General Care Discussion :: strange shell

[kiwigerman]

Ever since i got my turtle, its shell has looked strange. Its covered in white corroded looking stuff. Some of it has peeled and as you can see its looking better where its peeled. Is this normal? (sorry the photo's aren't very clear)

[SpotsMama]

My opinion - George has had a pretty good case of shell fungus. Spot had it too. I finally fixed things - his diet, water quality, basking situation and light, also lowered the ph - and now the white is finally peeling off like with yours and underneath is nice black shell.

I've also treated him several times with Hibiclense (there are several threads on here about Hibiclense if you want to do a search). It's a disinfectant hand wash for humans that will kill bacteria and fungus on a turtle's shell (when applied properly). I think it helped too.

I think turtles get shell fungus because of habitat problems - water not clean, not basking enough, poor diet. Do you know what kind of habitat he lived in before you got him?

[kiwigerman]

He was kept for the first 4 years in this tiny tank. They didn't even have a filter for him! That's why we rescued him. Do you think I should wait to see how it looks when its finished peeling? Or start treating it with Hibicleanse straight away?

[kiwigerman]

by the way, he's now in this tank.

[SpotsMama]

I remember that photo of him floating in the invisible water - beautiful.

I'd do Hibiclense now. It can't hurt and it will give additional assurance that the problem is stopped.

[ice]

sorry to go off topic....but wow. how do you keep the water so clean?

[kiwigerman]

photo was taken just after cleaning. lol

[Hoooneylynn]

George has the biggest tail I have ever seen!

[steve]

My turtle (and I believe Spotsmama turtle Spot) have a similar problem. Its probably either bacterial or fungal in nature. Mine had hers very early, started at one scute and just spread to the others. She didn't have the best basking area when I first got into this "job", and I'm certain that it was a major contributing factor.

It also spread to my other RES when they were reintroduced to each other. Anyway, it has stopped spreading and has affected both the plastron and carapace. I have had it tested (culture sample) but it came back negative. It's possible the sample was not active since it stopped spreading at the time of the test.

Now that it has stopped spreading and she has been shedding, it looks very similar to your pics. She has been shedding thick layers, so it looks much better. Whatever this is, it has been able to penetrate a few thin layers, so it will take another good shedding for the shell to look and feel smooth.

[SpotsMama]

Yes what Steve said about his turtle is just like it is with Spot. He started shedding some of the white last summer, then the shedding slowed down when I brought him inside, but he's been shedding pretty well lately and his shell is starting to look nice. But it's been very slow, the layers that are shed were thick, and it takes multiple sheds to get rid of all the white.