Urgent Care :: Help please! Turtle peeling very thin white materials

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Post Posted: Tue Oct 03, 2017 6:11 am   Help please! Turtle peeling very thin white materials

Hi guys,

I rescued this red-eared slider 2 weeks ago from a bus-stop, with no rivers or ponds nearby. I've been feeding it turtle food and it's very healthy. I don't know its age but it's neither too small nor too big, the size of its shell from the head to the back is approx. 9.5cm. Last week I started noticing my turtle peeling off very thin white material from its body, with the much larger ones coming from its neck and the relatively smaller ones from its legs. When you hold them, they fold in your hands and feel like wet toilet paper.

Find the links for the pictures of the material and my turtle below. I hope somebody can please tell me what they are.

Thanks

https://scontent.fmru1-1.fna.fbcdn.net/ ... e=59D5DC7C

https://scontent.fmru1-1.fna.fbcdn.net/ ... e=59D5BFAF

https://scontent.fmru1-1.fna.fbcdn.net/ ... e=59D5D0A8

https://scontent.fmru1-1.fna.fbcdn.net/ ... e=59D5E71A
Last edited by princess2k15 on Tue Oct 03, 2017 6:29 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Post Posted: Tue Oct 03, 2017 6:18 am   Re: Help please! Turtle peeling very thin white materials

Some of it looks like fungus infected scutes. It gets turned into a papery feel and is harder to shed.
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steve
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Post Posted: Tue Oct 03, 2017 9:44 am   Re: Help please! Turtle peeling very thin white materials

Wouldn't that be simply a big shedding ?
Last year I rescued a RES who's been lost for nearly a month and she shed massively when I put her back in the water, because she was so dehydrated. She was all fine after that.
She looked like that the day we found her:
https://scontent.fmru3-1.fna.fbcdn.net/ ... e=5A46F232

Then again, I have never dealt with fungi so I wouldn't know !
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Post Posted: Tue Oct 03, 2017 1:14 pm   Re: Help please! Turtle peeling very thin white materials

PokePony - definitely fungus on that shell, has she gotten better? A healthy shed would have thin/almost translucent scutes.
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Post Posted: Tue Oct 03, 2017 2:48 pm   Re: Help please! Turtle peeling very thin white materials

I assure you it wasn't fungus. She did a massive shed and under it the scutes were the usual dark green. However it was not a healthy shell/skin, as she's been dehydrated for weeks. A few days in the water and her shell was starting to colour up again. There was also a crust of dust on her so I had to bathe her a couple of times in a single week. She's for my neighbour so I gave her back to them after she was healed. Took me three months to get her back on track.

However her scutes and skin were transparent when she shed. It didn't look like OP's in the photo. So this is how you know there's fungus ? Had no idea you could see that on already shed scutes.
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Post Posted: Tue Oct 03, 2017 8:44 pm   Re: Help please! Turtle peeling very thin white materials

As Steve said I agree. Even if it could shed all scutes today , the fungus will come off with the scute BUT it will return again. At the microscopic stage fungus can be on or under a shedding scute. Need proper treatment for the proper time . If you stop treatment to soon it will come back . Just as in people with the flu "I feel better" stop treatment early then symptom's come back with a vengeance. Same for the fungus !

Wipe a thin layer of Betadine on the shell with a cotton cloth twice a day for two weeks, concentrating on the fungus-covered areas. Allow the medication to stay on the shell for 20 minutes before rinsing with clean, cool water.
Soak your turtle in a room-temperature salt bath made up of 2 tablespoons of aquarium salt to 1 gallon of water. “Bathe” your turtle in the salt bath once or twice a day for four to five days, depending on the severity of the problem. Move a soft toothbrush in a circular motion over your turtle’s shell to help remove the fungus.
Apply an aquatic turtle topical antifungal cream to the turtle’s shell, following the medication’s instructions. Creams are available at many pet supply stores.
Provide adequate basking areas for your turtles in which they can completely remove themselves from the water, dry out and warm their shells.

Silver Sulphadinze cream is the best but you need a RX !

This is just one method of many you can use. Type in fungus in search box to see more.

Also offer it's rescue tank the cleanest water you can or fungus will just come back.
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Post Posted: Wed Oct 04, 2017 3:01 am   Re: Help please! Turtle peeling very thin white materials

PokePony - yeah, what you're describing is what we call shell fungus. Sounds like you did a great job with the shed. Fungus doesn't appear to penetrate deep, but it does. In the pic, the scutes look a little thick, so that might have helped everything look normal when shed. Have you followed up with your neighbor to see if it has come back?
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Post Posted: Wed Oct 04, 2017 6:34 am   Re: Help please! Turtle peeling very thin white materials

Well long story short, the neighbour's wife insulted my mom so I'm avoiding them like the plague now lol
When I gave their turtle back I did tell them the basic turtle care so I hope she is in a better condition than before
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Post Posted: Wed Oct 04, 2017 9:15 am   Re: Help please! Turtle peeling very thin white materials

OK well, lol. You did your part.
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