General Care Discussion :: black spot in mouth?

[Dein211]

i was brushing her shell today and when she was trying to bite the brush i noticed that she had this black spot in her mouth. my thought is that she was eating her pellets too fast and one crunched in her mouth wrong but i'm not sure. anyone else know if this is something potentialy bad or not?

[scripta_elegans]

Is it sunken in at all or raised at all? If it looks like a spot that could be just different pigmentation than the rest of the lining in her mouth? That would be my guess if she isn't exhibiting any other symptoms.

[SpotsMama]

Is the spot still there today? Maybe it was just a dot of food that's washed away.

[Dein211]

that little brat! of course now that i'm trying to get her to open her mouth she doesnt. not even for the evil brush! well anyway as far as i could see when she opened her mouth a little i think i still saw it.

scripta- i couldnt tellif it was raised or not and i dont ever remember it being there and i'm assuming its a peice of pellet that got lodged in her mouth or something. i dont know but i'm going to keep an eye on it and hopefully it goes away.

[Jeep4x4]

I just noticed the same thing today with my RES. I have been unable to find any information on this. This black stone appears to be lodged into his left mandibular salivary duct. I know this isn't a real stone because I don't keep gravel in his tank.

I happen to be a physician assistant and this would appear to be a salivary stone that is lodged in the duct. I feed my turtle mostly frozen veggies and this may be to blame due to the less than bite-sized portions.

I tried removing it with forceps but he was less than cooperative. I am going to try to get him to eat some collards or romain or something else that requires some work to see if it can come out on its own. I know in humans this resolves on its own most of the time.
I think this may be the same problem your turtle is having.

[marisa]

Welcome. It's my understanding that aquatics have greatly reduced salivary glands (one of the reasons why food has to be in water for them to eat), but perhaps yours is a little different(?) If the black area doesn't appear to be spreading, it sounds like a bit of whatever your turtle ingested is stuck on the interior of the mouth.