General Care Discussion :: dry docking *progress report with pics*

[Starchick]

Okay, my SSD cream should have arrived in the mail today. I'm planning to bring Hercules back with me on Sunday to start treatment for his shell fungus. I've never had to dry dock a turtle, can someone give me some pointers? I'm figuring I'll have to pick up a large rubbermaid container for his dry time since I don't have anywhere to keep him at my place. Should I bring his lamps home? Does it make sense to have a warm side and a cool side of the container? Does he need like a water dish or anything to stay hydrated during the day?

I would appreciate any advice from people who've done this before, and also specifics on actually doing the treatment with the SSD cream would be great! I found a description of what to do on Austin's Turtle Page but personal experience would be very helpful

Thank you!

[RESCHIU]

I treated my MBD turtle before but don't know if it's the same situation as yours? basicly, the reason why you want it to be completely dry is because so that medication can be fully obsorbed by the turtle, I usually put my turtle in a seperate container and let it bask with a spot light on till the body is dry...let me know if I'm wrong...

[SpotsMama]

I had to treat Spot for a problem on his plastron (I think it would have been called early stage shell rot) which was a more immediate problem than fungus on the shell and required a more extreme treatment. However, in the process I also treated some small new fungus spots on his carapace and it cured them too. Here's what I did as per the vets instructions:

Spot's treatment took about 2 weeks. About mid day every day I took him out of dry dock and let him swim around in his aquarium for a couple of hours and eat. Then I took him out and soaked his plastron for 20 minutes in a Nolvasan solution, then let him dry thoroughly and then rubbed a thin coat of the SSD on the infected places - both plastron and carapace. Then I put him back in dry dock.

His dry place was a big opaque rubbermaid tub (50 gallons I think) with a lid and air holes by the handles. There were a couple of towels on the bottom to make it soft and to keep him dry. I put a little bowl of water in there hoping he would get a drink if he wanted it. I don't know whether he actually used it or not. The bowl was too small for him to climb into.

While he was in dry dock I kept the lid on the container and he just slept. I first tried leaving the lid off so he could look around but he seemed so anxious that I thought it would be best for him to simply sleep. I think Steve had to dry dock his girl for a lot longer and I think he did set up lights but if it's for a short period I wouldn't think it would be necessary. When Spot was in his tank every day he wound up basking under his MVB so he wasn't entirely lacking in good light.

I love having the big container though it takes a lot of space. We keep it in the garage now and pull it out for Spot when I'm cleaning his tank. I think it cost all of $16 at Lowes - a very good deal.

The fungus spots on his carapace disappeared within a few days and never came back. It was a miracle. I kept rubbing the SSD on them but don't know if it was necessary. You might treat him until the fungus disappears then keep it up for a few more days, and then you'll probably be done.

[SpotsMama]

By the way, I think once a turtle has had a pretty bad fungus infection (as Spot had had) the infection is in his environment or his system so it keeps coming back. Some new fungus patches recently appeared on Spot's carapace (in new places) and I rubbed the SSD on them and dry docked him for a couple of nights (night only) and they seem to have gone away. For the fungus alone I don't believe it was necessary to have kept him in dry dock as much as I did the first time - I was more treating the shell rot on his belly. I'm hoping that the much less severe treatment will do the trick for minor fungus - time will tell. I expect he'll continue to have fungus spots periodically for a long time.

[Starchick]

What is the purpose of the Nolvasan solution? Would Betadine work as well?

Thank you for the advice!

That's interesting about the fungus recurring in the turtle's system/environment. I've read a lot about fungal infections in humans because of its connections to celiac disease, and I understand once it becomes systemic it's almost impossible to get rid of. Basically you have to starve the fungus (yeast) by staying off all sugars and starches for nearly a year. I'll plan on thoroughly cleaning Hercules' tank and letting it sit dry for the couple weeks he's with me. Are there particular tank conditions that might inhibit fungal growth (ph etc?) Thank you for sharing your experience, Spotsmama, it's good to know that you've had such continuing success with the SSD cream. And I will photograph his progress and continue to update this thread.

[marisa]

Nolvasan is the brand name for chlorohexidine, and is an antimicrobial agent that's very effective for cleansing. Betadine would do the job as well (some have a much success with it) but is harsher and doesn't support the growth of healthy tissue like chlorohexidine will.

[SpotsMama]

My understanding is that high ph favors fungus and low ph favors bacteria. Fungus infections seem to be the bigger problem with our turtles, so lower ph is good.

The majority of Spot's healing was accomplished without SSD but it took a long long time. I used hibiclense (which contains the same ingrediant as Nolvasan) but I'm not convinced it helps with the fungus. What seemed to work (though slowly) was correcting absolutely everything - light, water quality, diet, basking, ph. He made the most progress when he was outside basking under natural sun and when he was inside under his good t rex MVB. I think the value of good light can't be overestimated.

Nolvasan is an antiseptic similar to betadine. What I've read is that it is gentler on living cells so permits faster healing of a wound.

And by the way, a reliable source diagnosed his shell problem as a yeast, so he's not supposed to have sugar either!

[industrial_girl_2000]

Everyone had some good points here.

