Urgent Care :: Male turtle with shell problems

[Sapphire]

Turtle: 7" male (20 years old)
Tank: 70 gallon aquarium
Temperature: 79 F in the water and 84 F basking spot
Lighting:
1 x 5.0 UVB light 8" above the basking spot
1 x T5HO dual fixture above the tank running 1 daylight and one actinic 50/50 bulb
Filtration: Fluval 306 canister and a fluval 3plus internal
Water Change schedule: 90% biweekly

pH: 7.0
NO3: 0.05
NO2: 0
NH3/NH4: 0
Substrate: bare bottom
Take Decor: Inert lava rock, and driftwood
Tank cohabitants: Female turtle (8" diameter) been housed together since they were less than a year old.
Plants: None

Food: primarily zoo med maintenance formula: 25% protein and added vitamins and minerals. Green leaf lettuce is offered at every meal.

Leonardo is a rescue turtle that comes to us from a long time home where there was a lot of love, but not the ideal living conditions. We have noticed since bringing him and his lady friend home that he is underweight (which we are correcting) and that he has a couple issues with is shell. We are seeing some pinkness between the scutes and covering one of the scute areas.




The scutes also seem to be peeling away to expose more of the pinkness. Currently we are dry docking the fellow, trying to put some weight on him, and trying to deal with any infection in these areas. We have been cleaning the areas with iodine and then applying a generous coating of polysporin to the areas. There seems to be some improvement, but it would be good to hear other thoughts.

[steve]

What does the area feel like? Does it feel "rough" or textured?

[Sapphire]

I would say that the area feels slightly textured. It isn't rough, that is for sure.

If I run my nail across it with a light pressure I can scrape a bit off (though this seems to annoy him). I used a soft brushed toothbrush and some antibacterial soap to scrub the area the other day and that seemed to make it less "scrape-able"

[steve]

The rawness makes me think it might be some rot or exposed boney layer. Was he shedding normally? Did he have retained scutes?

[Sapphire]

It is hard to say how his shedding was leading up to the rescue. However, he doesn't have any retained scutes. He is currently shedding a couple of scutes on the top of his shell, but they are not coming off as a whole piece. Instead the scutes are shedding more like dry skin. Flaking off in small places.

I have started feeding both of them pieces of cuttle bone, fearing a calcium deficiency.

[Sapphire]

I tried to get a few pictures to show what I mean

[steve]

Looks like there has been some past pitting and scarring. If possible, I would get that pinkish area checked out there may be something going on. Hopefully it's just isolated to that area. Though probably not important to this discussion, but are you sure you have a male?

[Sapphire]

I had my vet friend take a look at the pinkish area and we have decided to go with a topical antibiotic for now with increased dry docking as see how he responds to that.

And yes, I am certain he is a male. If his "dancing" for the lady isn't enough of an indication then his long front claws and tail give it away.

[steve]

Alright, keep us updated