General Care Discussion :: Retained scutes on my turtle

Taking care of your turtle's overall health.

Post Posted: Sun Jul 14, 2019 8:49 pm   Re: Retained scutes on my turtle

Ok, I took some of the looser scutes off, there's still plenty that didn't come off, and some retained scutes which were under the ones I removed.

https://i.imgur.com/ge37nzT.jpg

The shiny one in the middle looks like it has another one underneath it, but I don't know for sure.

Here are some pictures where you can see a scute taken from the plastron, the removed scutes from the shell and the shell after removing the old scutes.

https://imgur.com/a/IVtRsbT
Scribble
 
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Post Posted: Sun Jul 14, 2019 9:46 pm   Re: Retained scutes on my turtle

How's the shell doing once cleaned up? Any progress? How many more loose scutes do you see? If there is a significant amount, I might hold off on the treatment and wait for more shedding.
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steve
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Post Posted: Mon Jul 15, 2019 6:47 am   Re: Retained scutes on my turtle

Scribble don't interpret the word "wait" too loosely , may be a good time to read up on fungus , some wait so long becomes urgent. Ever notice how water and air get trapped under the keratin layer when shedding , so does the fungus. It starts out microscopic hard to see but it is aggressive. Yes some fungus will come off during the shed on those scutes that will come off. With the retaining some won't. If the fungus get hold on the new scutes may come back with a vengeance making it harder to treat. Why I don't wait , your call. Not all photo's show everything only you can put your turtle in your hands to see more. DVM's may have to run test to know all for a good treatment plan. Starting out microscopic you will not tell on the new scutes until it has a good hold on them. The dry docking is for illness and shell issues which is nothing more that forced basking to help. The treatment is to stop fungus and at times a prevention. I found much easier to prevent than treat , than hope it goes away and see what happens. Everyone has a different idea on the wait time , sometimes some wait too long. Turtle keepers with a only a few years in hobby I don't like them to wait until , long timers with decades experience have a better chance to observe changes for action needed. Hope for the best.
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Post Posted: Thu Jul 18, 2019 2:49 pm   Re: Retained scutes on my turtle

I've mapped the turtle's shell by how loose each scute is. The blue ones almost come off, the green ones at least part of the scute can be peeled back, the yellow ones less so and the red are not loose at all.

https://i.imgur.com/NC8xPGW.jpg

One thing I've noticed is that these scutes are rather thin. I also took some pictures from the front of her plastron.

https://imgur.com/a/t053DFw
Scribble
 
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Post Posted: Thu Jul 18, 2019 9:37 pm   Re: Retained scutes on my turtle

The marginal (edge) scutes are the usually the hardest and last ones to come off. Once there is more basking going on, he'll shed a lot faster.
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steve
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