Shell turning brown

[mikey meyer]

My redfoot's shell is starting to turn brownish but I have no idea why. Ive had problems with his shell before because it was dry but i got it hydrated again and it looked fine. But the other day I went to feed him and his shell looked brownish and dry even though I was always wetting him. What's going on?

 

[wellington]

Someone on here will be able to help you better if you could post pics.

 

[DixieParadise]

Agree, can you post pictures? This way someone might be able to help you better.

 

[mikey meyer]

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His shell didnt look like that a couple days ago. its all dry now and like i said its turning brown. What do i do about the dryness and the color change? And the dark part is where i wet it so the brown color will stand out more

 

[HarleyK]

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His shell didnt look like that a couple days ago. its all dry now and like i said its turning brown. What do i do about the dryness and the color change?

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Hi Mikey,

The wetted part looks ok to me. I'm not sure what you're looking at.

 

[mikey meyer]

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His shell didnt look like that a couple days ago. its all dry now and like i said its turning brown. What do i do about the dryness and the color change?

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Hi Mikey,

The wetted part looks ok to me. I'm not sure what you're looking at.

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O ok thats good. And what do I do about the dryness?

 

[Redstrike]

I'm not entirely sure what's going on there, it almost looks like fine dust covering the shell at first, is this the case? How often are you wetting down your tortoise? If you're spraying it constantly, it could be shell rot, and a severe case at that.

If you can find a way to boost your humidity without constantly wetting your tortoise and it's substrate, you'll greatly reduce the tortoises chances of forming a rot (regular feces removal should also be on the list) and mimic a more natural environment. If it's housed outside, a dog house or similar structure, with sponges attached to the walls and sides could work?

If this is shell rot, scrub it with a povidone iodine solution (water it down a bit from the bottle - I shoot for 1-2% from the 10% stock solution), and apply an antifungal cream - active ingredient = Clotrimazole.

Don't go gettin' excited just yet, I could be wrong here. Let's wait for some more expert opinions.

 

[mikey meyer]

I'm not entirely sure what's going on there, it almost looks like fine dust covering the shell at first, is not this the case? How often are you wetting down your tortoise? If you're spraying it constantly, it could be shell rot, and a severe case at that.

If you can find a way to boost your humidity without constantly wetting your tortoise and it's substrate, you'll greatly reduce the tortoises chances of forming a rot (regular feces removal should also be on the list) and mimic a more natural environment. If it's housed outside, a dog house or similar structure, with sponges attached to the walls and sides could work?

If this is shell rot, scrub it with a povidone iodine solution (water it down a bit from the bottle - I shoot for 1-2% from the 10% stock solution), and apply an antifungal cream - active ingredient = Clotrimazole.

Don't go gettin' excited just yet, I could be wrong here. Let's wait for some more expert opinions.

Ok thank you

 

[Yvonne G]

I think your substrate is too dry and your tortoise is getting dusty from it.

 

[HLogic]

It does look like dust but... Have you tried washing him off and let him dry outside of the enclosure? What does it look like then?

If it is still brown, then there is something else afoot. If it looks normal, I would suggest attempting to determine where the dust is originating and change/remove whatever it is.

 

[Redstrike]

If you take a wet rag and wipe your torts shell, does dust come onto the rag and the shell appear black? I'm thinking along the lines of Yvonne and Art, it just doesn't seem right that when you wet it down it appears normal. Shell rot wouldn't do this entirely but I can't tell from the pictures if the remaining brown spots (only a few) on the wet portions of the shell are spots that water missed or if they're remaining that color wet or dry?
This is why I put in the caveat that it could be shell rot, but I'm not too convinced.

I can't see all of your substrate, but if it's really dry, fine soil, it's likely your tort is simply getting "powdered". Is it outdoors? If so you could try purchasing some topsoil from a hardware store, digging out the dusty soil and filling it in with the purchased topsoil. Be sure it doesn't have vermiculite/weird, white moisture beads in it. I'd start there. Art had a good idea of wetting down your tortoise outside of the enclosure and seeing the shell color after drying.

There's good humidity boosting tactics here:
https://sites.google.com/site/tortoiselibrary/the-work-shop/humidity-1[hr]
I just looked at your pic again, your tort's leg has a dust layer as well. From this, I'd say it's exactly that - your tortoise is being "powdered"