General Care Discussion :: Possible Shell Rot?

[tomster]

Hi everyone. I had my little guy outside for some sun today, and was taking a closer look at his plastron when I got a little worried. The ridge that runs between the scutes in the center of his plastron seems to be a little...ragged and open. Also, there are a lot of white spots. I had assumed they were dry spots/air getting between the scutes, but now I am not certain. There are no soft spots anywhere on his shell. The top of his shell looks healthy. He lives in a 40BR with a custom glass basking area built above the water, it is roughly 17x12 inches, and he spends quite a bit of time up there, it is covered with a slab of cork bark. Perhaps this is too rough on his plastron? I am hoping he does not have shell rot, and otherwise he is very active and healthy. I've attached some images, but not sure if you will be able to see the detail in this size. I do have larger ones stored. Let me know what you guys think. Thanks!

IMG_4605_small.jpg (99.43 KiB) Viewed 1450 times

IMG_4607_small.jpg (137.33 KiB) Viewed 1450 times

IMG_4610_small.jpg (105.53 KiB) Viewed 1450 times

[steve]

It looks like a little uneven shedding, but very good overall. Larger pics might help.

[tomster]

I'm definitely going to be keeping a close eye on it- if it is uneven shedding (fingers crossed), is there something I can be doing to facilitate better sheds? Currently TJ eats pellets 3-4 times per week, with bouts of romaine in between. He's outfitted with the corrects lights, but perhaps needs more or less of a certain vitamin? Also feeling I should probably be switching him gradually to more veges and less pellets. He is just around 5 years old, and about 5.5 inches. Also, I can email a larger picture if you want, just message me.

[steve]

Sure, there's a link to my email under my avatar.

[tomster]

I just put the larger ones on photobucket- just open them in a new tab to get a bigger size.

www.photobucket.com/tomstermonster

[steve]

Everything looks OK to me, though I'm not sure about this area. It might be the lighting...

[tomster]

It look like that was just a reflection from the camera flash, I didn't notice any conspicuous white patches there. I'm going to try to alter his diet a bit to include less protein, and let him get some more natural sunlight during the week, hopefully this will help overall.