Urgent Care :: Fungal Infection?

[kmkoch2]

Hello so I am not sure if my turtle has a fungal infection or not, so before I take him into the vet (which is a huge ordeal as I am a college student) I wanted to get your opinions.

Newton is a male res, I have had him since 2003, when he was under a year old. He is now ~7 inches long, lives alone. Tank is in my studio apt, so I am with in sight when ever I am home. The tank is also near a window, but there is a large tree between it and the window (doesn't get much sun anyway).
75 gallon tank, full to with in 2 inches of the top with tap water. There is a water heater and the water is at 77F. There is also a large canister filter that I clean frequently. He has a floating platform that he basks on daily, I have noticed that it has been sort of sinking when he climbs on so he is mostly (all of shell for sure, feet still wet sometimes), but not entirely out of the water. There is a heat lamp and a UVB but I am not sure of that temp. I am going to redo his basking area over the weekend so he can get out of the water fully(3 exams between now and then, which is why its not sooner)
I feed Newton the turtle pellets, lettuce, kale, carrot, squash, whatever other veggies I can get him to eat. Occasionally feeder fish when I can get to a store that has them.

THE PROBLEM: His shell is very dark, almost black in the back. I had sort of thought this was normal until I was reading about fungal infections over the weekend. His bottom shell is sort of pinkish as well, but neither top nor bottom have any 'wounds' that I can see. He also looks like he is shedding skin all the time. It really looks like skin, as I can see little scale impression like markings. But again, I saw that could be a sign of fungus.

I began taking him out of the tank and putting him and his heat lamp in my bathroom so he can dry out hoping it would help.

I have (attempted at least) to attach photos and would greatly appreciate advice. Thanks! Kim and Newton

http://s975.photobucket.com/albums/ae232/kmkoch2/

[gwennie]

Are there any soft spots on the black part of his shell? Any smell?

I don't really think he's got fungus....doesn't look like any part of his shell is actually rotting away. His bottom doesn't look abnormal to me either - it's usually when the lines inbetween the scutes are pink that you should worry, not the actual shell itself. Unless I'm missing something in the pictures, I think he's just fine.

Are those lighter spots in the middle of his scutes flaky or really white? Or was he a very light turtle when he was younger in his coloring? He could be just a blonde turtle, as my vet put it. Some turtles do tend to be a bit pink on the lighter parts of their plastron. His shell looks really healthy to me - smooth, no pyramiding, no real pitting that I could see from those pictures.

It's possible that he might be going dark because of age, many RES do.

If you noticed that his basking dock isn't fully supporting his weight and allowing him to bask completely dry, it is definitely time for a new basking area, otherwise you're in for problems, but right now I don't actually see any.

You also want to make sure your UVB light is less than a year old. After a year or so they don't put out as much UVB as they do when they're new, or so we're told ^^

Regarding his skin shedding - there can be several causes for that - overfeeding, water quality, water temperature being too high. I don't think your water temp is too high. How often are you doing partial water changes? Did you recently do a full water change? Do you use a dechlorinator before you add fresh water to the tank? Do you let it sit for 24 hours before you add it? I'm asking so we can get a better idea of your turtle's situation ^^

Also, how often are you feeding him?

[steve]

Fungus is usually white in color. As gwennie ementions, they usually get darker and melanistic as they get older. My RES was only 5 when he started to become grayish and some of his stripes turned into spots.

[kmkoch2]

Thanks for the suggestions! I got a new UV light in September so that should be fine. I did a full tank clean 5 days ago and usually do water changes once every two weeks, empty all the water, refill it. I have a hose that hooks up to the sink and sucks water and waste bits out (if the filter doesn't suck them up first) so it gets a good clean when I change the water. It doesn’t sit before it goes into the tank, and I currently do not use a dechlorinator but am going to start Suggestions on a good brand? Hopefully that helps with the skin shedding. I feel bad for him, he has been shedding skin constantly for a few months now!

I do feed him every day but he always seems hungry and eats all the food right away. I have tried cutting back on his food a little too since maybe he was eating too much.

His top scutes on the head end of his shell have light tanish areas (and you can see striped patterns that you see on many res shells) but the back ones are all dark, no patterns. I do think his top shell used to be slightly lighter but I am not quite sure. His bottom one looks more pink when dry (as in the photo) than it does in the water. But in-between his scutes it is all black.

I am glad that he doesn’t have pyramiding (I looked into that a few months ago) because I had not been good about feeding him veggies until recently, he didn’t eat them and he was in the care of my parents for two years and they didn’t want the mess of cleaning up leftovers.

Thanks for the help!

[aal]

Dark shell is due to ageing, all RES will have this. Pink bottoms could be an abrasion, or just not enough heat on the bottom plastron that can cause swelling and an infection. Get the basking area fixed at all costs.