Urgent Care :: Biting injury or infection?

[Zoil]

Hello all. I feel sad to bring this up here, but I'm afraid to say that one of my RES is not doing too well. I've been super busy for the past few weeks and haven't spent much time with them aside from a quick feeding before I leave the house for work. Today when I fed them, I noticed one of my RES has these large abrasions on the back of his neck as well near/on his limbs. Now, I'll admit to being a bit neglectful, but these are serious wounds that appear to have shown up overnight.:

Here's a link to an album with some photos of the wounds. The images are too hi-res (and a bit scary) to embed effectively

My thought is that these are biting abrasions caused by my other turtle. I have two of them (4" RES, 3" painted) in a 50 gal tank, both males. I know that's not optimal (70+ gal is what I should have), but Its a lot better than the 4 turtles I used to have in there, before I found homes for the other two. There have been times where I've noticed my painted turtle latching onto my RES with his teeth, not letting go until I come over and get involved. But from what I can tell, that was a rare and odd behavior, and these wounds have appeared very quickly, despite that occasional behavior happening for awhile. It is curious that these wounds only appear in places that the painted turtle could feasibly latch onto.

If these are not scars from bites, then my only other thought is that this is some sort of infection.

Anybody seen this before? I feel like a horrible turtle parent, but I just don't know what to do.

[penelope]

Biting injury leads to infection
Don't worry about being a "horrible turtle parent"
Time to deal with the here-and-now.

If it is not an infection, it will be quite soon.
Time for a vet - real quick

Separating them seems imperative at this point.

[steve]

It looks like biting, please separate them immediately. Dry dock him as much as possible, especially overnight. Gently clean the area with diluted betadine or hibiclense. Betadine is not as good as hibiclense but is easier to work with. What for it to dry then apply an antibiotic cream like neosporin. You can put him in a water every few hours to rehydrate and eat.

[Zoil]

I figured I ` should post an update. I've been dry-docking him 2-3 hours a night, applying neosporin, and his wounds have begun to scab over. It looks good, but I think it will take some more time to heal completely.

As for the painted turtle, I've secured an adoption this evening. Its sad to see him go, but I'm glad that both will end up in better places.

Thanks all for the suggestions!

[steve]

Glad to hear it's getting better!

[penelope]

I am very impressed that, while a difficult decision, you made one that you feel is in the best interest of all.
Kudos to you!