A case of shell rot?

Trinipb

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Hello everybody,
One of my young redfoots seems to have a few small holes in it's shell. Is this a form of shell rot? Can anybody tell me the cause and more importantly, a solution? I definitely don't want this getting out of control and want to fix him up asap.
Thanks in advance
 

Maro2Bear

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Greetings. I would give your tort a nice bath & a tooth brush scrub. Then post another picture. I would “think” that shell issues on a redfoot would tend to be be on the plastron (first). I’m sure @ZEROPILOT can provide better ideas from his experience with Redfoots.

Post pix of top & bottom once you have him cleaned up.

Good luck
 

zovick

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Hello everybody,
One of my young redfoots seems to have a few small holes in it's shell. Is this a form of shell rot? Can anybody tell me the cause and more importantly, a solution? I definitely don't want this getting out of control and want to fix him up asap.
Thanks in advance
Yes, it is shell rot. The affected areas in the shell seams need to be debrided (thoroughly cleaned out) and have some medication put on them to prevent it from spreading and going deeper into the underlying bone. This may be more than you want to do yourself as a couple of those areas look fairly deep. You might be best off taking the tortoise to a reptile (exotics) vet for the debridement and to get the proper medication(s).

Most likely caused by too much dampness and an opportunistic fungus and/or bacteria.

You should look at the underside and post a photo of that as well. It might also be affected, but hopefully not as severely.
 

Trinipb

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Where he lives now, he gets lots and lots of sun. Him and his brother were actually given to me a couple months ago. So I'm not sure what their living conditions were like before that. The brother has no signs of it anywhere. Besides the deformity close to his neck I don't see any other issues below him. But please let me know if you guys do. I have a feeling his diet was very poor where he was before. He eats like a monster now though
 

zovick

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Where he lives now, he gets lots and lots of sun. Him and his brother were actually given to me a couple months ago. So I'm not sure what their living conditions were like before that. The brother has no signs of it anywhere. Besides the deformity close to his neck I don't see any other issues below him. But please let me know if you guys do. I have a feeling his diet was very poor where he was before. He eats like a monster now though
The deformity under the neck may well be where the rot caused the shell to disintegrate and heal over as you see it now. There is still some going on in those two brown areas at the edges of the scutes near the neck. Also there is another lesion at the seam between the two scutes to the right side of the midline just above the tail. All these need to be opened up and cleaned out. Think of this like what is done with tooth decay when a person has a cavity. It needs to be drilled out to get rid of it. This situation is like that. The brown areas on the top and bottom of the tortoise need to be removed and then medicated so they can heal.

The medications could be Neosporin, Furacin, Lotrimin, or Gentian Violet, depending upon what organism is found to be causing the problem. Again, a vet could do a culture of some of the diseased shell tissue and find out what medication would kill the culprit.

You may want to post pix of the brother tortoise because it is quite possible both have this condition to some extent or another if they came from the same source.
 

Trinipb

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Ok, i will post a pic of the brother too. The issue I have with the vet is that I live in the island of Saint Lucia. There isn't the greatest choice of vets here especially ones that specialize in tortoises. I definitely don't want to do any drilling myself but I'm thinking maybe i can clean as best as i can and get a medication for him. Maybe move him indoors for now so i can better control it. I will, however, look again for a tortoise specialist on the island
 

ZEROPILOT

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This is not shell fungus. And might actually be shell rot. Or a very bad injury that's partially healed and is infected.
Does that area smell?
It does need to be cleaned and rinsed with an antibiotic solution. Maybe in a syringe for good control.
Do not use athletes foot cream.
This is not simply fungus.
Where in Florida are you?
There is a VERY good REPTILE vet in Deerfield beach
 
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ZEROPILOT

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Ok, i will post a pic of the brother too. The issue I have with the vet is that I live in the island of Saint Lucia. There isn't the greatest choice of vets here especially ones that specialize in tortoises. I definitely don't want to do any drilling myself but I'm thinking maybe i can clean as best as i can and get a medication for him. Maybe move him indoors for now so i can better control it. I will, however, look again for a tortoise specialist on the island
Wow
The heading says Florida
 

Trinipb

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This is not shell fungus. And might actually be shell rot. Or a very bad injury that's partially healed and is infected.
Does that area smell?
It does need to be cleaned and rinsed with an antibiotic solution. Maybe in a syringe for good control.
Do not use athletes foot cream.
This is not simply fungus.
Where in Florida are you?
There is a VERY good REPTILE vet in Deerfield beach
No, it doesn't smell at all. But it does look a little hollowed out very similar to a tooth cavity. When I first got him I didn't even notice it. I also saw medicines on Amazon that you can feed turtles for shell rot. Any advice on going that route?
 

ZEROPILOT

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Any antibiotic taken internally, I would not feel comfortable suggesting that you self administer. Since it can do more harm than good.
I'd clean the animal thoroughly and then flush those areas out with a mild antibacterial solution.
Maybe IODINE and water.
But only use iodine once or twice. Because it will also slow down the healing and re growth.
I'd also put some fabric tape on that area once it's clean to keep junk out of the spaces for a while.
I can't guess exactly what caused it. And we don't know how old it it is.

I would definitely take him to see a veterinarian. And I don't recommend that very often.
 

Trinipb

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Any antibiotic taken internally, I would not feel comfortable suggesting that you self administer. Since it can do more harm than good.
I'd clean the animal thoroughly and then flush those areas out with a mild antibacterial solution.
Maybe IODINE and water.
But only use iodine once or twice. Because it will also slow down the healing and re growth.
I would definitely take him to see a veterinarian. And I don't recommend that very often.
Ok thanks ??
 

ZEROPILOT

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I use these for that sort of thing.
You can flush the wound and also inject some antibiotic cream into the void after you've cleaned the areas.
Most pet stores sell them for feeding baby birds and mammals
 

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ZEROPILOT

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The deformity under the neck may well be where the rot caused the shell to disintegrate and heal over as you see it now. There is still some going on in those two brown areas at the edges of the scutes near the neck. Also there is another lesion at the seam between the two scutes to the right side of the midline just above the tail. All these need to be opened up and cleaned out. Think of this like what is done with tooth decay when a person has a cavity. It needs to be drilled out to get rid of it. This situation is like that. The brown areas on the top and bottom of the tortoise need to be removed and then medicated so they can heal.

The medications could be Neosporin, Furacin, Lotrimin, or Gentian Violet, depending upon what organism is found to be causing the problem. Again, a vet could do a culture of some of the diseased shell tissue and find out what medication would kill the culprit.

You may want to post pix of the brother tortoise because it is quite possible both have this condition to some extent or another if they came from the same source.
Agreed.
It needs to be treated at least initially by a qualified vet.
Anything else is just guessing.
I can see those other areas better now.
It looks like some sort of infected inquiry.
Dog bites, etc.
 
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