General Care Discussion :: Shell rot?

Taking care of your turtle's overall health.

Post Posted: Tue May 15, 2018 11:34 am   Shell rot?

Hi, I am a first time turtle owner, I rescued my girl Ruby from a friend about 2 months ago. She was in a 30 gallon tank with obout 2 inches of water, no filter, no heater and no lamps. There was nowhere for her to dry off or bask. Her shell was a muddy brown color when I picked her up. She now has a dock and plenty of water with a filter a heater and two lamps (UVB and incandesant basking bulb) I have been soaking her shell in betadine with a paper towel and allowing her to dry and a lot of her shell has shed off and i can now see some yellow stripes and healthy shell. However in the middle she has this very green scale and is still peeling. She eats well and is very active. Could this be more than shell rot and should I take her to a vet? thank you! :msgreen:
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Ruby3.jpg
more peeling
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Ruby2.jpg
Peeling
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Ruby1.jpg
Ruby's shell now
Ruby1.jpg (45.09 KiB) Viewed 31461 times
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Rubytheres
 
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Post Posted: Tue May 15, 2018 3:09 pm   Re: Shell rot?

Not sure about shell rot, possibly other infections though. I’d do a gentle scrub with a new toothbrush, you can mix some warm water with betadine and see how it goes. The green stuff is probably algae, and comes off easily.
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Post Posted: Wed May 16, 2018 2:25 pm   Re: Shell rot?

I've been doing the toothbrush scrub every few days, I do it really gently and the green is under a shell she recently shed. It will not come off with a toothbrush i think it might be under another layer. I was wondering if I should try a fungal medicine of something to put in the tank?
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Post Posted: Thu May 17, 2018 11:09 pm   Re: Shell rot?

Do you have a larger image of the green area?
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Post Posted: Fri May 18, 2018 9:42 pm   Re: Shell rot?

Here are more pictures of her shell
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Post Posted: Sat May 19, 2018 2:06 am   Re: Shell rot?

Can't really make out that second pic. In the first one, yeah its some algae under there. The scutes are ready to come off too (dullness/air bubble is a give away). You can wait or give it a little help.
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Post Posted: Sat May 19, 2018 2:37 am   Re: Shell rot?

My friend's turtle got algae under his shell and it looked a bit like this (more dark tho). It had some difficulty shedding and it took a long time and that's why it happened.
Let her finish her shed and you'll know better what's going on :)
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Post Posted: Sun May 20, 2018 1:41 pm   Re: Shell rot?

Okay thank you! So how often/ long do they shed? i've had her for two months and she has had non stop shedding the whole time. Her conditions are way better than before so maybe that's why? It's just even after a scale sheds there is an air bubble under the new ones like it is going to shed again
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Post Posted: Mon May 21, 2018 3:15 am   Re: Shell rot?

There were probably lots of retained scutes, so there was probably a lot of scutes waiting to come off. In most cases, you can expect them to shed annually.
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Post Posted: Sat May 26, 2018 5:58 am   Re: Shell rot?

She must feel so much better now that she is able to shed properly ^-^
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Post Posted: Sun May 27, 2018 9:20 pm   Re: Shell rot?

thanks everyone! and she's a completely different turtle then when i got her she's so much happier and she swims a lot and basks on her dock. before she would just sulk on her rock all day and barely move
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Post Posted: Tue May 29, 2018 1:25 am   Re: Shell rot?

Sounds like you're both doing a great job :)
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