Urgent Care :: What's wrong with his shell?

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Post Posted: Tue Jan 10, 2017 2:22 am   What's wrong with his shell?

Last month a found a baby RES in my flower bed.

He is now living in a 20 gallon turtle starter kit, which includes a waterfall with built in filter, dock, heat & uvb lamp. I also bought a heater that keeps the water at 78 degrees.

I do 50% water changes every day or two.

I feed him a few Reptomin baby floating food sticks twice a day.

He has shed his skin twice now. Is that normal?

He has always had a little gray spot on one of his scutes. Is this fungus, shell rot, or just damaged?

Now his shell is starting to lose its color (turn white). Is this fungus, shell rot, or just normal growth?

Here is what he used to look like when we first got him (you can see the spot on the lower left):

before.jpg



And here is what he looks like now.

IMG_20170109_2024265.jpg


IMG_20170109_2019298.jpg


IMG_20170109_2038341.jpg
Philip G
 
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Post Posted: Tue Jan 10, 2017 6:23 am   Re: What's wrong with his shell?

Not quite sure, is the shell dry in any of the pictures?
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steve
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Post Posted: Tue Jan 10, 2017 4:19 pm   Re: What's wrong with his shell?

steve wrote:Not quite sure, is the shell dry in any of the pictures?



He was dry in the last photo. Could it be a fungal infection? I saw a youtube video where a guy used Iodine to treat his turtle. Does that really work?

Another person suggested it might be hard water deposits. We have a water softener, but my TDS EZ digital tester still shows 416 ppm (aquarium water), and 308 ppm straight out of the tap. Does that look like hard water deposits to you?
Philip G
 
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Post Posted: Wed Jan 11, 2017 5:21 am   Re: What's wrong with his shell?

Fungus would be more whitish. Iodine will not likely work against fungus. Hard water would make the whole shell whiter. Are any of the scutes loose?
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Post Posted: Wed Jan 11, 2017 7:51 pm   Re: What's wrong with his shell?

steve wrote:Are any of the scutes loose?



I don't think so.
Philip G
 
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Post Posted: Thu Jan 12, 2017 4:35 am   Re: What's wrong with his shell?

Can you see if there is any pitting? It looks a bit yellow in the photos, is that color accurate?
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Post Posted: Thu Jan 12, 2017 8:38 pm   Re: What's wrong with his shell?

steve wrote:Can you see if there is any pitting? It looks a bit yellow in the photos, is that color accurate?



The color is accurate. The affected scutes look almost translucent and wrinkly. I don't see any pitting on the scutes, but the black between the scutes (not sure what it is called), might have some pitting or cracks in them.
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Post Posted: Fri Jan 13, 2017 2:11 pm   Re: What's wrong with his shell?

It just looks like across between fungal and bacterial infections. Silver sulfadiazine would be used to treat fungus if you have any on hand.
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