- Joined
- Mar 4, 2011
- Messages
- 59
One of our redfoot's had a case of shell-rot a couple of months ago. We treated with the usual athletes foot cream and anti-fungal wash - most of the rot cleaned up in a couple of weeks - this is all normal.
However - the 'wells' in which her two back legs are - towards the front of her shell were a little soft. We figured this was just persistent rot; so we kept treating.
All seemed well; so we stopped. 3 days later - checked again (with fingernail) and the shell scraped away again - so we re-treated.
5 weeks later - we seem to be in the same situation - you can look at the shell position and it in a shiny yellow color; poke it a little and it is like wax in consistency.
Beginning to get concerned; she is a big strong tortoise - she has oodles of shell left - but don't really want her in the 'sick' pen indefinately.
So - here are MY musings - I would be interested in people that know better:
1) We just found the fungus from hell - keep going we'll get there in the end
2) We need a stronger fungicide
3) The fungicide is too strong/applied for too long - we need to just leave her be for a while
4) She has some other shell condition such as soft shell (although her top-shell is rock-hard everywhere)
5) Maybe that is just where redfoots 'wear away' their shell and we are only noticing now because we're hyper-vigilant
As you can see - completely confused and conflicted here - HELP!
David
However - the 'wells' in which her two back legs are - towards the front of her shell were a little soft. We figured this was just persistent rot; so we kept treating.
All seemed well; so we stopped. 3 days later - checked again (with fingernail) and the shell scraped away again - so we re-treated.
5 weeks later - we seem to be in the same situation - you can look at the shell position and it in a shiny yellow color; poke it a little and it is like wax in consistency.
Beginning to get concerned; she is a big strong tortoise - she has oodles of shell left - but don't really want her in the 'sick' pen indefinately.
So - here are MY musings - I would be interested in people that know better:
1) We just found the fungus from hell - keep going we'll get there in the end
2) We need a stronger fungicide
3) The fungicide is too strong/applied for too long - we need to just leave her be for a while
4) She has some other shell condition such as soft shell (although her top-shell is rock-hard everywhere)
5) Maybe that is just where redfoots 'wear away' their shell and we are only noticing now because we're hyper-vigilant
As you can see - completely confused and conflicted here - HELP!
David
