plastron peeling?

Question
Hi, I have an eastern painted turtle, she is quite large as her shell is about 6 inches from front to back. She is in a 55 gal tank filled about half way, but is put in a smaller tank with water to feed. The "feeder" water is changed everyday and the tank water is changed about once a week along with the filter insert (every 7-10 days usually). She eats krill, crickets gut fed with calcium, beef heart or cooked chicken on occasion, she may eat a bit of romaine lettuce or grated carrots but prefers not to on a regular basis. She resists most commercial brand foods, (she eats them and spits them out).Her basking spot has is a turtle ramp with a large spot light of approximate 75-100 watts (can't remember which). She also has a "turtle" light of 50 watts over the rest of the tank. I put sulfa blocks in the water and have no substrate on the bottom of the tank. With the water temp kept at about 76'F due to my heater, she is very active and amusing.
HOWEVER when I took her out to feed her the other day I noticed it looked like a thin layer was peeling in spots, from her plastron. There is one spot that peeled that seems a little soft today, it's been about a week since she peeled. Is this shell rot? It's not cheesy looking and I know she gets out to bask everyday sometimes for hours. I can't seem to find an answer on the Internet sites as to if she is peeling and growing or peeling and it's bad... Thanks!

Answer
I have several thoughts, but most boil down to a form of shell rot.

There are a few things here that raise a twitch of concern to me, such as a rather small tank, the possibility of a bacteria from the shellfish or shrimp meal in the processed food, etc.

What I would like to do is to point you to some helpful resources...

http://www.autsinturtlepage.com for general information. You can learn a lot about several aspects of cares here and most of the information is very, very good. Their section in medical care on shell rot is also well-done.

http://www.turtleforum.com is a great place to talk about things like this- you can post photos, talk to several experts at once, and do more back-and-forth discussion than we can here.



Now- about your situation...

1. Remove the sulfa blocks- those things are pretty much a waste of time and money.

2. Consider strongly tearing down the entire habitat. Clean, sterilize, or replace everything as you rebuild it. There are several molds, fungi, and bacteria that can cause these problems. Once you rebuild it, keep all forms of shellfish out while the turtle is healing- this includes any foods with shrimp meal, all forms of shrimp, etc. If possible, switch to a larger tank- 100 gallons would be nice.

3. Fill the tank as full as you can and keep the temps right and basking site accessible. Heat the water to 80-85F while the turtle is ill, although 75-80F is fine normally!

4. Consider stopping the feeder tank bit and get a really big canister filter for the main tank. Feeder tanks are considered stressful by more and more experienced keepers. Austin's Turtle Page has good articles on water issues.

5. Use either Turtle Sulfa Dip or the fish medicine Stress Coat per directions to reduce secondary infections.

6. Once a day, swab the peeling or exposed areas with Betadine Solution (providone iodine). Let the turtle dry for about an hour before returning it to the water.

7. Consider using a UVB lamp. While they are not absolutely needed for turtles, they do help kill germs, etc.

8. Consider live plants. They help keep the water clean, provide hiding places, and most plants are edible and make great snacks.

Good luck!