I had someone contact me about their 25 year old turtle that has developed 2 small holes in the bottom shell, she also said its rotting.

I told her to take it to a vet. Now she wants to surrender it to me and leave me with the bills, grrrrr.

Can anyone give me a heads up on this? What would cause it and can it be corrected? I don't have it yet.

Thanks for your help,

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Val

http://www.reptilerescuerichmond.org

Aren't some people just wonderful!
(suppressing desire to chastise severely about the head neck and shoulders!)

I would suspect its something fungal or bacterial probably due to being kept in filthy conditions

Hopefully one of our turtle keepers will have some ideas for you.

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Merlin,
What's Life Without A Little Magic!

Poor little turtle! I hate when people do things like that. We had someone do that to us with a cat that had a severely infected head. My husband was able to take up a collection from his office, which helped to pay the bills. We just couldn't let the poor thing die!

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~Juliane~

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Zane Neher.

The great and strong man is one who bears within his character many contradictions.
Crocodilian care.

Just don't let anyone glue anything to his shell to patch the holes...some people treat turtle shells like the body of a rusted car, lol. It's living tissue and bone--it needs to have any infections eliminated, be carefully cleaned, and dressed like any other wound. The bone should grow back to fill in the holes, over time--but if something is glued over the area, this can actually prevent it from healing properly.
Obviously such a wound can take a long time to heal, but heal it can.

Find out more about its living conditions. It sounds like a common irresponsible pet owner to me. Most aquatic turtle problems are caused by unsanitary living conditions.

Thank you everyone for your comments and help.

I finally received this poor girl today, she is an Asian Box turtle. She was kept in a 10 gallon tank on gravel and a rock with sharp edges for basking. She has lived like this for 15 years, she is 25 years old. She never had any heat other than "natural sunlight" and no light or UVB. It appears she hasn't shed in quite sometime, she is thickly coated with algae. The shell rot looks pretty severe to me but I don't have any experience with this ailment. I have a vet appointment for her tomorrow.

I have been trying to scrape off some of the algae but shell is coming up with it, is this safe to do? Any suggestions on how to get the algae off?

Thanks for any help.

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Val

http://www.reptilerescuerichmond.org

I would use a soft cloth to get the algae off...do Asian box turtles shed their shell scutes? If so, it should come off with her next shed anyhow.
Algae isn't directly harmful, I'd be more concerned about fungal or bacterial growth.

It would appear that the scutes shed individually. The vet visit tomorrow will take care of the fungal or bacterial infection but I'm also concerned about the algae. It is so thick that I think it's inhibiting the shedding.

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Val

http://www.reptilerescuerichmond.org

I saw a new-to-me vet today, he was great. I took in the box turtle and a corn snake, this guy spent almost an hour with me, the information he shared was great.

The turtle's shell rot was pretty serious but not through to flesh, no antibiotics necessary as it is fungal. I'm treating it with betadine, easy.

The scutes do need help shedding as they are 5 or 6 layers behind. All in all a great experience.

Thanks again everyone

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Val

http://www.reptilerescuerichmond.org