Hi all, new here.
We have some turtle experience, as we've had 2 rescued Musk Turtles for 4yrs now. But today we rescued this Red Eared Slider from the canal - someone told us about him a few days ago and we've been keeping an eye out since, with the hot weather in the UK today we caught him out basking. Apparently he was first spotted in there last autumn, so he survived winter!
We didn't have proper setup for him (we have a huge habitat arriving on Wednesday, a 50 gal tank with a large land area), so he was in a 3ft dog paddling pool outside soaking up UV in the day, and we've brought him inside in a 4x3ft RUB overnight (short though so it only has 20cm water depth). He has a UVB light (heat lamp arriving tomorrow), water heater, & an immensely powerful filter. He's eaten a huge meal of dusted dubias & mealworms, is very alert and active, and seems to be very confident with humans.
His shell is a mess, and it doesn't look anything like what we know normal shedding to be - but we only have Musk Turtles. I can't see anything that would indicate shell rot - no soft patches, no white patches spongy parts. A lot of grime (dirt, canal scum) came off his shell in the first few hours, and the massively curled bits of his shell don't look as "yikes" anymore.
We're getting him to a herp vet sometime next week - but I'm disabled and neither of us drive yet, so we're having to arrange it around when we can get a lift.
Would appreciate any thoughts about his shell, or tips for things we could do to help him right now!
We have some turtle experience, as we've had 2 rescued Musk Turtles for 4yrs now. But today we rescued this Red Eared Slider from the canal - someone told us about him a few days ago and we've been keeping an eye out since, with the hot weather in the UK today we caught him out basking. Apparently he was first spotted in there last autumn, so he survived winter!
We didn't have proper setup for him (we have a huge habitat arriving on Wednesday, a 50 gal tank with a large land area), so he was in a 3ft dog paddling pool outside soaking up UV in the day, and we've brought him inside in a 4x3ft RUB overnight (short though so it only has 20cm water depth). He has a UVB light (heat lamp arriving tomorrow), water heater, & an immensely powerful filter. He's eaten a huge meal of dusted dubias & mealworms, is very alert and active, and seems to be very confident with humans.
His shell is a mess, and it doesn't look anything like what we know normal shedding to be - but we only have Musk Turtles. I can't see anything that would indicate shell rot - no soft patches, no white patches spongy parts. A lot of grime (dirt, canal scum) came off his shell in the first few hours, and the massively curled bits of his shell don't look as "yikes" anymore.
We're getting him to a herp vet sometime next week - but I'm disabled and neither of us drive yet, so we're having to arrange it around when we can get a lift.
Would appreciate any thoughts about his shell, or tips for things we could do to help him right now!
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