redearslider.com

Today, Ralph actually let me come and look at him bask! He even came over to the edge of the tank to get a better look at me!
I noticed that the skin between his plastron and legs was pinkish. I searched the forum, but there wasn't too much info.
Here is the best pic I could get:

You can see the colour of his skin on his "arm pit" compared to his leg and neck.
After he got bored of me taking pics of him, he jumped in the water, and started begging. I noticed that the area no longer looked pink. It's hard to get a pic of him when he's in the water, as he's in constant motion, but this gives you the general look:


So I did a bit more digging. I couldn't find ANY pictures of turtles with Septicemia. The two things I found useful were on good ol' reliable Austin's Turtle Page and I found this from another website:

Sometimes if you see the skin of your res turns pink. Don't fret. It may be due to bad blood circulation at that time. Let it out for a walk or exercise and the skin will soon turn back green. If the pink colour persists it may be due to skin infection and it could be because of dirty water or tank. Sagging skin is usually due to aging. You might notice that their skin start to sag at 8 or 9 yrs old.

I was wondering what some of the "veteran" RES keepers thought of this. Since he had been laying there basking a while, and the pink disapeared once he got back in the water and started moving around, I would think this is a reasonable explanation. However, I'm hesitant to put a lot of faith in that website, as it's just a personal site, and some of the info was at best misleading.

Ralph has no other symptoms; He eats, basks, and is active.
I'm curious as to everyone's thoughts, as this might help explain some of the other cases of pinkish skin that have been posted in the past.

I'm not a veteran keeper, but my RES sometimes have a very slight pink tint to their skin near the shell. Usually I don't see it, sometimes its not visible.

My RES sometimes has a *very* pink color to her skin at times, and other times not. She gets this more often when she is very warm (basking all day) or out of the tank for a while. I'll see if I can get a picture next time it happens.

I can't speak for every RES out there, but it has never harmed mine in the 17 yrs I have had her & the pink color comes & goes periodically.

Both my RES sometimes get pinkish skin if they have been basking for more then a few hours but once they hop into the water it dissapears very quickly.

That's good to know!
Thanks for the input all