General Care Discussion :: Blood Poison?- UPDATED W/ PICS

[Bumby's Mom]

Can anyone show me or point me in the direction of pictures of this? I took Nyx out tonight to let her run around (she likes this) and when I picked her up and looked at her carapace it is pinkish and if you look really close you can see tiny red dots under the surface... She did recently (like a few weeks ago) shed the scutes on her carapace so I don't know if this is how it is supposed to look or if this is something new. She is on panacure right now for her worms, I don't know if that matters or not.

UPDATED:


And this was under her scutes she just shedded on the top of her shell:


I put the largest pic size on there because the red/white spots are a bit hard to see. If I need to make them smaller then just let me know. Also I noticed today, her carapace smells REALLY bad like rotten fish... I held her up to my nose and the top of her shell has no odor at all but the carapace almost gagged me. I put some tricide solution on the shell and let it sit for 15 minutes minutes before putting her back. I should have mentioned earlier that here lately she has been basking on her ramp instead of the actual dock so part of her is in the water. I raised the dock up higher to try to force her ontop but I haven't seen her bask yet.

[SpotsMama]

Take a look at this thread. Does yours look similar?

http://www.redearslider.com/forum/viewt ... =red+spots

About a month after this post I noticed some red dots on Spot's plastron. Curious, I scratched one (gently) with a fingernail and....it bled! I then remembered this post and thought that his shell may have been injured by the flagstone he was basking on in his pond.

I took him to the vet and she agreed that it needed treatment. She had me soak him for 20 minutes a day in a Nolvasan solution followed by drying him out for around 30 minutes then rubbing on some silver sulfadiazine cream. I was to keep him dry docked except for a short time each day in his aquarium so he could eat and drink.

I followed her instructions and the spots seemed to heal.

I now think that the little red dots may have been the very early stages of shell rot. Here's a photo of very bad shell rot:





If I were you I'd check to see if her shell could possibly have been injured by something rough. Also, be sure she's basking enough and that her plastron dries out completely when she basks. You may also look into treating those spots with antiseptic like I did my my turtle's.

I don't think your turtle has blood poisoning. Blood poisoning is a very serious condition and she'd be a very sick turtle if that was happening.

[industrial_girl_2000]

Have you been feeding your turtle a lot of carrots and/or krill/shrimp? Those are foods that can cause the carapace to be more orange/pink, but the color would be fairly even throughout.

If your turtle looks like the ones in the pictures above, then I agree there could be a serious problem that requires vet attention.

Can you post a picture of your turtle's carapace so we can help you further?

[Bumby's Mom]

I am going to take a picture sometime today. It is almost whiteish pink with those little red dots. There isn't anything she can damage her shell on in the tank and she basks for hours. It sort of looks like those pictures of shell rot only not that bad. I don't know how she would get shell rot though, her water is clean and I do monthly water changes. I will get some pictures later and post them here.

[Bumby's Mom]

Industrial Girl- I haven't fed her any carrots or shrimps.

[grey goose]

I can't tell whats going on with the plasteron, but the places where the white is showing looks like fresh scutes, which means that it was building up before she shed....If she is basking regularly, no worries, that should clear up on its own.

[Bumby's Mom]

I am pretty positive I will be taking her to the vet unless someone can tell me with certainty that it isn't a problem... The part that worries me is how bad it actually smells. That is telling me something isn't right. Her vet is in on Tuesdays and Thursdays, sometimes Saturdays so I will try to call them tomorrow before they close (they close at noon and I usually don't get up that early on weekends).

[grey goose]

Remember we are only giving our opinion on pictures....If you feel that something is wrong, by all means take her to the VET!

[Bumby's Mom]

Oh definitely. I just get really paranoid over things that aren't problems and I don't want to spend $100 at the vets if it is nothing. I have done this several times. I once took my duck to the vet because his feathers were falling out. One look at him and 80$ later they say oh he is just molting.

[DavidY]

The bad smell sounds like shell rot. It would be a good idea to take her to the vet at this point just to be safe. I hope she gets better soon.

[Bumby's Mom]

Thanks. I am going to put tricide solution and antibiotic ointment on it until I can get her there Tuesday. I also put one of those turtle blocks in her tank. Shell rot doesn't affect their beavior does it? She is acting pretty normal although she is staying in the water a lot more than usual.

[megcornell]

I'd imagine severe shell rot would affect their quality of life which would affect their behavior, but if what you have is shell rot, it's so mild it wouldn't change Nyx's habits.
The fact that her behavior hasn't changed is a good sign.