I recently noticed (upon cleaning his tank) that my 18-19 Year old Yellow Belly Slider (male) had this odd lump on his neck flap..it does not look like the normal location for an abscess and it apperas to look more like a puffed up lump that is soft and moveable under his skin flap. Note it is not on his head but the flap of skin..also no redness or white..just a bump under the neck flap. The bump sometimes moves toward the upper side portion of his neck while swimming etc..
He is about 9-10 Inches, very active and is eating normally as well as basking normally, so other then this he is perfectly healthy. A few years back I took him to the vet for a vitamin injection to stimulate his appetite, and she said the shell had some rot, but it was nothing to worry about since he was an old turtle. He is very active so he has also chipped parts of his shell in the past. She told me it will take a long time to heal.
Tank is a 90 Gallon, 82degres, UVA/UVB bulb and Heat lamp, 1 XP3 Cannister filter and a 1 Aquaclear 500. 200 watt unbreakable Heater etc. I feed him various pellets..mainly Nutrafin Max...when he was small Tetra Repto Min. The only fruit/veg he will eat are blueberries, but most of the time he only likes pellets...so I would say 95% of his diet are pellets. I also coat the pellets with Calcium every few days.
He also has some large rocks to play with as well as a custom basking area. He loves to divebomb off the basking area into the water so I am wondering if the cause may have bee him scraping his skin on his shell when diving into the water?
I think he has had this "lump" for about 4 months now (based on some old photos I had taken around Christmas)..its really hard to notice when he is basking or swimming....however when he stays in one spot with his head tilted left in the water I can see it... I feel really bad for not noticing early. I have 3 Turtles (1 Yellow Belly and 2 Red Ears) in 3 different tanks. (One 90 Gallon and two 75 Gallons and this is the first problem I have had in all these years)
He is a crazy active turtle and I just want to know if everything is okay or if I should take him to a Vet...I just find it so difficult to watch a vet inject a turtle with vitamins etc
I was just wondering is this excess skin? An abscess? A vitamin E difficiency? etc....
Please check these photo/video and let me know if it is just loose skin?
http://s279.photobucket.com/albums/kk15 ... nt=019.flv
http://i279.photobucket.com/albums/kk15 ... t/turt.jpg
Sorry for the long post...I am just worried..
I am just happy to know He is fine. The vet also confirmed he is a Male and a Yellow Belly and that he has NO shell rot, but rather a lot of shell injuries due to his crazyness..she said he is a perfect healthy 20 year old turtle and should be around for another 20. She also said I have been doing everything correct with my setup and temps 
