Manouria emys emys plastron problem

[manourias]

Dear Tortoise lovers,

Yesterday i have been struck by probably one of the saddest news of my life. One of my tortoise died abruptly. I suspected it died of shell rot. I have been steadfastly applying betadine sol 10% everyday to it for the past 2 weeks. This is the picture a few days before its death.

Frankly, i have no idea of what had happened; it ate well the day before and jostled as usual. Recently, some of the different thing that i applied to it was to feed it powdered chicken egg shell and yea, a treat of jackfruit 2 days before its death.
I still have 2 manourias and have been scrutinizing its plastron for some time today. One of the 2 remaining tortoise:

The other one is responding well to betadine and seem to be recovering. Internet seem to be very slow atm. I will post its plastron pics soon.

What i have seen is that there seem to be impaction by sand forming small dents and a tinge of whitening coming from the middle of plastron that, in my opinion will spread as seen in my deceased tortoise. I usually dont feed my tortoise egg shell but after seeking advice have just started the regime about a week ago. I hope that by doing this its plastron will have the smooth and a dark brown tone across. All the while my tortoise usually have cucumber as main diet but i sometimes give it different vegetables and fruits. They live in the garden enclosure with cow grass easily accessible and food will usually be given on the grass, where they inevitably consume some soil/ sand. Please give me some input on this issue as i am deeply concerned with the fate of my other 2 tortoises.

This is a link is a link from chiangmai zoo of the same tortoise species for your reference.

 

[Yvonne G]

Hello, manourias:


Yes, the pictures seem to show some pretty soft areas on the plastron, but I'm not sure that's what killed it. I think the tortoise's diet needs to be adjusted. Feeding mainly cucumber is like feeding only water with a bit of vitamins added to it.

I have a group of Manouria tortoises, and I feed them a wide variety of fruits and vegetables. I also occasionally give them some hard-boiled eggs, cooked chicken, worms and slugs. My group will eat grass on occasion, but they mainly prefer to eat the broad-leaf weeds and plants, not grass. My tortoises also have access to grape leaves, rose-of-sharon leaves and flowers and many different plants growing in their habitat.

If you change your tortoises' diet and supplement it with calcium, I think your other tortoises might be ok.

If you suspect shell rot on the other tortoises, use athlete's foot cream on it instead of Betadyne.

 

[yagyujubei]

I'm sorry this has happened. Did a veterinarian diagnose shell rot? Regardless, I think it's a bad idea to treat with betadine daily for as long as you did. Did someone recommend this? It can be very toxic. It will kill healthy tissue as readily as diseased tissue. Bad cases of shell rot that I have seen usually become an open wound. I am not sure that was the problem at all, given that there were no other symptoms.

 

[manourias]

Hello, manourias:


Yes, the pictures seem to show some pretty soft areas on the plastron, but I'm not sure that's what killed it. I think the tortoise's diet needs to be adjusted. Feeding mainly cucumber is like feeding only water with a bit of vitamins added to it.

I have a group of Manouria tortoises, and I feed them a wide variety of fruits and vegetables. I also occasionally give them some hard-boiled eggs, cooked chicken, worms and slugs. My group will eat grass on occasion, but they mainly prefer to eat the broad-leaf weeds and plants, not grass. My tortoises also have access to grape leaves, rose-of-sharon leaves and flowers and many different plants growing in their habitat.

If you change your tortoises' diet and supplement it with calcium, I think your other tortoises might be ok.

If you suspect shell rot on the other tortoises, use athlete's foot cream on it instead of Betadyne.

Hi emysemys,

I will definitely change its diet and give it a variety of vegetables and fruits from now on. As a guide, how much powdered egg shell should i supplement it? And how frequent?
The deceased tortoise actually showed some small area or dark patches under its plastron that contains fluid in a wet weather. Note, in Malaysia, we have the monsoon rainy season from nov till feb. It rains really heavy. Plus, recently, there is this tree in its enclosure that grew very very big and all the leaves which fell have created a damp environment near its sleeping house. I think that contributed to the shell rot.
Also i have the pic of my another tortoise. It appears a little yellow from the staining of the betadine. The pic is from a week ago and have since been improving with the scar peeling off. I am thinking of stopping treatment. Weather are sunny these week with small rains:

Either way i have some clotrimazole cream for athlete foot with me

 

[manourias]

I'm sorry this has happened. Did a veterinarian diagnose shell rot? Regardless, I think it's a bad idea to treat with betadine daily for as long as you did. Did someone recommend this? It can be very toxic. It will kill healthy tissue as readily as diseased tissue. Bad cases of shell rot that I have seen usually become an open wound. I am not sure that was the problem at all, given that there were no other symptoms.

Hi,
I actually self diagnosed the disease after reading the net.If i am not wrong its austin turtle diary. I would love to bring it to a vet but the problem is that i am living in a small city in Malaysia and vets here usually treat mammals only. As a pharmacist in the becoming myself, I would prefer to treat minor symptoms myself. And judging from its condition with little open wounds, it seemed okay to treat myself. If the condition gets worse i would bring it to a qualified tortoise vet i hope if i am able to get hold of one here. However, as it turned out, it died suddenly.