Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I need some advice on care for shell rot. The pet store that I got him from a few months ago didn’t really have anywhere for their turtles to get out of the water. In addition, they didn’t seem to have any lighting or heaters of any sort.
Overall he seemed pretty healthy and active, but when I got him home and turned him over, his plastron had several questionable looking spots. I’m not a very experienced turtle owner (I’ve only been at it a couple years) but I do read everything I can find and I’m pretty sure that it is shell rot. It didn’t seem very bad and I figured that with the proper care and housing it would go away on its own.
It hasn’t really and I’ve decided to start trying to do something about it. I followed a couple websites instructions and began cleaning his shell and pealing away at the layers. I have pictures of what his plastron looked like before I started doing anything and what it looked like when I started peeling stuff away. What I uncovered made me kind of nervous. Is the picture what I should expect it to look like underneath or is it bad that I’m pealing away these parts of his shell (it seems dead and it doesn’t seem to hurt him….)?
What would you suggest that I do to help him get better? He is active, with clear eyes and he eats regularly. In every other way he seems fine. His shell is hard. I am in college in upstate New York (practically in the Adirondacks) and I doubt that there are any reptile vets anywhere near here. I’ve heard of using Betadine or Nolvasan (chlorhexidine). What do you suggest?
Any help would be GREATLY APPRECIATED
Thanks so much!

Is that a cyclemys?
Looks like you going to need some dry-docking and nolvasan.

yes he is, he's a sweetie. do you have one?

i figure that that would be what i needed to do, does the info on this site look good? i havent done this before....

http://www.turtlepuddle.org/health/shellrot.html

thanks so much