Help. Plastron rot?

[Leo Adame]

Calling out Redfoot experts! This is Romi, my year old red foot tortoise. I bought her when she was 8 months old and she had this situation in her plastron since then. I remembered noticing it when purchasing her at petco and asked if that was normal. I remember the lady answered in very gaslighting manner and omitted the question but I didn't make much of it. Upon further research, I've found out about this shell rot information, things like its common for red foots to get it on their plastron due to the high humidity and wet substrate. I did have my substrate "wet" and I also noticed Romi will stay sitting in the water for quite a while. I've since stopped wetting the substrate from the top.

Is this actually plastron rot? If not, what is it?
I bought a foot cream to deal with the fungus, will that be enough?

Thank you for your help.

 

[wellington]

Do you or the store use a heat mat? If so stop.
It is either a burning from using a heat mat or it is a fungus/rot. The cream should work.
However, you need to improve the enclosure and lights
No red lights should be used. A tube florescent for uvb and ceramic heat emitter for day and night heat and a regular incandescent bulb or incandescent flood bulb for basking. This all needs to be changed but added to a much bigger enclosure. Unless there is a lot more room in the enclosure that is not showing in the pic, that enclosure is only suitable for a hatchling, not a tort of the size and age of yours
@ZEROPILOT

 

[Leo Adame]

Do you or the store use a heat mat? If so stop.
It is either a burning from using a heat mat or it is a fungus/rot. The cream should work.
However, you need to improve the enclosure and lights
No red lights should be used. A tube florescent for uvb and ceramic heat emitter for day and night heat and a regular incandescent bulb or incandescent flood bulb for basking. This all needs to be changed but added to a much bigger enclosure. Unless there is a lot more room in the enclosure that is not showing in the pic, that enclosure is only suitable for a hatchling, not a tort of the size and age of yours
@ZEROPILOT

I don't, so I'm sure it's the fungus/rot. For how long do you think I should add this and do they heal from it? I'll get the new lights immediately, I got the infrared because I needed something that gave off heat due to the colder temperatures this time of year, and they recommended this at the pet store. I already have a UVB tube on the way. Now, I have been looking at new enclosures but I'm not sure how big I need to get it. I understand the bigger the better, but would a 48x24x18 be good enough? I eventually plan on moving her to a new outdoor habitat, I have a lot of space, but I know she needs to grow older first plus it's to cold right now. Thank you for your tips, Wellington!

 

[ZEROPILOT]

That looks like a combination of old, healed fungus and active fungus.
It's from constant contact with wet substrate. Water or urine.
The Athletes foot cream will kill all active fungus. And quickly. But the scars take a very long time to heal. And the area will look almost exactly the same even months later.
Active fungus will feel like hard cheese. Or wax when you scrape it with a fingernail or the edge of a credit card. Healing areas will be firm. Or dry and chalky.
Do not get your advice or buy any supplies from a pet store. Almost no pet stores sell what you need.
Your enclosure must be kept at between 80 and 90 degrees Fahrenheit. 82-84 is the target.
Your humidity needs to be over 70%. 24/7.
Make your enclosure as large as you can. Make the outdoors enclosure secure and begin limited and supervised time outside as soon as possible.
If you can expose your RF to some actual outdoor sun for a few hours a week, you can go without an indoor UVB source. But do not use a RED light bulb or anything that's bright for heat. Bright lights make them uncomfortable and red lights make everything look like food.
I reccomend CHE for daytime and nighttime warmth. Because they put out no light. They're not expensive to buy or to use, and they last seemingly forever. Then for daytime, just use a simple light source maybe LED. Something not very bright. For 12 hours a day. Then you can have 12 hours of warm daytime and 12 hours of equally warm nighttime.
Cheap. Reliable and uncomicated

 

[Leo Adame]

