How to treat my Mississippi map turtle's shell sores and wounds?

Thanks for reaching out about Sheldon and including photos. Continue to monitor the growth of the lesions. Maintain pristine water conditions. You can try a gentle scrub with a soft brittled tooth brush and chlorhexidine or dilute iodine/betadyne. If lesion continue to grow, a veterinary visit is needed. Good luck

Thanks for reaching out about Rizzo and including photos. This does appear to be a deep shell infection. First, water quality is incredibly important. All substrate (rocks, soil) should be removed. Water changes daily. Next, a dry environment needs to be set up to allow the wound to dry. Aquatic turtles can stay out of the water for very long periods of time. Rizzo can be kept dry all day and allowed two periods of time to be allowed to eat (1-2 hours each time) as turtles will not eat if dry. This will all allow the topical application of a anti-microbial cream, and not have it wash off. A soft towel or T-shirts can be used for bedding. Lastly, a veterinary visit is needed to prescribe systemic antibiotics, likely injections, as creams don't penetrate too deeply. These will heal over time if therapy is aggressive. Good luck.

Thanks for reaching out about Steve and including photos. These lesions appear similar to ones seen when chewed on by a dog or raccoon. A veterinary visit is a necessity to assess and provide a diagnostic/treatment plan. Systemic antibiotics are needed, probably injections. After the wound is deemed clean, an acrylic patch needs to be placed to prevent future infections. Hydrogen peroxide is okay to use initially but will indiscriminately kills cells, including immune cells and new skin cells. Keep on clean paper towels or other substate to prevent further contamination. The environmental temperature should reach 90+F during the day to stimulate the immune system. Call your local veterinarian. Good luck.

Hi there! So sorry to hear about Willow's shell troubles. You can try dry-docking him and just letting him into the water for an hour a day to defecate to let the shell really dry out. You can clean the shell with some very dilute betadine or iodine, or chlorhexidine solution mixed one part solution with 10 parts water 2-3 times per day while you dry dock. Keep in mind, when trying to feed him a couple times per week, he'll want to be in the water for that as well as for going to the bathroom. They will not eat when being dry docked. If here is no improvement at all in a week or so, he may need some prescription cream to apply to the shell. Shell rot usually will be a result of water quality not being ideal. Below is a link to Austin's turtle page, one of my favorite turtle husbandry pages, as well as a link about treating shell rot. I hope you find this answer helpful. Best of luck! http://www.austinsturtlepage.com/Care/caresheet-mississippi_map.htm https://www.vettails.com/vettails/2016/2/21/how-i-treat-shell-rot-in-turtles

Thanks for reaching out about your turtle. Unfortunately, the pictures are too dark to determine a lesion. A veterinary visit would work the best but if none available you could try applying a topical antibiotics ointment. A petroleum based product will adhere better in water but is still likely to wash off. Keep water quality as pristine as possible. Systemic antibiotics (injections) would improve chance of success. Good luck.

Hello, thank you for using PetCoach. The damage to the plastron is most likely from either trauma or infection. I have never seen something like this due to parasites. You should really try to find a local veterinarian to examine him as he likely needs more in depth treatment than what you can provide at home with over the counter remedies. You may need to travel towards Green Bay in order to find a reptile veterinarian. I found a few in that area. Here is one of them: ( https://countrycareac.com/search-animal-reptiles/ ) ( https://countrycareac.com/medical-surgical/medical-surgical-reptiles/ ) While you are waiting to get him an appointment you can try using this spray on the affected areas once or twice daily: ( ) Hope this helps. Best wishes.

Thank you for the follow-up and photos. Now both the photos have come through. This is very concerning. I look at those photos and would have thought the other way around. The one of the left I thought was the day of diagnosis and the one where he is pink was now. This is really bad :( I think he need injectable antibiotics (enrofloxacin) at this point so you need to get him back to the vet to get the injections. I would also ask your vet for a topical cream called Silver Sulfadiazine to use in place of the Neosporin. Hope this helps. If you have more questions you can always opt for a private consultation where we can chat back and forth. That way you can ask as many questions as you'd like. Best wishes.