General Care Discussion :: Flaking Shell

[windowskiller987]

First Off I want to say that I have just rescued two turtles from a friend of my dad's who had them in poor conditions. I couldn't bare the smell of the tank. There was an inch layer thick of waste over by the basking rocks because the hadn't cleaned the tank in 5 YEARS! This Made Me very upset. Anyway, There tank is now clean (we spent two hours cleaning 5 years of water buildup & Poop). There new names are Adam & Eve And yes, there names are gender correct. I think Eve had an issue with the bad water because she is shedding globs of skin. That should stop in a couple of days. I also noticed she had an overbite. I am a little concerned about there shells. They don't have any visible skin plates like my other turtle jaws. All they have are the big ones & the shells flake. I peeled a brown piece of eve & A day later there's another brown piece there! Should I scrape it off? I never see her in the water & I'm worried that she is getting to much light. Adam on the other hand flakes al little bit, but he's never on the rock he's always in the water. He does have some shedding, but not as much as Eve. The poor guy has also lost a claw. It's already growing back. I was also noticing that the back of the shell isn't like a RES. I've seen his red ear but maybe you could look at the photo's on the link below.

Please, these turtles have been neglected for 12 years, I want the rest of there lives to be as best a possible.

http://web.mac.com/dylanbyrnes/iWeb/Site/Photos.html

P.S. How Long Can a RES Live?

[missibsu]

First off, I would remove the goldfish from the tank. They are fatty and can carry parasites. With everything they have been through, they don't need problems added to them.

Is it possible to get a pic of the top of Adams shell with him not in the water?

[windowskiller987]

Alright, The goldfish are gone. I'll get some pics soon.

[marisa]

The shells reflect the extremely poor living conditions they were living in. I see some shell rot. The excessive shedding sounds like it's a fungus, and acraflavine is often effective in treating this (assuming it's a fungus).

You could use betadine to treat the shells, but since they're in such poor condition, it would be really good to get them to a herp vet and have them treated. You would be able to get Nolvasan and silvadine ointment, both of which can work wonders for shell problems...

From the pic, the overbite doesn't look that bad to me (but the area isn't that clear).

Adam looks like a RES but has that black and yellow plastron?

With proper care RES can live 35+ years. The one RES looks rather chubby. What are they being fed, how much and how often?

Have them seen by a herp vet. The vet could better assess that overbite and any other problems you're noticing. If you don't know of one there's a post with links to finding one at the top of the Urgent Care forum. Let us know what happens.

[windowskiller987]

I'm going to try to get them to the vet. My dad says "they don't need to go to a vet, there just turtles". He's always acted like he knows everything about turtles when he knows absolutely nothing. I'll let you know what happens.