Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have had this turtle for a several months now and had just over the past 2 weeks noticed a portion of her undershell that was a bit discolored in comparison to the rest. At first I thought maybe it was her sheeding. It was just a different shade of yellow. I then read on here a bit and thought it was possibly a sign of calcium deficiency or something. So today I went in and was going to take a pic to show you all for advice and also to feel her underside to see if it was at all pliable and it is not. But now there is this evil RED STUFF ON IT! What is this?!?!?! Thanks in advance for your help. Will Betadine help this? Hope you all reply soon or I'm gonna end up at the vets cause this is sad

I also have a question about getting my guys used to different container feedings. They just don't seem to like the idea of eating somewhere other than their tank, but I'm afraid this pink stuff is a cause of dirty water. Even though I keep up with their tank doing 100% water changes weekly and have even broken the tank down several times using the 5% bleach solution. I have to get them used to feeding outside their home cause who wants to swim in calcium chicken water? What am I doing wrong? I feel so awful

That certainly does look bad! I don't know what to say as I've never seen anything like that before. Hopefully someone who does know will give you advice for it

As for feeding them in another tank, mine wouldn't either until I moved them from their old tank to a new one. Then when I placed them in their old home they would eat from there! Probably not something you can do if you have a really large tank but if you have another tank (something like 20-30 long tank) then maybe let them live there for a while. If you have a extra heater and maybe even a filter you can keep them in there easily. Then simply feed them there and when their done you can place them back to their regular home. Then when you need to feed them place them in their feeding tank and they should be accostomed to it as long as the water temp is the same.

And what I do is really clean the feeder tank and their regular home tank is pretty much spotless so I can rest and do a full water change once every two weeks rather then twice a week

I thew some betadine on her and am taking her to the vet in the morning. Thanks for the feeding advice I'm gonna try that.

The exotic vet wasn't available Saturday

I was instructed to gently remove any debris from her underside (the shell layers that were barely hanging on, but enough to sit there and hold the filth against her protecting it from washing out so it had plenty of room to grow). I did just that then used a soft sterile toothbrush and gently massaged her poor tummy with some betadine. She is now sitting in amongst some soft towels in my medicine/isolation tank with a heat lamp.

Yesterday I went out and purchased her and her cage mate Khan a 40 gallon which has is longer so they have plenty of room to play. They were previously in a 20 gallon with a Fluval 303 filter, but they were being fed in it. So it would get dirty quicky. I tried feeding in a separate container but they were too afraid to eat. I had to do water changes 2 times a week one being a complete water change. Then also there were goldfish living amongst them and an algae eater cause they are next to a window which causes algae. So too many things in one small home.

I have completely flipped out and realized through all this that I love my turtles way more than I thought. Nothing like a bit of tragedy to make you appreciate them. Also that they need way more attention than I ever thought. And mine are still under 4 1/2 inches easy, so how large they do get hasn't even come into the picture yet. Later I will build them a pond for the summer but I am unsure what to do about heating for them during winter. I will ask about that later.

Their new home consists of a plastic basking ramp spot and a large rock that allows them to stand in the water. A 24" full spectrum bulb compared to the previous 15" over their 20 gallon hell cage Anyhow the issues I'm having now is teaching them that this new ramp is okay and something they can stand on and even climb up to bask on. I thought maybe last night shinning the night basking light on it might draw them to it. But they still haven't gotten up there. Any ideas? Below is a picture of it. You can see Khan hiding there in the dark. I don't know how to post multiple pictures so I will post them in another message.

Nice. You might want to raise that basking platform, though, so that they can dry out completely - very important for those plastrons right now.

Katrina

There was somebody on Turtletimes.com that had that happen to their RES. They had to spend a lot of time working with it. I'm thinking it may have been Orzo that had the turtle, but I'm not sure. If you post the pic there, you'll likely get answers to your questions.

I'm thinking it was some sort of bacterial infection or shell rot.

I read up at Turtle Times below is a link in case anyone else runs into this problem. This is really gnarly stuff and will require dry docking and a medicine wash and or topical cream. Looking at her underside I would really think it is going to require the shots they spoke of. Baytril shots. I sure hope not. I will keep you posted.
Pink plastron

This looks like something I've seen in larger females that have bruised their plastron when banging around in a dry container or too shallow a container. Could her water be too shallow? Is there a rock or concrete basking spot that she would be scraping herself on when she hauls out? It needs to be debrided - the vet will do that - and she needs dry-dock time to dry it all out. A betadine scrub with a soft toothbrush followed by dry-dock is a start. It looks like the start of shell rot in there subsequent to bruising. Of course, I could be totally wrong here, and it's best to talk to the vet.

Katrina

this looks like septicimia to me. Which can be fatal. I'm glad that you are bringing her/him to a vet. I've never had to deal with this but I'm almost positive that you will be given injectible baytril to give to your turtle and there may be other measures that have to be taken. I hope everything works out.