General Care Discussion :: A Sore Situation...

[Jeremiah]

I'm dry-docking this female for some shell rot (the fungus is leaving pretty efficiently); she is also on antibiotics.
She's been doing a good deal of running around during dry-docking, and I think she may have rubbed her head on her shell enough to cause (what I think) is a sore. It's the brownish area, in the picture below.
I've checked around this forum and a couple of others, but I haven't seen an injury quite like this. Does it warrant Silvadene and/or Neosporin, or should it heal on its own?

[steve]

If she stops rubbing against it, it should heal. We normally see worse cases as a result of a bite or a long nuchal scute. As long as the skin isn't broken, I would leave it.

[Jeremiah]

Thanks! What is the best way to prevent her from continuing the head-rubbing?

[steve]

Not sure what you can do to prevent it... try to make the dry dock area more comfortable for her?

[vear]

This past weekend, I noticed the same kind of thing with Tomi. I do remember seeing this on a different thread somewhere in the past. It seems like that middle scute is pointy and his head rubs on there, creating a bit of a 'wound'. I'm not sure what to do about it either!

[Jeremiah]

Steve, I took your advice and tried to make her dry-docking environment more "friendly". Thankfully, it seems to have worked! All I had to do was put her favorite floating dock in there (she has three, but uses this one most often), and she crawled right on top to relax. (vear: you may want to try this approach with Tomi, if he/she has some sort of "comfort object").
Also, I've been told that the pointy scute issue can be resolved by having a vet file it down, a little bit. Has anybody used this method?

[steve]

Good to hear it's working. As for filing down the scute, yes they can do that but I don't think that was the issue here.

[Jeremiah]

I apologize for resurrecting an old topic, but I have another issue with this same turtle. She's nice and calm in her dry-docking tub, now, but she keeps urinating in it. During the day, that's fine, since I can immediately clean the tub. However, she's started to pee during the night--I'm not awake to catch it.

I'm not too enthusiastic about letting her sit in urine, all night--that defeats the purpose of dry-docking...Any tips?

[steve]

Anything lining the bottom of the tub? I would think she's urinating while awake... maybe when she wakes and struggles to get out? How much longer do you think you need to drydock her?

[Jeremiah]

I have several layers of newspaper and cloth book covers that line the bottom, but she just digs past all of them, and urinates on the bottom of the tub. She's been dry-docking for just a little over a month (the fungus/infection were persistent). She gets about an hour and a half of water time per day.
She just finished her 20 days of antibiotics, a couple of weeks ago.
Her shell is beginning to turn the natural yellow again, but in some places, there is still a little fungus under the plastron (near the tail). I called the vet, and she recommended continuing the dry-docking until the areas with fungus can be taken off easily.
I know that it can take months to see improvement, but this is getting quite discouraging...

[steve]

In my experience, the fungus will either react quickly to the treatment or have no reaction. If you don't mind me asking, what procedure are you doing?

[Jeremiah]

Would you like to know about the antibiotic schedule (which we finished), or the current dry-docking schedule?

[steve]

I'm more interested in the dry docking... any medications being used?

[Jeremiah]

She spends about an hour to an hour and a half in the water (I break it up into 20-30 minute intervals), per day.
The rest of the day/night is spent in a dry kiddie-pool (it's lined with several layers of old, but clean cloth book covers; I've found that it's easier for burrowing), under a basking lamp (when indoors). However, this being summer time, I normally place her bin in half sun/half shade outdoors (always 70-80F; any cooler and she goes indoors), so that she has the option to absorb natural UV rays.
In the evening, I bring her inside and apply Betadine to the fungal areas (I use the little swab packets). The next day, I repeat the schedule.

Oh, and the medicine that she was using had kind of a long name, and the package is no longer with me, so let's see if I get this spelling right...Cfethadiazine? (Or...something like that )
She was injected with it every other day, for 20 days. I don't quite remember the dilution--maybe 100 mg/mL, but that may have been the Baytril (the vet's first idea, while the culturing results were at the lab).

[steve]

OK, thanks for the info! Do you have an updated pic of the fungal area(s)?