Kame, my yellow bellied slider is about six years old, but she barely reaches 2 and a half inches.
She was a wild-caught rescue, but beyond that all we know is that she was caught by a bird of prey and dropped.
She's been kept on a healthy diet her whole life, fresh vegetables and fruit, leafy greens and pellets, the same as my other two aquatic turtles who are currently thriving.
Her whole life she's been skittish and still. She'll swim as much as she can but when she's out to bask or romp with my other turtles all she does is sit in her shell and maybe glance around.
She eats well, but she's as fat as a turtle can get, and even if we try to put her on a diet she doesn't really lose any weight.
We recently put her in with our yellow belly-red ear mix turtle, Hook, and the two get along wonderfully and since then Kame has been actually walking around some! I was ecstatic that she had begun to act like a normal turtle, but then a couple of weeks back her shell started to wrinkle. It feels a bit soft, and it looks as if shed is piling up on top of her, while a few of the scales have gone away to reveal a big white blotch. I've increased the amount of greens in her diet, and begun applying API Turtle Fix but she doesn't seem to be recovering.
I'm scheduling her in for the vet, of course, but I can't seem to find any similar accounts online and I just want to know if this is a 'get her to the emergency vet' kind of situation or if anyone her has any advice.
I've attached a few pictures of her in a tub from the last time I cleaned out her enclosure.