Introduction and advice please

Salome

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Feb 5, 2018
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South Afric
Hi. I am Salome and live in South Africa and I have a tortious but I still need to find out the name. In 1964 my parents found him in a veldt fire in a field infront of their house. This field was soon to be developed into a residential area. He survived and lived with them ever since. I was born in 1968 and now that my dad has passed on and my mom is in an Old Age Home I still have him with me. He lived on a paw paw, fruit and mince diet as well as snails. I have no idea how old he is. I noticed today that on his two front feet their's a black area and it seems that the scale that was in the black region has fallen out. Is it foot fungal or bacterial infection. I will load photos later tomorrow. I will wash it with anti bacterial wash and put on Germolene ointment. Any other ideas?I will try to find anything on Internet.

image.jpeg
 

Stuart S.

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Hello and welcome! You have an Old Timer for sure :) do you have closer pictures of him? Glad you are continuing to take care of him!
 

CarolM

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Hi. I am Salome and live in South Africa and I have a tortious but I still need to find out the name. In 1964 my parents found him in a veldt fire in a field infront of their house. This field was soon to be developed into a residential area. He survived and lived with them ever since. I was born in 1968 and now that my dad has passed on and my mom is in an Old Age Home I still have him with me. He lived on a paw paw, fruit and mince diet as well as snails. I have no idea how old he is. I noticed today that on his two front feet their's a black area and it seems that the scale that was in the black region has fallen out. Is it foot fungal or bacterial infection. I will load photos later tomorrow. I will wash it with anti bacterial wash and put on Germolene ointment. Any other ideas?I will try to find anything on Internet.
Hi Salome
Welcome. Where in South Africa if I may ask? I live in Cape Town.
 

Salome

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South Afric
I think its a
Pretoria Gauteng
Karoo tortios and I said in my intro that the scale fell off in black area but it's actually a claw that fell out on front foot and the area is black and on the other front foot the claws are still there but there is a black colour under some of the claws.
 

CarolM

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Lucky you. That means you have water.[emoji1]
It is nice that you are now looking after the tortoise.
There are lots of really nice people on here. And they will be able to help you. They can sometimes be blunt but it is done in the interest of the tortoise. I don't think that mincemeat is good to feed to tortoises. But the experts will advise all the necessary info soon. I don't feel confident enough yet to give too much advise. Other than to say once your tort is identified to go and read the care sheets and follow tge advice given.
 

Salome

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I think its a

Karoo tortios and I said in my intro that the scale fell off in black area but it's actually a claw that fell out on front foot and the area is black and on the other front foot the claws are still there but there is a black colour under some of the claws.

image.jpeg
 

Salome

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Thank you CarolM. He's been eating really good until January this year. I struggle to get him eat. He drinks water and maybe eat a little but now that I have seen the claw thats fallen out and the black colour I am worried.
There are lots of really nice people on here. And they will be able to help you. They can sometimes be blunt but it is done in the interest of the tortoise. I don't think that mincemeat is good to feed to tortoises. But the experts will advise all the necessary info soon. I don't feel confident enough yet to give too much advise. Other than to say once your tort is identified to go and read the care sheets and follow tge advice g
 

Salome

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South Afric
Lucky you. That means you have water.[emoji1]
It is nice that you are now looking after the tortoise.
Yes we still have water. For all the people and animals down in the Cape its a different story. We still have water restrictions but I think it will become stricter since we also did not get alot of rain.
 

CarolM

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Yes we still have water. For all the people and animals down in the Cape its a different story. We still have water restrictions but I think it will become stricter since we also did not get alot of rain.
Oh dear. That does not sound good re the water. Posts some pics of the black area so that when the experts do see your post they can help. In fact Stuart S is quite knowledgeable, so if you can post pics for her, she will be able to help.
 

Salome

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image.jpeg image.jpeg image.jpeg image.jpeg
Hello and welcome! You have an Old Timer for sure :) do you have closer pictures of him? Glad you are continuing to take care of him!
Yes he must be old. My parents had no idea how he landed up in that field. I am loading new photos. I will clean his feet and claws tomorrow and dry it and put some Germolene on the black areas in the meantime.
 

CarolM

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Salome

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Oh dear. That does not sound good re the water. Posts some pics of the black area so that when the experts do see your post they can help. In fact Stuart S is quite knowledgeable, so if you can post pics for her, she will be able to help.
Thank you I will post the pics tomorrow as soon I have cleaned his feet and the claws. Then I can take some pics in the sunlight of the black areas and especialy the area where the claw fell out. He's sleeping now and it's night time. I am looking forward to hear what he thinks. I have never seen those black areas before as I handle him on a daily basis. He walks around in the garden and sleeps in the house every night. Nothing can harm him. He sleeps in a dry area and the only time he gets wet is when he goes to drink water. So if its a bacterial or fungal infection I have no idea how he got it. Thanks . Talk soon
 
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Salome

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South Afric
I am definitly not an expert but from the pic your tort is most probably not eating as it's beak is too long.
Is the beak too long. He's been eating well all these years up until this January. Must I take him to a Vet to have the beak looked at.
 

Yvonne G

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Hi Salome, and welcome to the Forum!

Your tortoise is a type of hinge back. Does he live outside? I'll send a shout-out to one of our more knowledgeable members to see if they can tell you the exact species so you can research how to care for it - @Markw84 @tortadise @Jacqui
 

Markw84

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Hi Salome, and welcome to the Forum!

Your tortoise is a type of hinge back. Does he live outside? I'll send a shout-out to one of our more knowledgeable members to see if they can tell you the exact species so you can research how to care for it - @Markw84 @tortadise @Jacqui
based on your location, there are two species of hingeback native to the northern parts of South Africa. Kinixys spekii and Kinixys lobatsiana. This one is quite old and with the fire damage no markings are visible and not sure about shell wear/damage that could have smoothed marginals. From what I see, it looks like K. spekii
 

CarolM

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Is the beak too long. He's been eating well all these years up until this January. Must I take him to a Vet to have the beak looked at.
It looks too long to me. But wait for one of the experts to confirm. As I am new to this as well.
 

Yvonne G

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Yes, the beak is too long. If you're handy with a Dremmel tool you can grind it down yourself a little bit. Here's a picture of what it should look like:

upload_2018-2-5_10-41-34.jpeg
 

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