Reptile & Amphibian Forums

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

ALSO please view my past posting:
http://forums.kingsnake.com/view.php?id=394695,394695

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????

www.geocities.com/jyanich
jyanich@yahoo.com

I would be concerned about the red areas. Shell rot can be tricky. I would bring him back to the vet for another assessment. Lots of those spots looked like old rot healing over but some of looks kind of active still.

all the rot areas have to be debrided by the vet or it wont heal underneeth. it wil just spread more. so its very important to get it all scraped out of there. nothing should be trapped under anything, everything open to the air.