Rescued Red-Eared Slider's shell is really dry.

UsernamePlease

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Hello, everyone!

I've recently rescued a red-eared slider. She stayed in a tiny BUCKET, with next to no water. What's more: the bucket's lid was closed, and held with a rock, so she wouldn't escape. So she saw almost no light at all... This was going on for *AT LEAST* a year! She was fed properly in that time period while the previous "owner" (if you can call him that...) was looking for a new home for her.

I got her a 500 litre (~110 gallons) tank, a filter, heating, basking light, and UV. At first I kept the tank in a pretty dark room, without turning on the UVs, while the turtle was adapting to a little bit of light so I didn't damage her eyes. After a week, I could turn on the UV lights no problem.

I feed her shrimp, mealworms, pellets, carrots, leafy greens, etc. Very rarely (because it contains sugar) I'll give her fruits and berries: grapes (her favourite food!), strawberries, feijoa, mango. She's got a great appetite and will eat anything I'll give her.

I'm not sure how old the turtle is, but I have her for 6 weeks now, and she's grown by 5% at least... She's very active and doesn't behave ill.

I never owned a turtle before, so the only "obvious" problem is her shell. It looks really dry. The skin on her limbs and head is totally fine though. Her shell is really solid too. So is it because she started growing again? This doesn't look like normal peeling to me. Is it shell rot? Or is it some other sort of a disease?

I thought this would normalize after some exposure to UV light, but apparently I was wrong. :mad:

PS: The big white spots on her shell is some sort of damage. I don't know how she got them because she already had them when I rescued her.

IMG_20181201_183035.jpg IMG_20181214_132724.jpg IMG_20181217_131702.jpg IMG_20181217_131731.jpg
 

Markw84

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Good job recuing her. She looks pretty healthy considering the extremely poor conditions.

Her shell will recover with time. With good diet and basking conditions, she will eventually shed and the new keratin will grow back under the damaged scutes. Each progressive shedding will leave her looking more and more normal.

The big white spots - I would watch. I cannot see well from the photos, but looks a bit like shell rot to me that has dried out a bit. Is it flaky or cheesy and can you get some to come out if you pick at it? It could be exposed bone from old damage. I just can't see from the picture.
 

UsernamePlease

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The big white spots - I would watch. I cannot see well from the photos, but looks a bit like shell rot to me that has dried out a bit. Is it flaky or cheesy and can you get some to come out if you pick at it? It could be exposed bone from old damage. I just can't see from the picture.

When I touch it, it feels like every other part of her shell. It's not flaky or cheesy. Judging from its colouration, it looks like bone. She doesn't seem to mind if I touch those places. It honestly looks like she scrapped off some part of her scutes (or shell? not sure on the terminology here). Would that sort of injury disappear in time?

I think it's just retained scutes that haven't shed.

How long do those take to fall off?
 

ascott

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Hello, everyone!

I've recently rescued a red-eared slider. She stayed in a tiny BUCKET, with next to no water. What's more: the bucket's lid was closed, and held with a rock, so she wouldn't escape. So she saw almost no light at all... This was going on for *AT LEAST* a year! She was fed properly in that time period while the previous "owner" (if you can call him that...) was looking for a new home for her.

I got her a 500 litre (~110 gallons) tank, a filter, heating, basking light, and UV. At first I kept the tank in a pretty dark room, without turning on the UVs, while the turtle was adapting to a little bit of light so I didn't damage her eyes. After a week, I could turn on the UV lights no problem.

I feed her shrimp, mealworms, pellets, carrots, leafy greens, etc. Very rarely (because it contains sugar) I'll give her fruits and berries: grapes (her favourite food!), strawberries, feijoa, mango. She's got a great appetite and will eat anything I'll give her.

I'm not sure how old the turtle is, but I have her for 6 weeks now, and she's grown by 5% at least... She's very active and doesn't behave ill.

I never owned a turtle before, so the only "obvious" problem is her shell. It looks really dry. The skin on her limbs and head is totally fine though. Her shell is really solid too. So is it because she started growing again? This doesn't look like normal peeling to me. Is it shell rot? Or is it some other sort of a disease?

I thought this would normalize after some exposure to UV light, but apparently I was wrong. :mad:

PS: The big white spots on her shell is some sort of damage. I don't know how she got them because she already had them when I rescued her.

View attachment 260661 View attachment 260662 View attachment 260663 View attachment 260664

This is a super hardy species...if you now have the turtle set up right....feed and keep clean and a place to dry dock and bask in warmth and uv's and that turtle will live a long happy life...good rescue...
 

UsernamePlease

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So it's been ~two weeks since I opened the thread, and you guys were 100% correct!

She just started shedding old scutes today! Three big pieces fell off today, including the scutes that had white spots that looked like bone. The white bone-looking spots are completely gone.

Her new scutes aren't dry at all. :)
 

TortoiseRacket

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So it's been ~two weeks since I opened the thread, and you guys were 100% correct!

She just started shedding old scutes today! Three big pieces fell off today, including the scutes that had white spots that looked like bone. The white bone-looking spots are completely gone.

Her new scutes aren't dry at all. :)
Yay! Congratulations! :)
 
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