Oh that is such a cute story! We had a red slider for about a year before it ran off and we never did find him...but we lived near an inlet from the ocean so I hope he got there..probably was mating season! Your turtle is really beautiful and his shell just shines..like you shined it yourself!
Since reading about giving it to pets, I started giving my Maltese who is 8 years old 1 drop in his bowl of water about 2x a week. He had a choice at first, the plain water or the Iodine water..and he chose the Iodine water every time. He gets raw dog food and has for years, so he's been very healthy and hasn't had any problems, I'd like to keep him that way for as long as possible. I know Iodine will help with that.
If you used Iodine to clean with, do you buy bulk? I get the little 1 oz. bottle and keep it strictly for ingestion and painting.