That looks like a combination of old, healed fungus and active fungus.
It's from constant contact with wet substrate. Water or urine.
The Athletes foot cream will kill all active fungus. And quickly. But the scars take a very long time to heal. And the area will look almost exactly the same even months later.
Active fungus will feel like hard cheese. Or wax when you scrape it with a fingernail or the edge of a credit card. Healing areas will be firm. Or dry and chalky.
Do not get your advice or buy any supplies from a pet store. Almost no pet stores sell what you need.
Your enclosure must be kept at between 80 and 90 degrees Fahrenheit. 82-84 is the target.
Your humidity needs to be over 70%. 24/7.
Make your enclosure as large as you can. Make the outdoors enclosure secure and begin limited and supervised time outside as soon as possible.
If you can expose your RF to some actual outdoor sun for a few hours a week, you can go without an indoor UVB source. But do not use a RED light bulb or anything that's bright for heat. Bright lights make them uncomfortable and red lights make everything look like food.
I reccomend CHE for daytime and nighttime warmth. Because they put out no light. They're not expensive to buy or to use, and they last seemingly forever. Then for daytime, just use a simple light source maybe LED. Something not very bright. For 12 hours a day. Then you can have 12 hours of warm daytime and 12 hours of equally warm nighttime.
Cheap. Reliable and uncomicated

Thank you for your valuable information, ZEROPILOT. I will get to this ASAP. is 48x24x28 a good size for now?

 

[Alex and the Redfoot]

Hello!
This size (2x4 feet) will work for now. However, if Wikipedia has correct information on temperatures in your area, at least 4 months a year you will need to keep your tortoise indoors. So aim for a larger indoors space like 4x8 feet. It doesn't have to be a glass tank, however it should be a covered enclosure.

 

[wellington]

No actually, a 4x2 is not big enough even now. That's not even big enough for a Russian that is smaller than your RF.
You can get a pop up greenhouse, made from soft plastic in 3x9 and 3x12 sizes, try to get one of them. It's then also closed. As an adult they need a room sized enclosure. Yours isn't an adult but is bigger then a hatchling.

 

[wellington]

Look for ones like this picture

 

[Leo Adame]

Look for ones like this picture
View attachment 363287

What about winter? where I live we're expecting a very cold winter. We're actually in the 40s right now and it's just November. I'm thinking of using heat lamps inside to keep it warm but is that okay? I get the space problem and that she needs more space but I don't know if these solutions apply to where I live.

 

[wellington]

What about winter? where I live we're expecting a very cold winter. We're actually in the 40s right now and it's just November. I'm thinking of using heat lamps inside to keep it warm but is that okay? I get the space problem and that she needs more space but I don't know if these solutions apply to where I live.

This is for inside as a closed chamber.

 

[Alex and the Redfoot]

There is a controversy between my and wellington's words and it might be confusing. I will try to rule it out:
1. If you already have 2x4 ft enclosure (which is larger than current) - makes sense to move your tortoise there. It's quick to set up and still provides better conditions. Then start working on the large indoors housing suitable for an adult redfoot.
2. If you are only planning to get new one - get the largest you can like wellington suggested. You will need it for an adult tortoise anyway.
3. Setting up large enclosure is not easy thing to do: you will need lightning, substrate, heating and such. It takes time to get the equipment and mount it.

Depending on how much sunny days you have in the winter and day temperatures it may "relax" indoors requirements.

I live in climate where keeping a redfoot is a pain (winters too cold, summers too hot). However, I can setup hybrid indoors/outdoors schedule for the winters.

Two or three hours a day outside can help with "exercising" part of keeping. At least mine tortoise have two peak activity periods (before and after midday), when she's actively exploring and foraging and my plan is to let her outdoors during one of such peaks.

1. I have a small (3x6 feet) enclosure with all required equipment (including UVB lights). I keep tortoise there whenever temperatures are too cold/extremely high.
2. I have an outdoors space on the south, sunny side (6x20 feet). In the winter, I, on average, have about 1-2 hours a day to let it roam there. I'm looking into putting a greenhouse top to extend this time.
3. For the next summer I plan to setup another outdoors space (10x8 feet) on the northern side, shaded by a house wall to keep my tortoise out of fierce Cyprus sun.