Help with a shell injury

[Texastort]

Hi everyone! I have a concern about my big rescue tortoise Dash. Dash is about 40 pounds and came to me in pretty bad shape. He is now THRIVING and is such a sweet heart, we love him. He is however, extremeley frisky with my other torts, I guess that's a by product of him feeling good?

So this winter, he decided to get is freak on during a 30 degree day in our heated shed. He attempted to mount not one, but two of my torts and in the process burned his shell on the heat lamp. I have since raised the lamps even higher, but the damage was done. I have kept the spot clean and disinfected, and he is acting fine, eating like a champ, just wondering if there is anything I can do to help him. The area is dry, not oozy, you can just tell the burn did some damage to his top scute. Anything I should be worried about? Will the scute repair itself?

http://i492.photobucket.com/albums/rr283/jbthompson_2008/photo-1-2.jpg

 

[Yvonne G]

I've seen a lot of those. Its not a problem unless it becomes oozy. That part is now dead. It takes years...many, many years for new keratin to grow under that dead spot. Eventually, maybe not even in our lifetime, the white will chip off and new, pretty shell will be underneath. I've never seen this in sulcatas, but I've seen it lots of times in box turtles. I had a chewed box turtle, the very first box turtle I ever got. She was dog-chewed right above her head and the spots were showing the white, dead bone. After I'd had her for about 25 years I noticed that the white seemed to be a little raised from the other shell, so I picked at it with a fingernail. It popped right off and she was good as new underneath.

 

[Texastort]

I've seen a lot of those. Its not a problem unless it becomes oozy. That part is now dead. It takes years...many, many years for new keratin to grow under that dead spot. Eventually, maybe not even in our lifetime, the white will chip off and new, pretty shell will be underneath. I've never seen this in sulcatas, but I've seen it lots of times in box turtles. I had a chewed box turtle, the very first box turtle I ever got. She was dog-chewed right above her head and the spots were showing the white, dead bone. After I'd had her for about 25 years I noticed that the white seemed to be a little raised from the other shell, so I picked at it with a fingernail. It popped right off and she was good as new underneath.

Thank you Yvonne. I just noticed today the white underneath has a couple of small cracks. Is this just growth or something to be concerned about?

 

[Maggie Cummings]

You can use Nolvasan creme or Neosporin, and just glop it on covering the spot completely. I would do that daily for about a week, then I would stop and see if it looks any different. In my mind what you are trying to do is prevent infection...