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Introducing....

PostPosted: Fri Dec 03, 2010 8:36 pm
by shortt
My turtle! I finally got her today. Her name is tentatively name "Slash". I live in a place where its illegal to buy turtles but not to own them. So I adopted her from a reptile society in my city. Now she was given the name Slash because of a injury she got on her underside. Which is why its taken so long for me to get her. Its mostly healed now spent a lot of time dry docked. I still have to keep an eye on it. Now she needs to shed a little bit to get her shell looking better (both top and bottom).

She was on antibiotics for the longest time while under the care of a vet tech so I know have to make sure she doesn't get sick. So I think I'm going to pick up a HOB filter tomorrow to complement the fuval 305 I have in there. The vet thinks the wound was caused by someone trying to saw the turtle open because its very straight and looked like it had cerated edges. Its probably going to be another 6+ months before its fully healed. Now I just have to convince her to bask. Shes in my computer room so there isn't any traffic going by and I've got my webcam setup so I can spy on her :)

Re: Introducing....

PostPosted: Sat Dec 04, 2010 12:03 am
by AllTheCandies
awwwwe!!! that's so awesome that you took in a hurt turtle :D
she is cute

Re: Introducing....

PostPosted: Sat Dec 04, 2010 12:34 pm
by steve
Concrats on the rescue! The white spots on the carapace and plastron are indicative of a fungal infection. Poor girl, I'm glad she's in your hands!

Re: Introducing....

PostPosted: Sat Dec 04, 2010 1:42 pm
by shortt
Steve did you mean of a past fungal infection? You've got me a little concerned now since I've got less then 24 hours of turtle ownership under my belt if you know what i mean

I just took her out to inspect her the white on the top of her shell is hard and clean . I read the main pages and it says cotton like and this sure isn't' cotton like. Just seems like hard white shell like the first layer of shell has been removed.

I checked some other discolored spots on the very edge of her shell and its the same except the very first layer paper thin is soft. In the picture you can see what I mean by the paper thin later.

I've never seen a turtle shed before so I thought it might just be part of the process. She doesn't want to bask yet probably because she's annoyed with everything thats happened in the last two days. Still adjusting.

I can get close up pictures of any part of her (assuming she doesn't squirm too much

Re: Introducing....

PostPosted: Sat Dec 04, 2010 2:27 pm
by steve
I marked the areas of fungus in red. If it's still there, then it's probably still an ongoing issue.

The area where you are pointing out now, which I did not notice before, is part of the top layer of scute that is missing. The white area, hard and a bit rough is a bone layer. This can be due to injury, infection, shell rot, I'm not sure what happened in this case. It's fairly serious, did the reptile society say anything?

Re: Introducing....

PostPosted: Sat Dec 04, 2010 4:13 pm
by shortt
She was checked out by a vet by the reptile society and was given antibiotics at the same time and was on them for a while (I think pretty much for all of September and part of October). They didn't mention anything about the top of her shell just the cut in the bottom. Here's a picture of her from October. She spent a lot of time dry docked because of the gash but she's been in water for the last 2-4 weeks . I thought it was just that she out of the water for so long.

She seems perfectly healthy personality wise (I've read turtles hide their symptoms). Shes swimming around like mad, chases my finger. I haven't seen her bask yet but its been less then 24 hours or eat (I was told she fed before I got her) Shes now lots of filtration (Fuval 305 which has been running the tank for the last month with a couple feeders) and now a AquaClear 110 (which I need to build a splash guard for).

I could dry dock her for an hour a day or something (but she certainly won't be happy)

The turtle was originally found walking down a road and these turtles aren't native to where I am so we don't really know what happened to her.

Re: Introducing....

PostPosted: Sun Dec 05, 2010 12:52 am
by shortt
Well at least one good thing. I caught her basking on camera. 3 times in like 5 minute intervals. So at least I know she can climb the ramp

Re: Introducing....

PostPosted: Sun Dec 05, 2010 2:30 pm
by Jaysea
aww what a pretty girl, and full out superwoman pose there :lol: Also congrats on the adoption, i'm sure she's in great hands now :)

Re: Introducing....

PostPosted: Mon Dec 06, 2010 1:51 am
by steve
Did they do any topical treatments? It would have been a good time to apply some silver sulfadinze when they were dry docking and treating her.

Re: Introducing....

PostPosted: Mon Dec 06, 2010 9:34 am
by shortt
I've sent them an email and I'll let you know what I find out.

Thanks for your help Steve!

Re: Introducing....

PostPosted: Mon Dec 06, 2010 11:29 am
by steve
No prob... it's tough to have an animal with health issues, but I'm sure she's glad to have you.

Re: Introducing....

PostPosted: Tue Dec 07, 2010 7:44 am
by imderanged
OMG the "slash" looks like someone tried to saw her in half!!! So glad she is in good hands now. Good luck with her.

Re: Introducing....

PostPosted: Tue Dec 07, 2010 10:57 am
by shortt
Thats what the vet figures too

She seems to be doing well. She basked for like 7 hours yesterday. I've been keeping an eye on her with a webcam. Its funny because it looks like she's break dancing very slowly as she spins around on the basking area stretching her feet out and waving them around.

I just caught this picture. I wish I caught the frame before because her feet were up in the air too!

Re: Introducing....

PostPosted: Wed Dec 08, 2010 10:50 am
by AllTheCandies
ahahaha that's such a good idea!! awesome snap shot

Re: Introducing....

PostPosted: Wed Dec 08, 2010 4:06 pm
by db'sSlider
Thats awesome im so glad she found her way to you!
Im sure she loves everything youve done/ are still doing for her.
She must be loving life now :)