General Care Discussion :: strange orange marking under my turtle's nose?

[PetriTheTurtle]

I'm not sure if I should be worried or not? There's a weird orange crescent shaped mark under my turtle's nose. I've never seen it there before, and I've had Petri for 4 years! I haven't changed anything recently. Same food as always, same water temp, same basking temp, same UVA/UVB light, same heat source... no changes!! The filter could probably use a cleaning out, but the local pet store has been out of the filter media I need (they claim they'll be getting more on tuesday).

I tried to take a picture of it, sorry it's not the best quality. She was not to keen on staying still for me. Any thoughts you have would be helpful. Do you think I should be concerned?

[ZombieTurtle]

looks like an evil mustache,
has he eaten carrots lately(or since this), one time afte rmy turtle ate carrots he had a little "orange lip" deal going on for a little bit,,

[PetriTheTurtle]

It does look at bit like an evil mustache!

But no, she hasn't had carrots in a while (although I do feed her them occasionally, I just haven't had any around in a bit).

[marisa]

The markings are so alike that they almost look like they've been drawn on the picture...Does any color come off if you touch it with a moistened q-tip?

[PetriTheTurtle]

Update: I cleaned out the filter today (although I really don't think that had anything to do with it). I noticed that the bottom of her shell seems slightly orange too.

However, it does seem to be a bit more like a surface stain (though it did not come off with a q-tip) than an injury or anything wrong with the skin.

Since she is eating well and acting normal I am just going to keep an extra close eye on her for the time being!

[industrial_girl_2000]

That orange stain is normal.....I have observed that Sheba gets a little orange around her nose from time to time & then the color disappears. Never could figure out exactly what caused her face to get a little orange since I don't feed her carrots, but the color never harmed her. I'm thinking that the area around the nose sheds like the rest of her, and once she lost the orange layer, then she was fine again. No harm done.