General Care Discussion :: Turtle shell care

[Ramla]

Hello all,

I am looking for some info on helping my turtle get a healthier shell. There is nothing serious that is wrong, no soft spots and she is healthy otherwise. But she did have a small bought were she got a few shell rot spots, and her shell just looks like it is in some rough shape after dealing with that.

I've been trying to dig up information on what I can do and provide for her to help her maintain a healthy shell and to hopefully put some luster back into it. But haven't been able to really find any straight forward answers.

Please let me know if there are any questions and please send me your advice.

[steve]

Has those spots healed up? Can you post a picture of what it looks like? Usually, a few sheds help greatly.

[Ramla]

I can get pic up tomorrow morning when there will be better lighting, but they do look like they have healed up and she could likely use a few good sheds. Right now I am working on adjusting her diet so it is a bit better, and more well rounded, before it was just reptomin pellets and now I discovered the info you guys have on here and some coworkers mentioned cuttlebones for their shells which I also found good tips on here for.

[Jeremiah]

I'm not sure if you've heard about this already, but Hikari Wheat Germ is great for inducing shedding.

[Ramla]

Ok here are the photos as requested, her shell is wet in these pictures since any time she is basking and I open the tank she goes for the water.

Her top shell


Bottom shell


Front view


And then I wanted to ask, I noticed while taking these pics that she has a little bit of pinkishness to her skin on the bottom near where it attaches to the skin, I got an alright pic of it right now, but can get better pics later if needed.

It's down below her front leg, where you can see it. I read that can definitely be a bad thing and was wondering if a vet visit may be necessary.

But she definitely has some retained scutes that need to be shed, looking at her shell and feeling them.

And I had not heard about the hikari wheat germ for shedding, I'll check into it.

[steve]

A couple of interesting things in the photos. First, the shell looks a little wide to me. Shouldn't be an issue, but I don't recall seeing one as wide (proportionally). From the front claws, it looks like you might have a male. A little pink near where the skin meets the shell is normal. If it were very pink, red or shows up elsewhere then it could be an infection, like septicemia.

[Ramla]

Hmm interesting, not sure what the wideness could be from...maybe just the way he grew. Though I do wonder if it may be due to some retained scutes, cause at this point from reading other threads and from what i've heard on this site, he definitely has some. And yeah before the nails were short enough that I thought he was female, but within the last year he really started exhibiting the male characteristics.

And glad to hear about the pink thing, I figured it might be just due to it being connective tissue, but figured I'd ask you more experienced guys for sure.

Right now I think I'll work on updating and fine tuning his diet to help with shedding, and thanks for the tip on the hikari wheate germ, I'll definitely check it out the next time I go to work.

[Ramla]

Ok so figured I'd through this up here for some help with what I've been seeing with his shell lately. As stated previously Eunice's shell is definitely in need of some TLC something that I am working on through a better diet and upgrading his current tank until I get his 55 gallon ready and set up. But I found a soft spot again the other day after I cleaned out his tank, so he's getting some one on one time with his basking lamp right now. But when he does get all dried out he has a lot of white spots on his shell, none of which are soft. The circle indicates where the soft spot actually is, and it is kind of just on the edges there of both of those scutes. Is this potentially just cause he has retained scutes, and they are just working on coming off or something else? Below is the picture I managed to snag while he was in the bucket with his light.

[steve]

How would you define soft? This is likely fungus, but it's looking like it advanced very quickly. I normally don't see initial fungal infections spread that way.

[Ramla]

Soft as in if I press on that spot, it gives a bit, though it is small enough where I need to use my nail to press on it. Is the fungus anything I should really worry too much about? With it being fungus I do wonder if it is mostly just on the retained scutes, and will go away with some shedding. But to avoid any infections is there anything I could add to the water to help with that, or is it really just making sure he is basking and has clean water?

But thankfully with his updated diet and housing, he does have a few scutes that are starting to come off, yay for shedding!

[Ramla]

Though the white spots aren't fuzzy or anything if that changes anything

[steve]

Could the softness just be a shedding scute? Fungus makes the shell look like crap. It makes shedding harder and can mask any issue beneath them. So this can hide any other infections going on and that could be worse than fungus.

Fungus is usually already onto the fresh scute when the one above it sheds.

[Ramla]

Ok, the softness is potentially part of a shedding scute, right now it is small enough and he is healthy otherwise that I am not too worried about it. But a coworker of mine recommended Dr. Turtle to help with this. Not sure if anyone else has heard of this or not. And it may be a little while before he sheds completely then, is there any thing I can really do to help it? I've seen you can brush them a little with a soft tooth brush, and the wheat germ is supposed to help.

Also I guess what is the treatment for fungus usually? I've tried googling, but you get a lot of contrasting options

[steve]

I post a lot about the topic, so here's a copy/paste version:

For shell fungus, there are two things to consider: Treatment and post treatment.

The most effective medication (it usually requires a prescription from a vet) is silver sulfadiazine (SSD) cream. Before application, the shell should be completely dry, so the turtle should be out in dry dock for an hour or more. When applying the SSD cream, you only need to use a very thin amount over the affected areas and I would leave the turtle in dry dock over night. It might still be greasy/oil in the morning, so you should carefully wipe and scrub any off of your turtle in the morning. You can return then them to the tank or leave them dry docked but repeat the treatment later in the evening. It might to take a 1-2 weeks of treatment.

Post treatment is very important because you do not want to deal with this a second time. It's possible the SSD cream won't be as effective as before, so you would need to reply on shedding to keep the fungus controlled. Fungus is also contagious to other turtles, something to consider when treating them or when one shows signs of it.

Dr. Turtle as in the little white block? That thing doesn't do anything.

[Ramla]

Thats what a coworker suggested which when i went and looked it up it looks to be just a calcium block and like you said, I figured it wouldn't do anything for the fungus, and seems to be the same thing as what a cuttle bone could do for him.

And thank you for that, i've been considering taking him in for a vet visit, just to get kind of a check up and a vets opinion. But since he seemed healthy otherwise, active, eating properly, basking and swimming, part of me didn't think it would be too necessary and may be money that didn't need to be spent. But this coming week I'll look into finding a vet around here that does herps.