give it another scrub in a couple days
as for thorough inspection i have no idea what id be looking for.