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I noticed that one of my RES has this reddish mark on the underside of her shell, right in the "armpit" area. Can anyone help me with what this may be, or may be from? It was a bit bigger and darker a couple of days ago so it has lessened a bit.


And she also has a couple of round, pittish looking chips in the edge of her shell, just between her legs so I'm thinking maybe she crashed in the rocks and that's what caused these things??


Can anyone help me with this? Thanks!!!

I'd get him to a vet, if he hit himself hard enough to cause that kind of damage and bleeding within the shell, you probably want not only to have him looked at, but to get him on antibiotics to prevent infection.

How old is your turt? Looks like a full grown adult. At any rate, most shell damage occurs when they fly off the basking area (like when someone walks in the room) and crash into something on the other side like rocks or decorations.

Starchick that's what I was worried I'd hear... I'll have to hunt down an appropriate vet in the city.

GreyGoose we've had the turtles for about 10 years now but I'm not sure how old they were when we rescued them... Speedy was probably 6" long and Spike about 5" I'd guess - but then they were both crammed into a little 10 gallon tank. We got them a 125 gallon tank and did they grow!!!!

I've been hunting around a little and found anothr thread that sounds like this could be septecima? Now I'm off to find out about vets for my little girlie!

The redness and size is lessening? Looks like a bruise to me. If that's the only place that's red, and if your turtle is behaving normally, it doesn't sound like septecemia to me.

What's the basking area made out of? If there are sharp rocks that could scratch the shell, consider removing them.

Marisa, yes everything else is normal (appetite, basking etc) and it has gotten smaller. It's not happening fast, like maybe a week or so... I was wondering if it wasn't the rocks around the basking area because of those chips in the same side of her shell... I'll have to re-arrange them this weekend. Thanks!

I notice today that the spot IS getting smaller and not as dark. Usually the rocks are posititoned comfortably but they had rooted one out of place so that may have been the problem!!