General Care Discussion :: Adopted turtle shell

[samstheman]

Hi all I've adopted a male turtle his shell is about 6" long. Ive had him 6 months. A friend at work found in street.
When I got him he had some shell fungus spots on shell like air bubbles under the surface with thin film of shell over the top.
I took him to Vet after doing home treatment vet said he was healthy and fine. He live in a out door pond with two koi fish
everyone appears to be happy. My concern is my turtle shell keeps shedding looks dry and flaky on about 50 percent of shell.
He has a big air to get out and dry off and plenty of places to sit out of water. My water is very hard lots of water deposits.

[Jeremiah]

Nice pond! There's no better way to keep RES. Just make sure to escape-proof it.

The shedding is exactly what you want to happen. It will help expose the fungus, which is when it needs to be hit with silver sulfadiazine (you can ask that vet for a prescription). If you can't immediately get SSD, go ahead and use betadine or Hibiclens (Chlorhexidine). Wash it off a few minutes after application, and then you can put a dab of Neosporin on for a few hours before putting him back in the water. He needs to bask a lot to shed properly.

[samstheman]

I have Hibiclens (Chlorhexidine) instructions say to dilute with water put on and rinse with water. Should I still be using this and How often i don't have sulfad but would get if it helps. His shell just is dry and peels I brush with soft brush and remove shedding. He eats good and seems to be happy swims and basks . He has a fence around his pin and pond so he is protected but can roam. I just want him healthy.

[Jeremiah]

He looks better than I thought he would! It looks more like several old lesions that may no longer be harmful--especially if your vet thought it looked good (and assuming that he/she has RES experience). You probably don't need the SSD at this point. In fact, he's probably fine as-is, he just needs to shed more completely to give us a better look at what's really fungus vs. retained scutes. If you have any Hikari Wheat Germ from the fish, you can give him a little pinch during his feedings to speed up the shedding, but it's probably not necessary. Natural sunlight works wonders for knocking scutes off. As long as he's basking for at least a few hours a day, you should be in good shape.