I am trying to figure out whats up with my RES he has one soft spot on the outer edge of his shell and on the other side hes shed and it had a spot of blood. Also on his spine he has two tiny white spots i have been putting betadine on him and keeping him out of water except for a couple of times a day. Please help he was a hand me down from some one .
Can you tell us a little more about his husbandry? That way we can better understand what his problems are and how they arose. Try to answer the following: 1. What size (dimensions, please) and style (aquarium, pond, rubbermaid container, etc.) enclosure is he in? Any pictures of the enclosure may be useful. 2. What are his basking and water temperatures, and what are you using to record those temperatures (stick-on thermometer, digital thermometer with probe, temp gun, etc.)? 3. What brand, style, and strength of UVB bulb are you using? How close is the turtle to the UVB bulb when basking? How old is the UVB bulb? 4. What is your feeding schedule like for your turtle? (the different foods and amounts of each typically given, please) Do you use any supplements and if so, what kind and how often? 5. What kind of filtration are you using? What is your cleaning schedule like? 6. Are there any other animals living with the turtle? 7. Have there been any recent changes in the turtle's appetite or behavior? Is so, please describe. 8. Any other details that might help? (turtle's age, size, length of time in your care, previous neglect or health issues, etc.) Any pictures you can give us of the issues on his shell will also help. Without knowing any information on his husbandry, I can only blindly guess the following: The soft spot is most likely due to a calcium deficiency. The bloody spot is probably a physical abrasion from a bad/retained shed. Did you mess with the shed at all while he was shedding that scute? If not, is there anything in the cage he might have scraped the shed off on? The white spots could be bacterial or fungal, or could be discoloration due to a calcium/vitamin deficiency...Again, pictures and details about husbandry can help us figure the specifics out... However, keep in mind that most of us here are not veterinarians. Your best course of action would be to find a herp vet in your area who can look your turtle over in person and get you the proper treatment from there. If you don't already have a herp vet, you can find one near you at: http://herpvetconnection.com/ Welcome to the forums, and I hope we can help you and your turtle with his problems!
Hi and welcome to the Reptile Rooms! It sounds like he has shell rot to me. My eastern painted turtle had the same issue in the past so I have done a bit of research on it. Shell rot is from water getting stuck under retained scutes causing rot and once the shell starts to shed, the white and soft spots become noticeable. The bloody spot is probably from a scute that was not quite ready to shed. I have a picture of a white spot on my turtle, do they look something like this? Sorry it is a little hard to see, he was all wet when I took the picture, but you can see it right in the center of the image. My turtle didn't have any soft spots, but I was told that it is very common for a turtle with shell rot to have soft spots. So I did a three week treatment with him. Basically I set up three tanks, a dry tank, a wet tank with regular water, and then a wet tank with a medicine called Maracyn dissolved in it. Maracyn is a fish medicine used to treat a number of diseases, but it works very well for treating shell rot with turtles. Basically for three weeks, I would keep him in the dry tank for 10 hours, then he would go into the Maracyn tank for 12 hours, and then in the regular water tank for 2 hours where he would be fed and get some swimming time. The dry tank was just a large bin lined with cardboard and some trees to help him feel safe. I had a heat lamp on it to keep one side at 80ish and the other side at 70ish. I kept him in the dry tank at night when he would fall asleep with the lights out to help ease the stress. The Maracyn tank is a little tricky. The medicine comes in packets. For treating the turtle, you want to only use 1 gallon of water and dissolve the packet in the water. The tricky part is finding a container that 1 gallon of water will completely cover the turtles shell. I used a regular tupperware container for this. You also want to make sure that the turtle can turn himself around so he isn't stuck in one spot. The temps in this tank should be around mid to upper 70's so that he doesn't get cold. Then the regular water tank can be his standard tank, but you want to keep this tank very clean, so I ended up using a smaller 20 gallon tank so that cleaning would be easier. Lastly, you want to have UVB lights on him as much as possible because UVB aids in shedding retained scutes. Once your turtle is done with treatment, he will probably shed and you may find there is more shell rot under the unshed scutes that you didn't know about, but the Maracyn treatment should still treat the hidden spots. I know this must sound like a lot of work, but if your turtle does have shell rot, this method will work for you. The only other thing I remember reading about that didn't apply to me was about the soft spots. I was told that if there was a soft spot that you wanted to bring the turtle to a vet to basically get rid of all the dead/soft tissue so that the treatment will work. This may be something you want to think about doing. If it is a very small spot, then you could try the Maracyn treatment first, and if it doesn't work then bring the turtle to the vet and get it cleaned off and try again. I am also curious to hear about your set-up. Usually shell rot has something to do with how the enclosure is set up, specifically the basking site and UVB lighting. Also, pictures would really help to identify exactly what the spots are on his shell.
His name is crush, I have had him since june. When I got him all he had was a 20 gallonn tank and a filter. He was also dropped by the prevoius family alot. Now he has a 40 gallon breader tank a large basking rock and a heat lamp. I am going friday for the uvb light I just found out about it. He gets feed twice daily, he gets the trutle pellets with shrimp bites. Also in nice weater he is out in a outdoor aquarium. We got him dried shrimp and he seams to only want those and nothing else. I had a heater in his water I was told he didnt need it also when its in the water he wont get out and bask. I keep the other tank and have been putting him in there for a while and have been treating him with betadine.
Try to go back through my questions and answer them point by point. You answered a couple but we are still missing a lot of important information. The answers to numbers 2 and 3 are especially important. Please be detailed in your answers. Jess is right, signs point to shell rot, but I'm guessing the rot has occurred as a secondary infection if the soft spots appeared first. Like I said, to find out exactly what is wrong and what caused the issue, we need more information.
There are no other fish or critters with him and we did get him minos once he ate them all but I was recomed by the pet place not to give him those cuse of dises.
That's great that you are picking him up a UVB light, they are very important to his overall health. The reason that he is not basking on the rock when the water heater is in the tank is because the water is too warm. If the water is warm, then he has no reason to sit under the heat lamp to heat himself up. You should have the water temp between 70 and 80, and then the basking rock around 90. This way the water is cooler than the rock so he will get out of the water and bask. Do you know how old your turtle is? I agree with the pet store that minnows are not the best feeder for turtles because they are very high in protein (because they are mainly made of meat). As turtles get older they do not need as much protein as when they are juveniles. As he gets older, you need to start giving him more "salads" and less protein. Salads can be made of greens such as kale, collard greens, mustard greens, dandelion greens, and various vegetables which can all be found at the grocery store. An adult turtle will eat 70% greens and 30% protein (like the turtle pellets and shrimp bites). So depending on how old he is, you may want to change his feeding schedule. Salads should be available for him all the time, and proteins like the turtle pellets should be fed once every 2-3 days, depending on how old he is. Also, shrimp bites should only be fed as a snack, not twice a day. If you can cut it down to once a week or less, that would be the best. Try to take some pictures of the white spots on his shell and your aquarium set-ups so we can help you figure this out.
