Urgent Care :: Sore/infection/?

[Alecto]

So I had kept Turtle in a plastic box while I was moving and setting up his new tank which took a good 1 1/2 weeks. I kept a tiny bit of water in it so he could eat and whatnot but not enough for him to swim. I was afraid he'd get out if the water was higher. Sometimes I but him in a box with paper towels and a blanket for him to dry off.

He had been in the watery plastic box for the past several days. He constantly tried to escape and scale the walls but couldnt. Water temp was probably room temp and 1 inch of water. He's about 4 inches long maybe. No filter or water treatments as i didnt expect him to be there that long.

Well I took him out of his box to rinse him off and clean him up a bit with a q tip and water before i put him in his shiny new 55 gal. well, i saw something on his face i do not like could it be a sore from him rubbing against the plastic trying to escape? I touched it and it didnt feel like much.

Along his jaw line it's the pinkish L



here is a closeup. flash went off so turtle's probably now blind but it is more obvious. also looks like some on his left arm.



help? it is a sore, blister, infection, fungus? anyone seen this before. ideas for treatment? I let him swim and sleep in his new home but put him in his non water blanket box this morning. he seems to mostly sleep there and I thought that would be a good idea

[jenaero]

I'd put him back in his new tank at least til you find out whats going on. If he's the only one living in there, he might as well be comfortable.

Have you cleaned the area with a qtip? Does it come off or seem scabby?

[Alecto]

ok, i'll put him back in his house when I get home. i was kinda worried he may have difficulties getting up on the floating thing since it moves around and didnt want that to stress him out.

i did touch it with a qtip and my finger. he squirmed more when the q tip touched it than my finger. it didnt come off or seem scabby. it may have been slightly raised but i couldnt tell for sure with him moving.

[marisa]

I'd try applying a little Neosporin to the areas with a q-tip, keeping him out of the water a bit to let a little of it be absorbed.

[Alecto]

ok so i put some neosporin on him. whatever it is looked more brown and was kind of peeling a bit. so i think it was more of a scab now. i gave him another look and he has it on his bottom feet. so i put neosporin all over him and back in his dry box to soak. it doesnt seem to bother him when i touch it except for when i try to touch the one on his face. but i think that's more of him being scared i'm poking his face than the actual thing

[steve]

It probably looked darker since it was absorbing the neosporin. I think dry docking is the key here, but if you want to be extra safe, wipe the areas with diluted betadine, let it dry and then apply neosporin.

His shell looks like it has a whitish patch in the top pic or is that my imagination?

[Alecto]

this is what i mean by darker. i took these when I took him out of his box and before the neosporin. he has some white around his mouth. could that be calcium buildup or something?



and his shell does have some white spots but i think that is his shell shedding? it seems to get really whiteish before it comes off.



and his underside has what i think are scratches from him climbing on what was his basking rock before



i took him out of the water again this morning and put on neosporin. i'll have to go to a store for that other stuff. so he's pouting in his dry box

[steve]

Not sure what the white stuff around the mouth is, it doesn't look worrisome. It's good that the stuff is peeling away, hopefully it will gradually disappear. The white stuff on the shell is fungus/yeast, the carapace looks pretty good after the ones have shed because the stuff has a tendency to spread and seep into the new scutes.

[Alecto]

he shed the last 3 whiteish scutes this morning and underneath they look the same as the other green ones i'll look into finding a Silver Sulfadiazine solution or something to put on him to take care of his belly and I'll keep up the neosporin treatments on his face.

thanks!