Scooter: Female Florida River Cooter : 01-20-2002
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The vet had told us that eventually the entire infected area would have to come off to allow for her new healthy scutes to grow in. Each day we've watched as bits and pieces come off with each cleaning, but today was much more dramatic. The primary area of the infected scutes that remained came off. This was -extremely- difficult to cope with emotionally. Scooter had raw flesh underneath that of course bubbled red with blood. There is no way anyone can tell me that the cleaning today was not a painful one for Scooter.

The good side of this is that the majority of what we've been fighting has finally come off of Scooter. The sooner the bad is gone, the sooner the good can begin to grow and heal. None the less I find myself teary-eyed for Scooter. I hate having to be the one to do this to her and I really hate that she is going through this!

Scooter is starting to consider basking on her own again however I have to ruin it again by beginning her next treatment.

She knows what's coming and she puts up a fight prior to us beginning.

After cleaning her off with just warm water and a 100% cotton cloth.
As you can see the worst part of her plastron came off with the cleaning...and it was not pretty.

One last gentle wipe and she's ready for the betadine. I only pray it doesn't burn.

Here she is with a generous dose of betadine to help cleanse the wounds.

After another gentle wipe down we can then apply another dose of the Silvadone cream. This I know from experience can be very cool and soothing on open wounds. I believe Scooter feels the same way because she usually calms way down when we apply it. It seems to work miracles on her.

With the Silvadone cream still covering her wounds thickly, we place a soft bandage over the entire area.

Finally we place Scooter on a bed of towels in a rubbermaid tub for mandatory basking and warmth.

After a couple of hours of drydocking we remove the bandage, wipe off any excess creams, and then place Scooter back into her aquarium for rest.
As anyone with a heart can see, the treatments are pretty traumatic for both the turtle and the humans. The turtle obviously gets the worst of it! I hope that today's dramatic loss of scutes will result in dramatic healing as well. Time will tell...

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