General Care Discussion :: Problem with her Plastron

[seravee]

Hi everyone! I've been reading all the great info on the site and viewing some of the topics here, but I decided to post because I'm still pretty worried and unsure about what to do about my turtle. Towards the upper left part of her plastron there is this little patch that looks scratched up and kind of eaten away. There's no discharge or smell and it's not soft. It just feels like shell. Then towards the bottom of her plastron there is a white patch and another discoloration. I also included a pic of her carapace just to get some more feedback on whether that looks okay too.
She is five years old and we generally feed her Reptomin pellets and sometimes some shrimp and grapes. I'm going to try adding some of the veggies mentioned here to her diet soon too.
Thank you in advance for any suggestions and feedback!

http://i62.photobucket.com/albums/h111/ ... stron1.jpg
http://i62.photobucket.com/albums/h111/ ... astron.jpg
http://i62.photobucket.com/albums/h111/ ... rapace.jpg
http://i62.photobucket.com/albums/h111/ ... _close.jpg

[Dein211]

hm.. does her basking dock have a rough surface? that could be causing the abrasions on her plastern. as for the carcapice with the exception of some weird missshapings ( looks like there is a litttle bump on the top of her shell) it looks pretty good to me

[BullDog]

The upper left part looks like a healed injury, possible a scrape like Amy mentioned. The white spot doesn't look good though. It could be shell rot, although I'm not sure. Does she have a place where she can get completely dry (bottom too?)

Her carapace looks good. Looks like she's getting ready to shed.

[seravee]

Thanks for the comments so far.
Her basking dock does have a pretty rough surface so I'll look for something a bit better. The dock is long and sits just above the water so when she sits on it she weighs it down a little and some of the water gets her lower back wet so she isn't getting as dry as she should. I'll try to find a way to keep it from sinking so much.

[SpotsMama]

Someone on the forum with one of the acrylic turtle ramps came up with a very clever way to keep the dock from sinking under their turtle's weight:

http://www.redearslider.com/forum/viewt ... king#60668

My 7" turtle has an acrylic dock and I've been using the magnets for a couple of years and they work like a charm.

Before getting the acrylic dock, my guy had one of the Zoo Med Turtle Docks. Even the large size was sinking under his weight. To keep it bouyent, I bought another, smaller dock and cut it into pieces and glued it to the underside of his large dock to give it bouyancy. That worked too.

By the way, a piece of cork bark makes a great basking platform. Cork is very bouyant and turtles love the natural feel. When Spot lives outside during the summer months, he basks quite happily on cork bark. Some people use it for their indoor habitats with great sucess.

It is essential that his shell be able to dry out completely, top and bottom, at frequent intervals. Since your turtle's carapace looks so good, I'd say you are on the right track in thinking that the damage to his plastron is caused by the wet conditions, perhaps exacerbated by a rough basking surface.

[steve]

seravee, I think good advice has been given out. As a precaution, I would look into shell rot treatment as you might have a very early case.

http://www.austinsturtlepage.com/Care/medshell.htm

[seravee]

Thanks for the dock tips SpotsMama and thank you for the link Steve! I read through it, but I still have a few questions. Just to make sure, the treatment using acriflavine is done after treatment with the betadine right? Or are those two separate types of treatment? Also, would I have to scrape that white patch on her plastron off to treat it?

[steve]

Acriflavine and Betadine are topical antiseptics. There is a version of Acriflavine used in to treat fish, though you can probably avoid it at this point. Betadine (diluted with water to tea color) can be applied and left to dry. You can also try using Silverdyne (Silver Sulfadiazine) cream, but it is an inexpensive prescription medication. SpotsMama used it to treat a plaston before, I'll re-post that topic if I can find it. However, the basking area needs to be addressed first. Then I would look immediately into treatment.

I really don't have enough information about the white spot to suggest anything. Can you post a macro shot of it?

**edit**
here you go:
http://www.redearslider.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=10839

I took him to a good herp vet two weeks ago (JULIE CHABIRA, PRESTON ROAD ANIMAL HOSPITAL, DALLAS) and she prescribed Nolvasan soaks, Silver Sulfadiazine salve and lots of dry docking (much more than I had done in the past). Not only did the treatments cure the problems on the plastron - BUT THE SILVER SULFADIAZINE COMPLETELY - COMPLETELY - CURED THE NEW FUNGUS INFECTION ON HIS CARAPACE. Any turtle with a fungus infection on the shell should get this stuff. It's a miracle drug and it's fast.

[seravee]

Thanks a lot for the clarification and link! We were able to fix her dock so she's drying out better now. I tried to take some better pictures of the spot, but failed. The indoor lighting was just bad so Ill have to try again in daylight tomorrow. I included them at the bottom though.

http://i62.photobucket.com/albums/h111/ ... _19_08.jpg
http://i62.photobucket.com/albums/h111/ ... _19_08.jpg
http://i62.photobucket.com/albums/h111/ ... _19_08.jpg

[steve]

Keep very close track of the progress. If it doesn't show any improvement, I would seek the appropriate veterinary care/guidance.