Shell Rot

[RedFootTanaka]

Hey folks! New here. I've had my lovely Redfoot Tanaka for about 3 weeks now. And ever since i first got her from the evil petco i noticed something on her plastron. I now know it's Shell rot and have scrubbed it off and used betadine.

She is 6 inches long and eating great. Also i'm pretty sure she is a she but could use some help in that area. Also what breed is she?

Breed?

Before removing Shell rot

After removing. also Sex? My guess is female But she is only 6 inches.

My question is does ALL of the white stuff need to be removed or wil the betadine and a dry substrait do the trick. I only ask because she HATES being scrubbed and all and I feel like I am torturing the poor thing.

Also what is the best substrate to add to sphagnum moss? I feel like she just needs abit more

 

[egyptiandan]

You have a Northern Redfoot tortoise. It looks like a male to me.
What he has is fungal shell rot and you've done a good job. You do though need to go get a good athlete's foot cream and apply it to the areas of rot. Doing this for a week should kill all the fungus. Also while using the athlete's foot cream, you should have him on newspaper. This will keep everything dry and clean. Also not a good idea to soak him with the cream on his plastron. So you should clean his plastron off before soaking and than apply it after soaking.

Danny

 

[Balboa]

WOW, Both of mine had it too when I got them, but not as widespread, just deeper, (I'm thinking more the immersion type than fungul in the case of mine, but I'm no expert)

There isn't much I can likely do, but I'm going to try. I've seen a LOT of redfoots coming into pet stores in what I consider poor condition. I took one off the local pet stores hands for them a while back to try and save it, but their last shipment received was two more pyramided torts with shell rot. This time they're going back they said. Poor things, if they survive the back and forth I'm sure it just means they'll get pawned off to another store that doesn't pay attention. I would REALLY like to track down where these poor animals are coming from though, they need to be shut down for animal abuse. Would you be willing to tell me which Petco store you got that from? They should have known better. Not ALL Petcos would have put that animal out for sale... just most sadly.

 

[Madkins007]

I got this whenever I kept them on too-damp sphagnum moss, but never see it on cypress mulch. My personal, completely unproven theory is wet moss is acidic enough to erode the scute material.

If it is ONLY because of wet substrate, it will heal quickly on a drier or better drained substrate. The problem is that other nasty things will move in quickly so keep an eye on it.

 

[Kenny]

Welcome to the boards RFT , I agree with everything Dan said except the sex. It looks female to me, but Dan is probably right lol.

Petco, along with 90% of pet stores around the US, don't veiw animals as animals imo. In a typical pet store, an animal is just stock. In my exp, if there is something minor wrong with one of their animals, they will fix it. but something like this is too time consuming, and not cost effective enough for the Pet Store to worry about.
Congrats on getting that RF out of there, and doing right by it

 

[Balboa]

Welcome to the boards RFT , I agree with everything Dan said except the sex. It looks female to me, but Dan is probably right lol.

Petco, along with 90% of pet stores around the US, don't veiw animals as animals imo. In a typical pet store, an animal is just stock. In my exp, if there is something minor wrong with one of their animals, they will fix it. but something like this is too time consuming, and not cost effective enough for the Pet Store to worry about.
Congrats on getting that RF out of there, and doing right by it

Yah... I mean... Dan's the Man on sexing Torts, but gosh darn I was thinking female too. I think Rocky's wider than this one, and Mark was thinking female on Rocky... of course Mark didn't take a stab this time and Danny never made a call on Rocky... hmmm

oh well, I see I need to look at alot more tort tails LOL

 

[Madkins007]

Welcome to the boards RFT , I agree with everything Dan said except the sex. It looks female to me, but Dan is probably right lol.

Petco, along with 90% of pet stores around the US, don't veiw animals as animals imo. In a typical pet store, an animal is just stock. In my exp, if there is something minor wrong with one of their animals, they will fix it. but something like this is too time consuming, and not cost effective enough for the Pet Store to worry about.
Congrats on getting that RF out of there, and doing right by it

Yah... I mean... Dan's the Man on sexing Torts, but gosh darn I was thinking female too. I think Rocky's wider than this one, and Mark was thinking female on Rocky... of course Mark didn't take a stab this time and Danny never made a call on Rocky... hmmm

oh well, I see I need to look at alot more tort tails LOL

The guidelines I know about suggest female. I'd love to know Danny's criteria for sexing them.

 

[PeanutbuttER]

Oh, she looks just like my Kiwi (she's from petsmart), lots of pitting and some pyramiding.

I would have guessed female as well, but I have much less experience sexing torts than others.

 

[Yvonne G]

Hi RedFootTanaka (May we know YOUR name?):

Welcome to the forum!!

I thought "female" too. I wonder what Danny sees that we all are not seeing.

 

[RedFootTanaka]

Hey everyone. Thank you all so much for the quick response. My named Josh. And tanaka is one of 2 torts that my fiance have. The other is a sulcata named Gurdy.

 

[terryo]

Welcome Josh!

 

[RedFootTanaka]

You have a Northern Redfoot tortoise. It looks like a male to me.
What he has is fungal shell rot and you've done a good job. You do though need to go get a good athlete's foot cream and apply it to the areas of rot. Doing this for a week should kill all the fungus. Also while using the athlete's foot cream, you should have him on newspaper. This will keep everything dry and clean. Also not a good idea to soak him with the cream on his plastron. So you should clean his plastron off before soaking and than apply it after soaking.

Danny

Thanks SO MUCH. Luckily i work in a pharmacy. I'll get some tomorrow morning

---

Welcome Josh!

Well Hello Terryo

 

[RV's mom]

welcome Josh! good job with your beaut!

teri

 

[RedFootTanaka]

welcome Josh! good job with your beaut!

teri

Hey thanks! I see you have a beautiful sulcata. my fiance is begining to think he's been keeping his sulcata in the wrong conditions. She's 8 inches long and we keep her pretty dry. Does she need more moisture?

 

[[email protected]]

I just got mine and this is my first tortoise. She looks just like this! I hope more people respond as what to do for it.

 

[Madkins007]

Danny's advice a few answers up is great. There is also an article in the Articles section on shell problems that can help.

 

[RedFootTanaka]

I just got mine and this is my first tortoise. She looks just like this! I hope more people respond as what to do for it.

If she has fungal shell rot, then just scrub her plastron with betadine and a old(clean) toothbrush intill you get all the shell rot off. Then use antifungal foot cream like Dan suggested and she should be right as rain. Also keep her enclosure dry for a week.

I did this for Tanaka and it got rid of MOST of the rot. I think I just need to give a second go at it to get rid of whats left.

Give her some tlc and good food and she should do great. Keep her enclosure moist when the shel rot goes away and keep her warm with a ceramic heat emmiter.

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So I think Dan called it on the sex too. I was thinking for sure that Tanaka was female. But over the last 2 weeks I've noticed 1) his plastron is becoming concave 2) his tail is growing 3) his shell is starting to "hour glass" and last but not least he has started to make slight clucking noises in his sleep.