Young Yellow Bellied Sliders: Shell Shedding?

[JohniCc]

Hey, recently one of my turtles' shell started to show some white marks, like it was shedding, although I can't really tell. Today my second turtle had the same marks, but on the lower side of the shell.
I also asked my friend for some advice and he said it might be the lamps I'm using, though I thought it was from the water in our country since its kind of hard.
I'm using the lamps from IKEA, since my older one broke and I was left with the bulb alone with no lamp to put it in. The information on the bulb says the following: 7w, 50/60Hz, 220-240V.

 

[JohniCc]

Here are some pics of the turtles' shell and the lamp:

 

[AmRoKo]

That looks more like a fungus to me, normally when they shed their scutes the scutes become cloudy.

 

[JohniCc]

A fungus?!
Will they be ok? What can I do?

 

[AmRoKo]

Hmmm, well it's been awhile since I cared for turtles and I never had to deal with a fungus on them, you could probably try what people do with tortoises and use a diluted betadine swab the areas and then put athletes foot cream on it 2 times a day. Only use the betadine solution for about 3 days and the athlets foot cream for about a week. Actually I think there might be stuff made that you can put in the water to treat shell fungus. There are a few turtle people on this forum I think so I hope they respond to you soon about this, I wish I could be more help right now.

Here's a turtle forum you could go to which might be better for asking this problem. - http://www.turtleforum.com/forum/upload/index.php?act=idx

 

[JohniCc]

Thanks! You did help so don't feel bad
I'll probably ask my local pet shop if theres anything I can put in the water.
But I'll repost in the site you've mentioned too, thank you again!

 

[ascott]

What is their dry out dock made of (material)? does the turtle have to pull itself up on the to the dock or is there a partially submerged dock for smooth entry/exit?

 

[JohniCc]

They actually live separately as they were aggressive to each other.
My first turtle has the famous Zoo Med dock and the other has two rocks.
But to be honest, I don't think it's because of their docks as they have marks on arias that cannot get harmed by the dock.

 

[Maro2Bear]

Hey, recently one of my turtles' shell started to show some white marks, like it was shedding, although I can't really tell. Today my second turtle had the same marks, but on the lower side of the shell.
I also asked my friend for some advice and he said it might be the lamps I'm using, though I thought it was from the water in our country since its kind of hard.
I'm using the lamps from IKEA, since my older one broke and I was left with the bulb alone with no lamp to put it in. The information on the bulb says the following: 7w, 50/60Hz, 220-240V.

As far as your bulb is concerned

• bulb says the following: 7w, 50/60Hz, 220-240V.

This looks just like a normal incandescent bulb, but is it really only 7 watts? Thats not very bright at all. The hz and voltage are just the type of bulbs needed to operate properly in Limassol.

 

[JohniCc]

As far as your bulb is concerned

• bulb says the following: 7w, 50/60Hz, 220-240V.

This looks just like a normal incandescent bulb, but is it really only 7 watts? Thats not very bright at all. The hz and voltage are just the type of bulbs needed to operate properly in Limassol.

Yes it's 7 watts, I'll replace them as soon as possible. I have bulbs that go up to 50 watts but I don't have suitable lamps.
But I try to place the bulb close to the turtles so that's warmer.
Here's a pic, hope you get an idea of how close it is.

 

[Yvonne G]

When a water turtle gets shell rot or fungus, you've got to dry dock them. I'd be hesitant to drydock a baby for 23 hours with one hour back in the water. These instructions are for bigger turtles. Babies might get dehydrated keeping them out of the water for that long. So we'll have to wing it, unless someone with more experience chimes in. I would dry the shell off real well, then apply athlete foot cream to the spots. Leave the baby out of the water for two hours then put him back in for an hour, then repeat the whole process. When you reach night time, leave him in the water all night and start the process again in the a.m.

You can also wash the spots with Chlorhexidine prior to applying the foot cream, but let it dry before applying the cream.

I think your babies need either some real sun, or a good UVB light so that when they're out of the water they are getting the heat plus the beneficial UVB.

 

[JohniCc]

Thanks for the advice!
The problem is that I'm not always at home so it'll be kind of hard for me to treat them. As I said before, I'll ask my local pet shop if they have any meds as well.
I get them out in the sun about 2 or one day a week, in the summer the were out in the sun everyday.
I have this bulb but I can't tell if its a good UVB light:

When a water turtle gets shell rot or fungus, you've got to dry dock them. I'd be hesitant to drydock a baby for 23 hours with one hour back in the water. These instructions are for bigger turtles. Babies might get dehydrated keeping them out of the water for that long. So we'll have to wing it, unless someone with more experience chimes in. I would dry the shell off real well, then apply athlete foot cream to the spots. Leave the baby out of the water for two hours then put him back in for an hour, then repeat the whole process. When you reach night time, leave him in the water all night and start the process again in the a.m.

You can also wash the spots with Chlorhexidine prior to applying the foot cream, but let it dry before applying the cream.

