Urgent Care :: Soft spot on plastron

[Nicole&Sara]

Hi......We need help with our 1.5year old RES. Not sure if male or female...but we call him Chip.

Chip is about 4-5 inches in length (not sure if he should be bigger for his age or not).

Anyways, today when we were cleaning his tank we noticed a soft spot on his under shell (plastron). It's pinkish and soft when you touch it and looks like a membrane or something..not sure..but it looks painful and we feel so bad for him.

Maybe we should add calcium to the water? I read another post that suggested that maybe it was due to him climbing on the ramp but he doesn't go up there very often.

[richieboy]

What does the other side of the shell look like, everything else normal? Unless you found a very similar post with the same situation I wouldn't try any home remedies. You should really call a vet.

[steve]

An abrasive basking area can cause damage or irrutate the plastron. It could also be an injury or an infection like shell rot. Whatever it is, I also think a vet visit would be good.

[Nicole&Sara]

The rest of his shell looks good. We changed his water today and his appetite greatly improved. There's like a film on his pastron....might be starting to peel off like the top shell does? Not sure

What would a visit to the vet entail? Is is at costly for turtles as it is for dogs and cats?

[steve]

A breach in the shell is all that's necessary to start an infection. Vet costs vary but can be costly, reptiles need specialized vets called herp vets.