Urgent Care :: Info needed asap please! Confused about shell care for RES

[turbosmommy12]

Hi! I have a RES that I inherited from a neighbor that was unable to care for him. I'm not sure of his age (but I can positively ID his sex, so I'm guessing around 3), and this is my first time having a turtle in our family. Turbo is wonderful, life of the party. But I noticed some shell discoloration about a couple of weeks ago. Not fuzzy cotton like, and his shell is hard as a rock. He is eating great and is VERY active! I gave him a salt dip and placed a calcium block in his tank hoping it would help. I noticed today however, that his scales are shedding off his shell. My question is (A.) Does he have an infection or not? (B.) Should I treat it or will it go away when he sheds? Any info will be GREATLY appreciated! Thanks!

[steve]

Hi, welcome to the forum. The thick white areas look like fungus. If it's not spreading, then it will go away when he/she sheds... but it almost never stops spreading. I would approach it like this... make sure Turbo's tank is perfect... super clean water, great filtration, solid basking area, a warm basking lamp and the necessary UVB lamp. Then treat it aggressively and make sure it's completely gone. Silver sulfadinze cream is usually the best option, and works most of the time.

For other aspects of the tank, get rid of the gravel and calcium block.

[turbosmommy12]

Thank for the info Steve! We don't have the UVB yet. We had to buy everything but the tank with him. They had a regular incandescant light bulb as his heat source. And didn't have a filter in his tank..barely any water for him to swim in...it was really sad. We are going to get him one this weekend though. Where can we get the silver sulfadinze cream? I also read about dry docking him. Any thoughts on that? I'll do it if I have to, I just feel uncomfortable with the idea

[steve]

You'll need to get silver sulfadinze cream from a vet as it requires a prescription... though some can be bought online. You can dry dock while after applying the cream. Dry docking overnight is the easiest way for you and the least stressful way for him.

[turbosmommy12]

Ok...I definitely would feel better with him only being out overnight. Hopefully it won't stress him (can't say I still won't be worried a little lol) I'm going to call his vet this morning, hopefully we'll beable to get him started asap. But I'm glad I at least have a starting point! Thank you so much!!