Shell rot getting worse??

[Matongo]

Hi everybody,

I have a 6 year old Hermans called Matongo, it looked like she started to get shell rot so I have taken her to the vet.
She had her affected areas scraped, and we have been given Tamodine which is a veterinary wound and skin cleanser.

This has been applied in the morning and before night time every day via a cotton swab, I was advised to take all substrate out of her home and replace it with newspaper and change it daily, we cannot do this as Matongo likes to eat the newspaper, so instead we have placed down a towel.

Some wounds seem to be healing, were as some seem to have become worse, and one looks as if it’s becoming swollen. Please see pics.

We keep her in her house at night and most of the day but she does come out for a few hours per day to walk around the house. She is also being bathed once a day in warm water.

I’m trying to figure out why it would be getting worse, could it be the towel? Could it be that we let her out on the floor?

Any advice would be much appreciated, she will be going to the vet tomorrow for a check up and hopefully gain more information.

The pictures show pre application of the medicine, one of a possible new part of shell rot? And one post application of medicine - am I putting too much on?

Thanks again!

 

[Yvonne G]

I've never heard of Tamodine, but I'm guessing it's like Betadine, which we only use for ONE application because it inhibits the new growth of white blood cells. Let me say first, that I don't have any vet training and your vet should know best, however, if I had a tortoise with mild shell rot, I would clean the area well, pat it dry, then apply athlete foot cream.

 

[ZEROPILOT]

It looks like those are scraped areas. Many times fungus can start at an area that is scraped.
I'd use the Athletes foot cream. And see if I could determine what the underside is getting scraped by and remove that object or sink it into the substrate deeper.
My Redfoot can get shell fungus. Usually in the Summer time. Sometimes it will develop in an area that is scuffed up or slightly damaged.
The fungus areas on your tortoise are almost perfectly symmetrical side to side. This is what brings me to my theory.
At any rate, you caught it soon enough that recovery will be easy.