Help! Shell and mouth issues...

[Beelzebub7]

ive had my redfoot for over a year now, when i first purchased him from a shop he had a small abrasion on the lower right side of his bottom shell. i had a bad feeling about that shop in general, because he was actually the 2nd one i got, the first had a much larger section of "weirdness". anyways, it progressed pretty rapidly in the past couple of months, until we get this:

thoughts???
for reference, what his shell looked like when i first bought him: (abrasion at the bottom right)

ALSO, i started noticing what looked like dryness around his beak area. lately it looks as if the sides have kinda worn away, leaving a more drastic curvature leading to the front, which also looks a little chipped. help!!!

notes on his diet: mostly spring mix sprinkled with calcium, fruit sometimes, i recently started mixing in butternut squash

 

[Maggie Cummings]

I don't keep Redfoots, but I do tort sit 2 of them and I am wondering if you are keeping a goodly amount of humidity? Cypress mulch is a good substrate and it keeps decent moisture. I don't see anything on the plastron, but if you suspect shell rot you should clean the area with a 20 to 1 mixture of Chlorhexadine and dry dock him for a few hours. Then make sure your substrate is moist and your humidity is correct...
I do see the white spot now, I'd first clean it with Betadine then use the Nolvasan, and don't use Betadine again.

 

[Balboa]

I can't really see what you're referring to on the shell.

As to the beak I'd suspect it is simply overgrown as opposed to the sides having worn away. I could be wrong though. I give mine cuddle bone, not only does it help them to get more calcium when they need it, it helps to keep the beak in good shape. Feeding them on slate tiles also seems to help a little. Worse comes to worse, a vet can file it down.

 

[Beelzebub7]

I can't really see what you're referring to on the shell.

As to the beak I'd suspect it is simply overgrown as opposed to the sides having worn away. I could be wrong though. I give mine cuddle bone, not only does it help them to get more calcium when they need it, it helps to keep the beak in good shape. Feeding them on slate tiles also seems to help a little. Worse comes to worse, a vet can file it down.

lots of rough white patches on the first shell picture.


hmm, how often do you give cuttle bone?

---

I don't keep Redfoots, but I do tort sit 2 of them and I am wondering if you are keeping a goodly amount of humidity? Cypress mulch is a good substrate and it keeps decent moisture. I don't see anything on the plastron, but if you suspect shell rot you should clean the area with a 20 to 1 mixture of Chlorhexadine and dry dock him for a few hours. Then make sure your substrate is moist and your humidity is correct...
I do see the white spot now, I'd first clean it with Betadine then use the Nolvasan, and don't use Betadine again.

i keep him on coconut husk.

 

[Balboa]

I have a cuttle bone in there all the time. Once the old is about gone I pull it and drop in a new one.

for some reason I can't really see it in the pic, but it does sound like shell-rot.

 

[Beelzebub7]

better pic of the abnormalities

 

[ALDABRAMAN]

Could be fungus!

 

[Balboa]

Here's a good website with some handy info on shell-rot.

http://tortoiselibrary.com/shellproblems.html

It kind of looks like what Mark refers to as "immersion rot" which seems to show up on moist, acidic substrates (so is a common problem with redfoots).

Both of mine had this kind of rot when I got them, after some aggressive treatment it went away, and recently one showed up with what looks like a fungal rot. It was amazing how quickly it destroyed material (and she had largely healed finally and was looking good after the initial round, go figure).

 

[Beelzebub7]

Here's a good website with some handy info on shell-rot.

http://tortoiselibrary.com/shellproblems.html

It kind of looks like what Mark refers to as "immersion rot" which seems to show up on moist, acidic substrates (so is a common problem with redfoots).

Both of mine had this kind of rot when I got them, after some aggressive treatment it went away, and recently one showed up with what looks like a fungal rot. It was amazing how quickly it destroyed material (and she had largely healed finally and was looking good after the initial round, go figure).

thanks for the helpful tips!

 

[cdmay]

Balboa is right. You have some minor shell fungus issues that are common on damp, organic substrates. If you keep it a little drier while still providing a humid hiding place that should help eliminate the cause. Changing the bedding more often and keeping the substrate fresh goes a long way in prevention as well.
As for the existing white patches of fungus there are a number of ways to treat that. The anti-fungal creams for athlete's foot and related problems work very well. More aggressive treatments involve a diluted betadine scrub (soft!) and cleaning.

The beak seem to be slightly over grown and a cuttle bone should help with that. Check the diet too as the items being fed may be too soft.

See some of the older posts on this forum for advice and check out Thetortoiselibrary too.

 

[Madkins007]

The link to shell issues is http://tortoiselibrary.com/shellproblems.html

I would also work on improving hydration/humidity. There are some ideas for that in the Library as well.