Red foot Shell rot?

[TortieMom157]

Ok, so we live in SWFL. The torts are outside 90% of the time. They are about 2 years old. They have an outdoor enclosure and a safe zone for nighttime.

We went through this issue when they were smaller and living in a coco coir environment. They have plenty of soak spaces and have a healthy diet with supplements. We treated with fungus cream and it improved.

Why are their plastrons looking like this? What can we do to improve their health. Both are active and have healthy appetites.

Should we repeat the fungus cream daily with deliberate soaks? We also have Vetericyn to use if that works better. And any suggestions or guidance is greatly appreciated.

Pictures of their plastron and enclosure attached.

 

[wellington]

First if you have two, they should not be housed together.
Second, it's happening because they are on top wet substrate/ground for too long.
It is the same thing they had before according to what you said and use the same stuff
In Florida, you shouldn't really have to add wetness to the ground as you already have high humidity. If you do need to raise it, add plants and spray those with water to lift humidity and not the ground very often.

 

[Littleredfootbigredheart]

Hello and welcome!😁

There does indeed appear to be a bit of fungal infection, as wellington has said, it’s usually caused if they’re say on wet substrate/ground constantly, I’ve never treated it myself, but I’ve see people advise applying some athletes foot cream for a few days to the effected areas and it should clear up pretty quickly.
Perhaps until it’s cleared it’ll be best to skip soaks so things have the chance to dry up a bit🙂

If you do only have two they will definitely need separating as stated above,
tortoise of any species should never be housed in pairs under any circumstances, they’re incredibly territorial, behaviours that look cute to us really aren’t, following one another and sleeping huddled up is all bullying the the tortoise world, you’ll eventually see more extreme signs of aggression. Anyone who tells you pairs are fine, have no idea what they’re talking about.

Small groups are ok when there’s lots of land and the correct male to female ratio.

I don’t suppose you’d mind including a photo of your indoor set ups?🙂

 

[TortieMom157]

No indoor set up, they live outside. They have a protected night time area just inside the lanai.

I didn’t come here asking about the pairing of them, we are well aware of the suggestions and are planning to add another one or two in coming weeks. Thank you for the information though.

That being said, they don’t live on wet substrate as they did in the past. Their enclosure is completely bio active and contains native and tortouse safe plants. Topped with cypress mulch with areas of Spagnum moss for their comfort during the hotter days.

My concern is the continued/recurring fungal infection and why it’s still happening as they are no longer on wet substrate.

If there are any suggestions or assistance that can assist us in correcting this, I’m all ears. Them cohabitating isn’t the concern at the moment, it’s their shell health.

Thanks for your understanding and assistance.

Thanks in advance!

 

[ZEROPILOT]

That is mild shell fungus.
I can't tell if it's new or already healing. Because it looks the same.
Active shell fungus can have a consistency of hard cheese or a pencil eraser. Healing areas will look similar but will be more solid. And healed areas will be hard. But it takes months to look normal again.
In any case, use ATHLETES FOOT CREAM on the areas. Usually one treatment stops it. But two or three treatments done a few days apart would be 100% effective. In fact, the cream does no harm. Over treatment isn't possible.
Using cream for what MIGHT be fungus is also OK. Because if you're wrong, no harm is done.
I get mine at the DOLLAR STORE. If you wish, you can use the stuff that's $14.99. But it all works well. And just as quickly.