I noticed this small little patch on my red foot the other day. I gave it a little scrub with a soft, wetted, tooth brush and it didn't do much. Thoughts? I was thinking a small fungus patch or a scrape? 
Small white patch
- Thread starter fireshadow
- Start date
Fungus or start of shell Rot. RF are prone to shell rot and must be kept on dry top layer of substrate while moistening the bottom layers for high humidity. Keep the bottom of his shell dry and put some anti fungal cream on the patch and see if that helps clear it up
Any specific anti fungal cream? Or is this vet visit necessary?
Try the cheap generic cream for athlete's foot. Even Dollar stores have those, or any drug store.
Are you talking about the whitish patch in the middle of the tort's right side of her belly? Or the whitish areas at the growth lines?
Poor guy hope he heals up fast.
The one on the left side of the picture (his right side). I figured the line in the middle was a growth line.
I have read that betadine scrubs help, but what about a diluted chlorodexidine solution scrub?
I have read that betadine scrubs help, but what about a diluted chlorodexidine solution scrub?
Betadine or something to kill the spores. Only one time. After that initial cleaning put cream on every day. Read the cream box instructions for how many days the regimen needs to last. Could you take a close up of that spot? And be sure it's under good lighting. I'm not 100% about the fungus. The antifungal cream won't hurt anything so go ahead and start asap. When you take that close up pic be sure the area is clean and dry so that all we see in it it's the shell, free of substrate or cream or water. Meanwhile be sure the tort doesn't sit in wet substrate.
I have left his substrate dry the last few days, the room is humidified, and he tends to bury himself into the substrate a bit, so I am hoping it's not too dry for him. I will grab some cream on the way home, and I will try and get my marco lense out and get a better picture.
Alright, got a better picture with less substrate on him.
And while I have people actually responding, how is his shell growth looking? I'm always paranoid about pyramiding. I've had him about a year now, not sure how old he was when I got him; he was about the size of a golf ball.
And while I have people actually responding, how is his shell growth looking? I'm always paranoid about pyramiding. I've had him about a year now, not sure how old he was when I got him; he was about the size of a golf ball.
The isolated whitish patch on the plastron of your tortoise is some light scoring (=scaring) most likely from sitting in urine when it was a new hatchling. This commonly occurs when several neonates are housed together and as a result they quickly soil the substrate they're kept on. As their plastrons are still rather soft and not completely hardened off, they are susceptible to getting 'burned' from the acidic urine or bacteria in their substrate.
You will notice that this patch is on the oldest part of the plastron that corresponds to its neonatal portion of the shell. All of the new growth that the little guy has put down is perfectly healthy and normal looking.
As this is scar tissue it will not spread or get worse and in fact, by the time the tortoise becomes a young adult this will likely have worn away and if not, will just be a tiny blip you won't notice.
Save your money on a vet visit! You can smear some cheap anti fungal cream on the spot if you want to insure that there is nothing active taking place...but I doubt that you have anything to worry about.
As for the raised area on the carapace it too doesn't worry me. Tortoises raised indoors almost always have at least a little bit of pyramiding or at least slightly sculpted shells. Not always, but usually.
You will get tons of theories and countless opinions on this topic but my advice is to provided a humid hide (that you keep clean), avoid direct lighting by heat lamps that quickly dry the shell, and then moderate the food intake. Avoid the high sugar commercial diets (= Mazuri, and the like) except as occasional variations in the diet and make sure the tortoise stays hydrated.
Grow your tortoise slowly and well. He or she will be fine.
You will notice that this patch is on the oldest part of the plastron that corresponds to its neonatal portion of the shell. All of the new growth that the little guy has put down is perfectly healthy and normal looking.
As this is scar tissue it will not spread or get worse and in fact, by the time the tortoise becomes a young adult this will likely have worn away and if not, will just be a tiny blip you won't notice.
Save your money on a vet visit! You can smear some cheap anti fungal cream on the spot if you want to insure that there is nothing active taking place...but I doubt that you have anything to worry about.
As for the raised area on the carapace it too doesn't worry me. Tortoises raised indoors almost always have at least a little bit of pyramiding or at least slightly sculpted shells. Not always, but usually.
You will get tons of theories and countless opinions on this topic but my advice is to provided a humid hide (that you keep clean), avoid direct lighting by heat lamps that quickly dry the shell, and then moderate the food intake. Avoid the high sugar commercial diets (= Mazuri, and the like) except as occasional variations in the diet and make sure the tortoise stays hydrated.
Grow your tortoise slowly and well. He or she will be fine.
This was incredibly helpfully. Thank you so much. I certainly learned a lot in a single post.
Maybe this is a dumb question, but how do I grow him slow? I feed him enough each morning that there is usually some left over by night time that he hasn't eaten. Fruit and repashy grassland grazer as supplements, everything else is just the usual variation on greens/salads.
Growing slowly does sound weird...ok, what I should have said was do not 'push' his growth. In other words don't offer huge amounts of food every day, especially the prepared commercial diets. Don't feel that you must have food in front of the tortoise every day--it's ok to skip a day once or twice a week and especially as he or she gets larger.
As the owner of a tort who is growing way faster than expected, I intuitively started doing this in the last few months. My 13 month old redfoot is 584g, which is way larger than what ive seen other people post for redfoot of that age. He's also getting some minor pyramiding despite fairly consistent high humidity, so I suspect his rapid growth is a factor, though I'm no expert. He's a but unhappy about the lack of Mazuri in his greens and fruits, but he'll survive.
