From the Rescue Files

Goldie

Goldie is a tiny young box turtle. She was probably about one year old in the summer of 2001, when she was found wondering into our yard trying to climb into the flower garden.

She got the name Goldie because someone somewhere had spray painted her completely all around with gold spray paint.

 The paint had to be removed but how? Oil soap that's vegetable based didn't quite work. I didn't want to use a toxic substance to remove a toxic substance so what to do? I tried a product called Fast Orange, a cream hand cleaner sold in automotive parts stores, discount stores, and hardware stores. The active ingredients are citric acid and ground pumice stone.
I found that the best way to use this was to dampen the turtle, then smear the hand cleaner on her and let it sit for a minute or two. Then I alternated between using a pot scrubbing pad and an old toothbrush to remove the paint. Sometimes I was able to simply peel the paint off with my fingernail in some spots on her shell. This took several days, the scrubbing was irritating to her so I'd have to work on her a couple of times a day to keep her from being too uncomfortable. After three or four days, all that was left were tiny flecks of paint that were not even noticeable.

Goldie didn't have to stay here, she immediately moved to a box turtle sanctuary where she lives outdoors, lives in her natural habitat but is fed fresh food on a regular basis.
Fast Orange works miracles, this is Goldie one week after I'd found her:

 By Jan McArthur RVT