Turtle's shell is falling apart!

[AndreaRosie]

I have about 9 turtles. They live outside in a huge gated area. I mean huge. They have a pond to soak, and many soaking bowls. All of them look fine. I feed them a very mixed diet from worms, to strawberries, to mushrooms, to crickets and worms. They have had many babies. Recently I found one of my turtles (Betty) who I have not been able to find for about a week. I picked her up and the bottom of her shell looked like it was vanishing! The first thing came to mind was shell rot. Most of my turtles are rescue turtles so this could very well be it. I don't want any of my other turtles to get it so I put her in a different enclosure. What should I do? Is it shell rot?

 

[dmmj]

Will need pictures and species before any type of help can be given.

 

[yagyujubei]

Yes, pictures please.

 

[Yvonne G]

Hi AndreaRosie:

Welcome to the Tortoise Forum!!

It sounds like you may be talking about box turtles, huh? It would be a big help to us if we can see a clear picture of what you're talking about.

 

[AndreaRosie]

She is a three toed box turtle. Here is a picture of the poor thing. http://www.flickr.com/photos/83221033@N04/7622486834/in/photostream

 

[Madkins007]

OK, that is shell rot. It can indicate that the substrate is too wet or abrasive, or it could be an infection picked up through otherwise routine scrapes in the plastron.

Part of the treatment is to see if you can find what is causing it and correct it. The other part is basically cleaning it and killing off the stuff eating the tissues. In this case, it looks like a bacteria.

Clean the area with a good skin cleaner (soap is OK, Betadine is better), scrubbing rather hard to get out as much as you can. Remove any actually loose tissues.

Apply a good antibiotic. Over the counter stuff from the drugstore is pretty weak, even for humans, so try to get something stronger- silver sulfadiazine ointment or 2% mupirocin ointment. You can usually find it in a big pet store or horse/farm supply, or online. Keep the tortoise on something like newspaper for a couple hours to let it work.

Repeat the cleaning and meds every day- but only use Betadine the first 1-2 days since it inhibits new tissue growth. Stop when things are looking better.

 

[Yvonne G]

I think you need a prescription to buy silver cream, however this is what I use and where I buy it (no prescription needed):

http://myhealthmeds.com/products/pets/otibact/order/?cid=f

 

[pam]

Welcome.

 

[NudistApple]

I think you need a prescription to buy silver cream, however this is what I use and where I buy it (no prescription needed):

http://myhealthmeds.com/products/pets/otibact/order/?cid=f

Just for those that may click, my antivirus picked up malware on this page. Tread lightly.

 

[Nixxy]

Really? Link was down for me completely.

 

[TortieLuver]

Welcome great advice on the shell rot...glad you joined