General Care Discussion :: Shell Rot

[Evelyn]

Hi All,
Shell Rot, are there any photo of shell rot ?
If a turtle has shell rot what does it look like ? Would it look like a sore or just discolored patches on the shell. Would you see a hole like portion, like something was eating a hole in the shell.
My male "Trouble" or course who else would it be, has discolored patches on his shell. I Took him out of his tank and look at the patches, I could not scape any thing off of the patches and the areas was very hard. I was wondering if this was the begaining of a problem.
Handing this turtle is not easy, boy the hissing and that open mouth, boy he would have loved to have nailed me. Talking to him did calm down.
I don't handle the turtle as offten as I should.
Evelyn

[Cosmo]

this was my last turtle, herbie. he got shell rot about a week after i got him. sorry about the angles of these pics, but on the right side of his shell you can see the "dark mark". by this time, herbie's shell rot was already pretty far along. his shell was soft, the spot smelled, and it was bleeding. this was really bad shell rot and that got infected...i don't think that your turtle, trouble, is anything like that, but if it does get bad, you'll start to see those signs. if you are worried that he might have shell rot then be sure to change the water in his tank, get the right lamp for him (if you don't already) and make sure that he's getting enough calcium. i learned the hard way about all this...and i hope that he's going to be ok!

could you get some pics of your turtle on here? i know what shell rot looks like because not only did herbie die from it but i've seen turtle's at shops that look pretty bad or have the beginnings of it. so i might be able to tell.

anyway, hope that this helps.

[steve]

There are some pics here: http://www.austinsturtlepage.com/Care/medshell.htm