blizzard-king
New Member
In November I received my "well started baby" cherry head tortoise (I suspect he was about 6 months old then and about 9-10 months now). Over the past month I've noticed some white rough spots on the bottom his shell.
February:
March:
The spots are somewhat soft (I can scratch them with my fingernail) and seem to be growing slowly. I've been doing research, and from what I can tell this is a bacterial/fungal infection known as shell rot, which is caused by too much moisture. Early on (December and part of January) I had trouble getting the humidity right, and ended up with water pooling in the bottom of the terrarium. I've since fixed the humidity issue, and I'm trying to figure out how best to treat my tortoise's shell. One common treatment I've heard of is to use betadine once (or maybe twice), and then use Chlorhexidine (brand name Nolvesan, apparently this is a disinfectant). Does this sound like a good approach? I found some instructions detailing the initial application of betadine, but I'm not sure when/how I should be applying the chlorhexidine.
I'm new to tortoises and reptiles in general, so any advice and more specific instructions would be very welcome.
February:
March:
The spots are somewhat soft (I can scratch them with my fingernail) and seem to be growing slowly. I've been doing research, and from what I can tell this is a bacterial/fungal infection known as shell rot, which is caused by too much moisture. Early on (December and part of January) I had trouble getting the humidity right, and ended up with water pooling in the bottom of the terrarium. I've since fixed the humidity issue, and I'm trying to figure out how best to treat my tortoise's shell. One common treatment I've heard of is to use betadine once (or maybe twice), and then use Chlorhexidine (brand name Nolvesan, apparently this is a disinfectant). Does this sound like a good approach? I found some instructions detailing the initial application of betadine, but I'm not sure when/how I should be applying the chlorhexidine.
I'm new to tortoises and reptiles in general, so any advice and more specific instructions would be very welcome.