In the past when I treated Sheba's shell with a betadyne solution & had to let her dry out afterwards, I just let her walk around the house for a coupla hours & closed the doors to any rooms I didn't want her going in. She's not comfortable being in the bathtub or a rubbermaid container (tries to climb the walls & basically just freaks/stresses out).

If your turtle is very small or isn't used to being out of the tank, then a rubbermaid container will work fine.

You don't need to provide a pan of water for them while they are dry docking. A turtle can stay out of the water for around 3-4 hours safely (and it is plenty of time to allow them to *completely* dry out which is very good for the shell). If you notice turtles in the wild, many of them bask for 8 hours straight without getting back in the water (!).

[Starchick]

Okay, Hercules is at my place! We drained his tank last night, and put him in the rubbermaid. He seemed to do okay once it was dark.

I haven't started the SSD treatment yet, just because I was reluctant to do it at a time when I couldn't get him to the vet quickly just in case. But he was dry overnight, traveled home with me with no problems, and I put him in water to eat and drink. I don't have a tank for him here, just a small rubbermaid with enough water for him to swim a little.

So he was in the water about an hour this morning, then I put him back in the dry enclosure while I was at work. I came home, and noticed that he hasn't gone to the bathroom since yesterday, early evening, and when I put him back in the water he was sort of kicking at his back end like he was constipated, so I'm pretty much just letting him swim around for now.

[Starchick]

Okay, I'm getting ready to start the treatment on Hercules. Here are some 'before' photos.

This is the white that's appeared in the seams of his plastron, the first picture was taken two weeks before the second, you can see how it spread, especially on the left side.




This is unfortunately not the best picture, but it's the part of his shell that I'm most concerned about. He has all these little extra scutes connecting his carapace and plastron, and those were all completely white. Some of them shed but it seems to be spreading aggressively there. It's only on his left side, at least.



And this is where the problem first began to appear. He shed a few of these scutes but the new scutes are quickly being overtaken. The scute second from right in the photo has many layers that will not shed, and it feels sort of mushy to me.




So here I go...I will continue to post photos, and your advice and input is appreciated!

[SpotsMama]

thanks for the photos! This will be very interesting.

On him being constipated - if he still seems stopped up, try letting him soak in a bowl of warm water (not hot, of course!). Marisa recommended this for a little turtle that was stopped up the other day and it worked after about 10 minutes.

It does look like ol' Hercules is having some difficulty shedding scutes. I think the very best thing for shedding is very good UVB light and lots of basking (or dry docking if the turtle won't bask enough). Also, vitamin e in the diet is supposed to help. Here are some foods rich in vitamin e if you want to supplement his diet a little:

Tomato
Sweet potato
Turnip greens
Blueberries
Apple skin

[Starchick]

Okay, here's pics after 4 days of treatment. At first I tried to do what I read was recommended, leaving him out of the water most of the day then giving him 4 or 5 hours to swim and eat. My schedule has been crazy this week (working early, working late, running errands at all hours) so I didn't have many consecutive hours at home to let him swim, and I attempted to set my alarm to get up during the night and move him and it just wasn't working. So I've had him in dry dock during the day while I'm at work, an hour or two with his basking light on, whenever I'm here to supervise, then let him swim around overnight. He's not thrilled with me but he's coping, and I'm seeing some progress! I've been using Hibiclense to clean his shell, then putting on the SSD cream. I haven't been letting him soak in the hibiclense solution..he's stressed enough I'm afraid he'll splash it into his eyes or something, so I've just been using a baby toothbrush to rub it onto his shell.

The biggest thing is that the spots on his side have almost completely gone away! Those were the ones I was concerned about, they just felt kind of icky and gummy before and it was spreading like crazy there, but now it looks pretty much back to normal! On the top of his shell he's looking much better too. The only place I'm not seeing rapid change is in the seams of his plastron. It does seem to be retreating but not as fast as in the other spots.

[iac637]

He looks a lot better
We use hibiclense what we do is rub it on their shell and let it sit for a minute or two then I rinse it off. We don't let them soak in it because they like to put their heads in the water and I dont' want it to get into their eyes.

[steve]

The shell is looking good. If the shell is fine except for the fungal/yeast (no bleeding, breaches or other types of infection) then I would just dry dock him overnight and apply the cream then.

I think he can be kept in the tank during the day so he can eat and bask. If you are using Hibiclense or betadine, I would apply it as soon as you take him out of the tank. Let him dry off for a bit (30-60 mins) then apply the SSD and let the little guy go to sleep.

The kind of cream you got is also a bit greasy compared to another I've used. You'll probably have to give him a gentle scrub/rinse in the morning before you put him back into the tank.

[SpotsMama]

He is looking better. SSD cream is a wonderful invention.

My vet prescribed chlorhexadine for Spot but I think it was because he had the red spots (injuries? early shell rot?) on his plastron, not because of the fungus, so if you skip it that's probably fine. Chlorhexadine (hibiclense or Nolvasan) is also a wonderful antiseptic but for the particular condition in this case I haven't seen that it's effective.

By the way, on soaking causing your turtle stress, you are right on target, it would have stressed him a lot to just make him sit in it. With Spot, I wound up moistening a paper towel and continually rubbing it on his plastron for around 20 minutes while I held him because he just freaked out when I tried to make him sit in a bowl of solutiion.