Shell Repair... Again.

[Marshall]

Using the same tried and true epoxy-z-tie system to heal a broken shell

 

[Nepen]

with broken shell that got you fixed, can the shell grow when the turtle get bigger?

 

[moby]

And how do you remove the 'braces' when all is healed together please? What happened to the poor thing?

 

[Mmathis]

@Marshall Ouch! Was this guy an aborted road-kill victim? How deep are the breaks and will he require antibiotics? How successful is this on semi-aquatics? I've seen something like this done on tortoises and boxies and it works well on them.

 

[Marshall]

with broken shell that got you fixed, can the shell grow when the turtle get bigger?

It will shed the scutes once the break is healed and after that the turtle will go back to growing at a normal rate. Basically a break like this one will delay their growth by about 8 months to a year or so.

 

[Marshall]

@Marshall Ouch! Was this guy an aborted road-kill victim? How deep are the breaks and will he require antibiotics? How successful is this on semi-aquatics? I've seen something like this done on tortoises and boxies and it works well on them.

I have performed this on about 10 semi-aquatics and as long as they are are given the right medications as well as properly disinfecting the wound and segregating them from other turtles they will usually have a good outcome. The only cases that are hopeless are injuries to the spine or internal organ punctures or exposure. AS far as how he got the injury I'm not sure but I would bet it was a car or other vehicle impact as this is a very severe break and turtle shell are a lot stronger than some people think so if it was not a road injury the only other creature strong enough and frankly mean enough to inflict this on purpose would be a human. It has happened before at the rescue when I took in a painted turtle that some asshole kids had busted his shell on purpose. The lady who brought this fella in though found him by her outdoor fountain so she did not see what happened to him.

 

[Marshall]

And how do you remove the 'braces' when all is healed together please? What happened to the poor thing?

Once the shell heals the turtle will grow new scutes and will shed the old ones getting rid of the braces in the process. They can also be removed by using a freeze-off wart remover to quickly chill the joint causing the epoxy to become brittle enough to be broken without tearing off a scute.

 

[Nepen]

Good info thanks.

 

[Marshall]

Quick Tip: Although semi-aquatics spend a lot of time in the water they actually are much more at risk from not getting dry enough than vice versa so obviously a cracked open shell is just like a cracked ships hull meaning that for about 3 to 9 months we keep the semi-aquatic in a terrestrial box turtle habitat and only spray him down with mild saline water that has been decontaminated and infused with light minerals and heavy calcium. Basically they can survive without getting into full immersion water but if they are not able to completely dry off at least 2+ hours a day their health will suffer seriously and they may die.

(yes I'm a "Nerdle" lol as we say here at the rescue Turtle + Nerd ? )

 

[Mmathis]

@Marshall Why is it that the semi's shed their scutes but boxies don't? Have never heard an explanation for that......

 

[Marshall]

@Marshall Why is it that the semi's shed their scutes but boxies don't? Have never heard an explanation for that......

Box turtles actually do "shed" but they do it in more of a flaking off manner that is not as noticeable because one scute may take 20 or more "flakes" to shed where semi-aquatics will actually accumulate water underneath the old/dying scute and because they cant afford "leaks" they will not discard the scute until a new one is completely ready underneath. I'm probably not the best person to explain Boxies but that is the basic explanation as far as I understand it and have observed it in the rescue.