I think your babies need either some real sun, or a good UVB light so that when they're out of the water they are getting the heat plus the beneficial UVB.

 

[AmRoKo]

Thanks for the advice!
The problem is that I'm not always at home so it'll be kind of hard for me to treat them. As I said before, I'll ask my local pet shop if they have any meds as well.
I get them out in the sun about 2 or one day a week, in the summer the were out in the sun everyday.
I have this bulb but I can't tell if its a good UVB light:
View attachment 98103

That bulb doesn't emit UVB or any light, that's a ceramic heat emitter. It just helps to provide a lot or little heat (depends how and what you use it for) for whatever you need. That bulb needs to be in a ceramic socket it will just melt plastic ones.

 

[AmRoKo]

I just found this it's an Austins turtle page and has information on shell problems and treating them. remember to be extra careful though since you are dealing with babies.

http://www.austinsturtlepage.com/Care/medshell.htm

 

[JohniCc]

Thank you so much for all the help!
Can you also suggest a good UVB bulb I could use for basking?
I did a reaserch but I got kind of confused :s

 

[AmRoKo]

Thank you so much for all the help!
Can you also suggest a good UVB bulb I could use for basking?
I did a reaserch but I got kind of confused :s

Well one of the best bulbs is a Mercury Vapor Bulb which emits heat/UVA/UVB all in one. I used to use the Powersun by zoomed but I just kept having trouble with it burning out too fast and having to keep paying 6$ to return and get a replacement (even though I mounted the bulb correctly), I don't know why I kept having problems but a lot of people use those bulbs with success. I now use a regular flood lamp from lowes for heat and then I use a tube fluorescent bulb for the uvb.

The tubes I use now are by Zoomed they are the reptisun 10.0 18 inch and I use a under cabinet fixture for them. I order those from amazon here - http://www.amazon.com/Zoo-Med-ReptiSun®-Fluorescent-18-Inch/dp/B0009YJ3BE/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1412265596&sr=8-1&keywords=reptisun and the fixture - http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000HJ75PW/?tag=exoticpetnetw-20 .

I also have a HO reptisun T5 5.0 it's the 12 inch in the 14 inch fixture. I got the fixture and it came with the bulb, I believe it's only a short while they will be combining the bulb with the fixture for now because I think the 14 inch is a little bit newer. http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/prod_display.cfm?pcatid=25698 I cant seem to find a t5 14 inch fixture any where else and I really wanted to try the t5 5.0 bulb.

You can also give your turtle vitamin d powder or vitamin d powder with calcium, many people do that and their turtles/tortoises do just fine/ are able to absorb calcium just fine. You can also set up a temporary outdoor enclosure that you put your turtles in everyday in order for them to get UVB.

 

[JohniCc]

Wow, I couldn't ask for a more complete and precise answer! Thank you again so much! You're such a big help

Well one of the best bulbs is a Mercury Vapor Bulb which emits heat/UVA/UVB all in one. I used to use the Powersun by zoomed but I just kept having trouble with it burning out too fast and having to keep paying 6$ to return and get a replacement (even though I mounted the bulb correctly), I don't know why I kept having problems but a lot of people use those bulbs with success. I now use a regular flood lamp from lowes for heat and then I use a tube fluorescent bulb for the uvb.

The tubes I use now are by Zoomed they are the reptisun 10.0 18 inch and I use a under cabinet fixture for them. I order those from amazon here - http://www.amazon.com/Zoo-Med-ReptiSun®-Fluorescent-18-Inch/dp/B0009YJ3BE/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1412265596&sr=8-1&keywords=reptisun and the fixture - http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000HJ75PW/?tag=exoticpetnetw-20 .

I also have a HO reptisun T5 5.0 it's the 12 inch in the 14 inch fixture. I got the fixture and it came with the bulb, I believe it's only a short while they will be combining the bulb with the fixture for now because I think the 14 inch is a little bit newer. http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/prod_display.cfm?pcatid=25698 I cant seem to find a t5 14 inch fixture any where else and I really wanted to try the t5 5.0 bulb.

You can also give your turtle vitamin d powder or vitamin d powder with calcium, many people do that and their turtles/tortoises do just fine/ are able to absorb calcium just fine. You can also set up a temporary outdoor enclosure that you put your turtles in everyday in order for them to get UVB.

 

[AmRoKo]

Wow, I couldn't ask for a more complete and precise answer! Thank you again so much! You're such a big help

Haha, No problem and thank you!

 

[JohniCc]

So after doing some research on the bulbs I found this bulb in my house, my dad's an electrician so we have lots of stuff like that, and even though it does not mention anything about UVB, in some reptile forums I searched they said it's UVB
Here's the bulb

 

[AmRoKo]

I have never seen or heard about that bulb before so I don't know if it's okay to use as uvb or if it actually does emit uvb. But to me it looks just like a regular flood light from a home improvement store, which home improvement store bulbs don't emit uvb, they are just good for basking areas. Though like I said I have never seen that spotone bulb before. :/