Snake neck turtle -HELP PLEASE-

[DreViper]

Hi

I have a snake neck turtle that is slowly losing toes. He is in a 4ft x 2ft x 2ft tank with 2 ramps for basking with 2 Red Ears and another snake neck for company. All roughly 3 years old with tanks heated to 28 degrees and double reptile UV tube, alternately replace every 6 months. The Snake neck (Viper) is roughly 20cm in shell length and weighs 600g.

He was sick about a year ago, back then his whole outer shell layer was shed almost all at once and not gradually like it should be which is what made me take him to a vet in the first place cos then I noticed he wasn't eating much. Just before he went to the vet I noticed that the last toe on each hind leg and disappeared, unfortunately the vet couldn't explain this and was put on antibiotics after the blood tests came back inconclusive (and $350 later, not that it really matters when it comes to my pets health, but it did sting). He recovered but not the toes.

Now it seems he has developed the same problem and looks like it is spreading to the front legs as well.

It starts off looking like he is shedding skin but when he is taken out of water some slight bleeding is visible on infected part of feet. It also starts affecting the toes with no nail.

Really need to figure out what is happening before he loses any more toes or worse.

He is very active, eats well, varied diet of Hot House turtle food, shrimp and fish pellets. I've started keeping him dry for up to 18 hours a day and treating feat with betadine under a UV lamp. For the past couple of days I've been giving him salt water baths for 15 min twice a day just deep enough to cover his feet (water is clean and same temp as tank).

The other 3 turtles seem healthy and have never shown any sign of illness. They also get taken for a walk on weekend if the weather is good.

Starting to wonder whether Viper was from a sickly batch from the start. He was my 2nd turtle, the first snake neck sadly died after a week (he was maybe 3-4cm shell size) and bought Viper from the same pet store. Still not sure why the first died.

Can't find any info on net, the only similar illness looks to be fungal but still not quite right.

I'm hoping somebody has heard of this and can help.

Any info is appreciated.

Thanks

Andre

[repto]

if its fungal the salt baths should do the trick.What about physical damage from the other turtles(or one of them?)sounds like you are doing everything else right,others may be more helpful?

[DreViper]

They all get on pretty well, the male Red Ear turtle (Dodge) tries to mate with Viper by doing that waving claws in front of his face thing (he does it to all of them) but thats about it. Viper only ever tries to mount Charger (The female Red Ear). The other snake neck (Dakota, about 15cm shell length) is the more aggressive one but only towards Dodge.

I've been watching them more closely the past few days and doesn't seem to be any biting or fighting.

Will be taking Viper to the vet on Friday so hopefully they can sort him out again.

[alanmin4304]

I have had male red ears lose their front claws by them doing their wee waving in front of the females thingy when she has a headache.

[livingart]

from your description i would have to run with the fungal or physical damage as well

turtles can be nasty to each other

[DreViper]

So just came back from the vet, turns out because its around the same time as last year and with their activites they came to the conclusion that he probably has a diminished immune system caused by the four turtles trying to mate and has contracted a bacterial infection.

Will have to separate the by species just to be safe.

[repto]

what did that piece of fine wisdom cost you?

[livingart]

[DreViper]

Wasn't as bad as last year when the tests and cultures were done.

Came to $77 including meds and full check-up.