turtle help

[zeke]

i noticed that my macquarie tortise has what looks like white spotes on his right foot and i read in my care australian reptiles in captivity book and it says that its a fungal infection of the skin and that it appears white to cream and thats what it looks like what should i do about it?

[rubydimond]

take him to the vet just to be on the safe side
thats what i would do

[Reptizzle]

my eastern long necks have the same problem at the moment...
I have been putting savlon (antisceptic cream) on them, and keeping them dry for a few hours each day... seems to be working but would b curious to see what other ppl suggest....

[mrdestiny]

Take it out of the water, let it dry off and apply either some Betadine or Wardley Fungus Ade. Leave it out of the water for a few hours then put him back. Repeat for a few days and that should clear it up.
Others may suggest an aquarium salt bath at a slightly warmer temp than usual, this will also fix the problem, but make sure you fix the cause of the problem, ie you might need to do a water change.
Allan
http://turtletownsydney.tripod.com/

[mrdestiny]

I forgot....make sure they have access to sun or UV and basking lights if in a tank.
Allan

[zeke]

huw much does Wardley Fungus Ade cost and were can i get it from

[mrdestiny]

Don't know the cost but you can get it from an Aquarium shop.
Allan

[slim6y]

Originally Posted by Reptizzle

my eastern long necks have the same problem at the moment...
I have been putting savlon (antisceptic cream) on them, and keeping them dry for a few hours each day... seems to be working but would b curious to see what other ppl suggest....

I would be very careful about the use of savlon (or detol) they may provide some antibacterial funtion, although limited, they are certainly not anti-fungal (unless savlon has changed in the last few years).

For humans, fungal infections are generally cleared up with a topical anti-fungal cream. But I was quite pleased to know that selenium sulfide, a common ingredient in anti-dandruff shampoos also is a major killer of dermatological funagl infections (ring worm, thrush etc).

I used selsium blue (i think that's the correct spelling) for all my fungal infections (haha...).

Serious... selsium blue does work on humans. I did a study on it at uni.

But for a tortoise??? I really don't know!

[expansa1]

Originally Posted by mrdestiny

Take it out of the water, let it dry off and apply either some Betadine or Wardley Fungus Ade. Leave it out of the water for a few hours then put him back. Repeat for a few days and that should clear it up.
Others may suggest an aquarium salt bath at a slightly warmer temp than usual, this will also fix the problem, but make sure you fix the cause of the problem, ie you might need to do a water change.
Allan
http://turtletownsydney.tripod.com/

Hey Allan, Wardley's fungus ade is a treatment for the water and not meant to be applied directly to the skin.

Slim6y & Zeke, they are turtles and not tortoises. Only mentioning this as this is one of the old names that Australian freshwater turtles used to be called to distinguish freshwater turtles with Marine turtles. This led to the death of many Australian freshwater turtles, It's the same as hatchling turtles being called 'Penny' turtles!
Craig

[mrdestiny]

Wardley Fungus-Ade was $6.95 for 30ml, and as Craig says it's a water treatment. Betadine you can get from the Chemist.
Allan
http://turtletownsydney.tripod.com/

[timthevet]

If it is a fungal infection, a common cause can be low water quality or not enough time basking. Make sure you are monitoring nitrate/nitrite/ammonia/ph/hardness, providing proper filtration, temperature and doing 25% water changes every week to fortnight.

[pedro]

I had the same problem when my turtles were smaller. Taking them into natural sunlight for an hour a week letting them dry out is beneficial. No matter what they claim on UV tubes there is no substitute for natural sunlight. Be careful if it is too hot, use dappled sunlight under a tree. Don't do it on really hot days. I read that 30 minutes sunlight equals a week under most UV tubes. I find the turtles don't spend much time basking in inside setups as compared to the ones outside. While it is sick doing it daily would be beneficial. My turtles fungus infection has not returned doing it weekly after it recovered. I use one of those mesh cages for outside drying.

[zeke]

ok thanks if there is any thing else that can help please tell me

[ldheav]

Clean out the tank and puta fish fungus cure into the water and simply observe if it gets any wouse try dry docking and salt bathing but before that take it to the vet if the fungus cure doesnt do the trick

[instarnett]

Before you do any of that, gently grab the little foot and rub the spot with your thumb, if it comes off, its just sloughing skin, nothing to worry about at all. make sure the turtle gets ampletime out of the water, sunlight. people mistake sloughing skin spots for fungus all the time. keep the water clean, not just clear, check your ph. if it is fungus, paint with betadine and let it stay dry for a few hours, returning theturtle to water to rehydrateand eat, defecate etc every 8 hrs. 4x 2hr dry spells a day combined with betadine will see it off.
Most problms start with it enviroment, work on that first.