was this major shell rot?

[CourtneyAndCarl]

We got a turtle in at Petco a while back that has a nasty looking shell. We finally got room on our adoption table to put him out, from being housed with our other turtles.

When I say nasty, I mean there are white spots on it, which obviously looks like shell rot. However, there was also this nasty, hard yellow stuff growing on the ends of his shell. It looked like extra spikes on his shell, and there was also a thin layer of it all over his shell... I don't know if I was helping him or not, but I peeled this stuff off of him. I wasn't going to but I noticed some of it was loose and took it off, then I realized how pretty looking the shell was underneath and just couldn't resist. He definitely still looks pretty beat up, but he's looking much better.

What was that yellow stuff? I don't know aquatic turtles at all.

 

[Vishnu2]

It would be super helpful if you could post a picture. I could tell you more if you did. IF you took a picture of course. I am sure others will ask you to post a picture too. Also, do you know what kind of aquatic turtle it is?

 

[CourtneyAndCarl]

Of course I didn't think to take a picture, that would just be too convenient

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[IMG=http://img42.imageshack.us/img42/9341/photo3svv.jpg][/IMG]

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that's sort of what he looked like, only that yellow stuff was ALL around.

 

[Vishnu2]

Check out this website.

http://www.austinsturtlepage.com/Care/medshell.htm Any of these strike a cord?

 

[CourtneyAndCarl]

Hmm, yeah a lot of it! It definitely smelled really bad

 

[ellie99]

Hope it gets better

 

[Jacqui]

Shame I didn't know about him, when I was there.

 

[Yvonne G]

Water turtles shed their scutes. When they start to shed air gets in under the top layer and makes it look strange/different. That MIGHT be why it looked yellow.

 

[CourtneyAndCarl]

At least on the outside edges of his shell, the stuff was definitely a dark yellow, was rock hard, and had definitely been there a while. Some of it went out as far as a half an inch from his actual shell. It also smelled terrible. A mixture between a very light hint of rotting flesh barely detected under the overpowering smell of mold. Poor guy. He's looking good now that I took it off though and seemed to enjoy having it removed.

And Jacqui, I wish you would have! He was in the tank in the aquatics section with a bunch of the 4 inch RES, and someone lost/took the adoption plaque we had there for him so he's been there for a couple months now, we finally decided to move him to the front and I cleaned up his shell a bit.

 

[Jacqui]

And Jacqui, I wish you would have! He was in the tank in the aquatics section with a bunch of the 4 inch RES, and someone lost/took the adoption plaque we had there for him so he's been there for a couple months now, we finally decided to move him to the front and I cleaned up his shell a bit.

I saw the tank with them, but never really even looked closely as to what was in there.

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Question comes to my mind however, why was a sick turtle put in with the sale group?

 

[Saloli]

Yeah that turtle should have been in the wellness room (which is used for quarantine and treatment). It sounds kind of like fungal shell rot combined with displaced scoots (out of place maybe in the process of shedding then trapping stuff between the old and new).

 

[CourtneyAndCarl]

Yeah that turtle should have been in the wellness room (which is used for quarantine and treatment). It sounds kind of like fungal shell rot combined with displaced scoots (out of place maybe in the process of shedding then trapping stuff between the old and new).

Literally no one that works here has any knowledge of aquatic turtles. I probably have the most, and I am willing to admit that I have very little knowledge of them. He's looking really good now, acting like he feels better, too. Poor guy came in this way, though, I am happy to say that this time it wasn't the big chain stores fault.