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My map turtle began to have a small black spot on the edge of a scute behind his head sometime in July 2003 - the area seemed soft and looked like it caused pain when pressed. A few weeks later an adjacent scute also looked chipped and blackened.

A vet gave my vitamins and antibiotics for him (clindamycin) - I also began dry docking him for 22-23 hours a day and washing him in chlorohexidine and betadine daily... this slowed down the progression - but he is still developing cracked and flacky looking areas.... more and more areas of his scutes are peeling back and exposing blackish shell material - it is not soft and it doesn't appear painful but his shell is looking very scarred up and blackened... Also his skin no longer seems to shed - i think because it is always dry and does not soften up when he has his hour to swim. Now his skin is cracking in places... What can I do???? More water time may soften the skin - but his shell will then rot quicker.

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I see nothing wrong with the shell besides that chip in the front. All the other black spots just look like markings. It looks like you have done everything do prevent it. Are you sure that its shell rot? Usually shell rot is white. Sometimes after is has cured it turns black. I would advise you to stop dry docking the turtle for so long. Actually I would stop dry docking all together considering it dosnt even look like shell rot. What did the vet say, and is he qualafied to treat reptiles? For more info on medical info go to www.AustinsTurtlePage.com and click on the subtitle Medical Information.
Good Luck, and hope this helps...
Chris
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Hey whats up, I'm Chris and I currently have 1.0 Softy, 0.0.1 Midland Painted, 1.0 Bearded Dragon

any spot thats soft and discollored is probaly "rot" meaning an infection of some kind. painting on nolvasan or betadine and dry tanking for 2-3 hours a day is a good idea. but you have to dig out the rotted stuff too. it wont help at all if you dont. you have to remove all of the soft cr@p in the discolored area to get to the root of the infection. or else your just wasting your time. if its deep, it will hurt the turtle. then its best to have a vet do it with anathesia or else its cruel to the turtle

Hey - I think my turtle is getting better...not really sure. The pics here: show what I am talking about...

http://www.geocities.com/jyanich/2891.jpg

http://www.geocities.com/jyanich/2898.jpg

http://www.geocities.com/jyanich/2892.jpg

http://www.geocities.com/jyanich/2904.jpg

http://www.geocities.com/jyanich/2902.jpg

He originally had only a dark mushy area on the edge of his shell just behind and to the left of his head... this "chip" then kinda spread to the next scute - so he then had two black soft "chipped" areas. I took him to a vet - one who deals with turtles - and was informed to add vitamins to his diet...he normally eats reptamin or wardleys turtle food pellets...In addition to adding vitamins, the vet gave me clindamycin antibiotic to give to the turtle 2 times a day... I also bought a better UVA/UVB light and began dry docking him for 22-23 hours a day. I also began a once - twice a day peridex/chlorohexidine scrub as well.

After a week or two - those mushy black chipped areas were firm and hard and didnt seem to be painful to him... however, as his scutes around the area began to shed - i noticed that the damage was far greater... Over the next several months - he didnt seem to shed his scutes very much and I could see water remaining trapped and the mushy areas spreading...even though I was continuingdry docking... You can see in the pics some reddish flaky looking areas where the scutes are cracked and peeling up shouwing a white area underneath... sometimes these areas feel soft and somtimes they are hard... I can't really tell if it is getting better or worse.

I now have him back in water with a good basking area... he now basks regularly and seems ok.
The areas that were black/white and mushy where the pieces of scutes were lifting up are now mostly white and feel firm and do not seem to cause pain...is that what a shell healing from shell rot should look like????

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