I joined because I've been having this issue with my turtle's shell, and unfortunately, I don't have the money to take him to a vet. I'm dry docking him for the duration of the day, with 1 or 2 soaks during the day for feeding, etc. I'm doing a light scrubbing (once he is dry) with Betadine and a soft toothbrush to encourage shedding and fight off a possible fungal infection. He's retained scutes for sometime now, and I'm a little worried that this retention may have caused other problems to occur, such as his slightly swollen eyes, the dots on his shell, and a brownish/reddish spot on his back leg. He had a slight constipation issue, and would not go spare for a few whitish strands, which I quickly learned were from rotting food in his stomach. I fixed this through the use of some pellets soaked in castor oil to supplement his usual feeding. I was concerned with what came out, however. It looked like he had either ingested his old scutes and they had then turned green, or that he lad lettuce that had become hardened stuck in his stomach. I am still unsure as to which of the two it was. There is no plastic in his temporary tank, nor in the main one. Then he went normally, which was a huge relief for me.
Here is a picture of recent spots that appeared on his shell. They aren't soft, nor do pieces come off when I lightly scrape them with my fingernail. Shortly after this picture was taken, I was able to peel off almost the entire surface of his plastron, revealing a much nicer looking shell underneath, without any of the redness. However, those spots stayed, that part of the shell didn't shed.
And in this one you can see his eyes, which are completely clear. He just has some swelling on the lids. I've been feeding him lots of carrots and lettuce, as well as a few Reptomin pellets and ZooMed gourmet aquatic turtle food pellets (I don't feed him the mealworms/shrimp/cranberries in the mix too often), so I know this probably isn't a vitamin A deficiency. They gets less swollen/more swollen during the day. I know that there are other things that it could be, but the lack of consistency in the swelling/white shades to the eyelids make me think otherwise.
I know this picture is a little shaky, but it's difficult to get a picture at that angle, with a squirming turtle! I don't know what this spot is, or what it's from. It's more brown than red. I've been cleaning that with the Betadine as well, and monitoring it carefully to make sure it doesn't spread. I'm still unsure of what it is.
I used to keep him with my other two turtles, I've had all three living together since they were little babies, but the other two show no symptoms of whatever it is that this guy has. He's isolated for now in a plastic tank with a heating pad. I haven't been the best caretaker of the turtles, since I was a dumb 16 year old and didn't do any research into the care of them. I thought they were adorable, and gladly took them when a friend of mine said she didn't want them anymore. I've since learned the errors of my ways and am taking care of them much better than I was; I'm planning on upgrading all three to a decent sized pond. All I need is some aquarium glue and an aerator, and I'll be set.
My main question is, how can I help him shed his scutes? I'm going to buy some wheat germ koi pellets tomorrow (hopefully), but I don't know what else I can do. He's acting completely normal, not listless, not swimming sideways, no weeping of the eyes, nothing out of the ordinary. Any advice as to what to do would be helpful, I've been pouring over every site trying to find answers, but none seem to really help. Sorry for such a long post, but I think it has all necessary information; I could be wrong, however.
