Urgent Care :: Looks like a shell wound??

[metalhead2791]

How big is your turtle? 2.5 Inches
How long have you had it? About a year now

What is the water temperature? 77F
Did you use a thermometer? no
Are you using a water heater? no
How much water is in there? 20 Gallons
Are you using a water conditioner? no
Are you using any filtration? yes

What is the basking temperature? 85F
Is there a basking light? yes
Is there a basking platform that is easy to climb on? yes
What kind is it or what is it made out of? floating foam (Zoomed dock)
Is there a UVB light? No. I live in India and its pretty sunny all year round so i put him out in the sun for a couple of hours everyday. Although he doesnt seem to like the sun that much because i notice him tryint to scurry into the shade all the time.

What have you been trying to feed it? Pellets, Dried Shrimp , Coriander Leaves and the occasional small goldfish
When was the last time your turtle ate? Yesterday

How big is the tank/pond/enclosure? 20 Gallon Tank
Is the tank near a window? yes
Is the tank in a room with a lot of activity? Fair amount of activity

Have you read the Basic Care section? yes
Have you searched the forums for similar situations? yes

Is there any other unusual activity/symptoms? no

Hello all,
I was trying to help my turtle shed because i noticed many of the scutes werent coming off for a long time especially the ones on the sides of his plastron. I had to deal with a little bit of fungus forming underneath these ripe scutes too before this.
Everything went fine until when i tried to pry out one of the scutes on the side of his plastron and i think a little bit of the shell came off. I am ashamed to admit that i might have tried a little too hard here alhough am not sure
Anyway now it looks like a small wound on the side of his plastron. Pictures attached underneath.

http://i1261.photobucket.com/albums/ii5 ... 907d07.jpg
http://i1261.photobucket.com/albums/ii5 ... 907d07.jpg
http://i1261.photobucket.com/albums/ii5 ... baab63.jpg

On the plus side, He seems absolutely fine and is very active and healthy. He s always swimming around , basks for a while, eats voraciously and definitely seem to be a happy lilttle guy.

Is there anything i can do to hasten the recovery of this particular lesion ? It seems to be healing but am not sure really.

Thank you all for looking

[steve]

There is definitely some sort of breach there. How did the shell look like before you helped take some off? How long were they retained? I'm not sure what you can do, those there is usually a bone-layer that comes off (if it feels rough, then that's what we're looking at) and a scar layer fills in. I usually see it on the top or bottom, hopefully the same applies here.

[metalhead2791]

The shell looked normal actually. I happened to see a loose scute on the side and it came off pretty easy. So I kept doing doing it all along the sides
and sure enough they came off with a little effort. This particular one came off in a small chunk.
I suppose they were retained for almost 6 months now. He is a little over a year old now.

I suppose I can supplement more calcium in his diet. I just wanna make sure it's nothing to worried about. No chances of infections and the like?

[steve]

A breach in the shell will make it more susceptible to infection. If the boney layer comes off, he should be dry docked to help with the healing process.