Carapace burns

[Stan N.]

we adopted him in July of this year after rehabilitation here in Texas. Radiographs I had done showed almost 3rd degree burns on Blaze. His caprice burns were from turning over someone’s “green egg grill” After two rounds of antibiotics injections, RI, I’m happy to say all is well ! He came from Michigan and is now living in paradise here in North Texas. While the weather was warmer, he got a salt paste applied to his shell once a week for two hours and the next week his shell was sprayed with a disinfectant ( Virkon S ) once a week .
The first veterinarian wanted to sedate him and Dremel his dead flaking shell. I decided against and opted to remove the dead shell areas by hand, slowly and carefully . So far, that’s working to both our advantage. He will actually lay down for me to remove flaking areas, but he also loves to be petted on his head,neck and shell.. if he was a dog , I’m sure he would roll over and let me scratch his belly!
Blaze loves his winter house. It’s an insulated Rubbermaid shed that I built ,7x7 , plus when I got Blaze home and in his quarantine pen, he dug a burrow right away while I was constructing his shed. He still goes in there time to time, so I decided to construct a hide box over it and keep a cane mat on the wall inside right above the the burrow hole.He seems to not mind to cooler weather. He was out shortly today ( overcast and mid 50’s)
After stretching his legs and nibbling at some grass and a little hay, he’s back in his shed basking.

So that’s a little about us.Blaze shares our full yard with 2 Giant Schnauzers ( very protective of him) but snatch some of his food, and a three toed turtle that a neighbor asked me to get it out of their swimming pool. I thought they were describing a red ear slider, which I would have relocated to the nearest creed, but was surprised what I found. After checking with the surrounding neighbors , no claim was made, I brought her here where I had made a natural bog for Blaze to soak in . Shelly, loves the bog where I put a dozen feeder comets in the and she could be found in there trying to catch one. She loves worms of all types and has since hibernated.

All questions and comments are welcome. Pictures to follow. Anyone that has gone through a tortoise with caprice shell burns, or anyone dealing with shell burns, I would love to hear from you !
Sent from my iPad

 

[Yvonne G]

Oh my! That poor tortoise.

 

[wellington]

You are doing him no favors by letting him share his home with two big dogs that you think are protective of him. They are not protective,they will eventually chew on him. Do not ever let them in his enclosure unless you are there with 100% of your attention and eyes on the dogs.
The burn is another reason why people should not let a large tortoise roam the whole yard that people are also using. They all think it will be fine, or the dogs will be fine, until it isn't.
Glad you could take him in, now make him 100% safe by keeping the dogs out of his home.

 

[Stan N.]

You are doing him no favors by letting him share his home with two big dogs that you think are protective of him. They are not protective,they will eventually chew on him. Do not ever let them in his enclosure unless you are there with 100% of your attention and eyes on the dogs.
The burn is another reason why people should not let a large tortoise roam the whole yard that people are also using. They all think it will be fine, or the dogs will be fine, until it isn't.
Glad you could take him in, now make him 100% safe by keeping the dogs out of his home.

Great advice for 99% of pet owners. They don’t raise, train or spend enough time with their pets to correct bad behavior. That’s all I’m going to say because I respect your opinion. As I hope other people will understand, when your tortoise get large they can be destructive, so spend a lot of time with your pets and socialize socialize socialize !!! The key to success.

 

[Tom]

Great advice for 99% of pet owners. They don’t raise, train or spend enough time with their pets to correct bad behavior. That’s all I’m going to say because I respect your opinion. As I hope other people will understand, when your tortoise get large they can be destructive, so spend a lot of time with your pets and socialize socialize socialize !!! The key to success.

Stan, for you and anyone reading: I've been a career dog trainer, and other animals too, since 1991. I've won several national bite work titles and you've seen my work dozens of times, if not hundreds of times, on film. There is no amount of training or socialization that is going to over-ride a dog's natural instincts and stop it from chewing up a tortoise. It's fine if you are standing there watching, but the moment you answer a phone call, or go into the house for a second, or get distracted in one of any million ways, it happens. None of the people that have had this happen thought it would happen. All of them were sure they were supervising and it was safe. All we are saying is don't learn this lesson the hard way.

 

[Stan N.]

I get it Tom. Now my three toed turtle gets the curiosity my female giant and I would never leave a small turtle unsupervised with any dog that can pick it up,paw at it or show signs of trying to chew on it . I adopted a year old sulcata that had its shell cracked by a dog in Michigan ( central Texas Tortoise Rescue rescued several from there, so I’ve seen the dangers first hand . After we met Blaze and adopted him, my oldest adopted the year old , Donna, and she’s doing wonderfully. The banter is good, but I’m not going to go into my background on this or any other public social media. Bottom line, you are correct. There’s precautions to be taken for sure ! Specially with the smaller ones that roam free . I worry about natural predators a lot. Even people with wood piles in an enclosure that naturally harbor rats . Here in Texas , there are many predators. Even in the big cities.