Hey Reddit, I ended up cleaning my turtles tank and it was pretty nasty since I had been out of town and my family neglected them (I’ve already said my words to them) and later on in the day I noticed my arm had a giant red blotch on it that was extremely hot and hurt like a bruise. It is also inflamed, I’m writing this the next day later and it has become a little more inflamed and spread out more, also has darkened slightly. Unfortunately I’m not able to see a doctor right now and wanted to ask if anyone had experience with this.
Here’s a couple pics, the first one shows the difference between my arms, the redness almost fully wraps around my forearm. When I say the tank was nasty it was nasty, the filter had stopped working and I wasn’t told, I’m not sure how long it had been going without but my turtle is back in clean fresh water again.
TL:DR cleaned extremely dirty turtle tank and now arm inflamed, red and hurts. Am I dying of turtle disease.
Posted by Icemeter
5 Comments
Bro you def need a doctor if you wanna really know. Could be allergic, infectious, or a chemical burn— anybody here who answers confidently is most likely wrong
What answer are you hoping for here? You’ve already said that you won’t go to a doctor.
Anyone who tells you that a sudden, unexplained rash or swelling is not medically significant isn’t qualified to be offering advice.
Literally the only appropriate answer to your question is to go to the doctor. Reptiles and amphibians, and aquariums in general honestly, have been known to carry extremely serious, life-threatening illnesses. If this swelling developed after spending time with your arms in a dirty aquarium you should be extremely, extremely concerned.
probably dying of turtle disease yes…. they can carry salmonella and plenty of other fun stuff.
Forget about a medical attention. Take an aspirin and check Reddit. Im sure it will go away. If it gets worse ditch the aspirin and go heavy on the thoughts and prayers.
If this sounds ridiculous than good.
What type of gloves did you use? I assume you had some sort of arm length gloves? Maybe you got a reaction to them.
If you didn’t use gloves then yea… good luck if its just waiting and seeing.
Go to a doctor and change out the water for your turtle completely. It could be anything ranging from irritation to chemical burn and you don’t know if what has done it to you will affect your turtle. You don’t know the range of neglect/abuse your family put on that poor turtle so if worst comes to worst they’ve put something in its water then what may slightly harm you could kill it. I hope everything in this situation is well