General Care Discussion :: Multiple scute Shedding .

[joeybsmooth]

Hey guys, yesterday I was looking at my turtle and I noticed that he had many scutes shedding at the same time . I was wondering should I be worried . HE is a acting normally .

[Diamondbacks4Life]

Thats a good thing, your turtle defiantly has multiple layers of scutes stuck together. Thats why he looks so jagged like a saw blades every where. Hopefully that is new scutes under there. Almost looks like shell rot was at it and it might be down to the bone. Need better lighting.

[joeybsmooth]

I felt around this shell and everything was hard, so I don't think that it is rot . But I have had them on a low protein diet, in hopes to fix another issue. Could that has come from that .

[steve]

Of the ones that have already come off, how does the shell look underneath? Rot and infections can be tricky to detect, I would evaluate the shell with a through inspection.

[joeybsmooth]

Just a shad darker then most of the other shell, however I did not seen any rot. The closest thing to it was a little white right were the shading was , but looking at it does not seem to be rot .

[steve]

Also check the seams, that they are firm and not soft, discolored or pitted. Water and gunk can collect under a scute and it could be damaging when it happens to retained scutes over long periods of time (longer than it normally takes to shed).

[Diamondbacks4Life]

Any chance you could take a new pic with more lighting? Im just a little worried that, is that bone showing or scutes? I think you should dry dock him a couple days to see if it speeds things up. Just from the look of the area it looks like rot was eating slowly at the layes. Problem with multiple scutes is they can hide the bacteria in between the scutes and from outside it may still seem hard because old scutes protect it.

[joeybsmooth]

Here is a picture with better lighting . I don't know how I did not see this before.

[Diamondbacks4Life]

Looks like you have a really bad fungal infection going on. If left go its will start wear away at the shell. So rather then shell rot look like the fungus is just doing the damage to the shell. Id start by feeding some wheat germ pellets to help with shedding and if you can go to a vet to get silver sulfadiazine to help that or if you cant go to the vet and pick up betadine and just keep doing dry dockings with the treatment.

[joeybsmooth]

I have been feeding wheat germ, but i will add some more .

But with the betadine, what I would need to do is just get some of that stuff , but it on his shell and dry dock him for a few hours, and just do this every day?

Also how could this happen? I have my normal set up and this has never happen before ?

[Diamondbacks4Life]

Who knows it just happens. Seems like alot of people experience it. I have it happen too. Y does one turtle get it and another turtle not when they live in same tank. Might be from just handling them, something on hand set it off. Who knows.

Yes apply the betadine to the white areas, dry dock and then scub off before putting turtle back in the tank for the night.

[joeybsmooth]

Thanks for the help.

[steve]

In my experience Betadine or Hibiclens work great at disinfecting. If there is a bacterial infection, usually exposure to dryness will get rid of it but that's hard to do with retained scutes. And fungus, usually SSD cream will help the most.

[josephkr]

I saw one guy say fungus on the shell came from touching your genitals and then handling the turtle... Moral of the story, wash your hands.