Kardia22

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My 4 year old Greek is correctly shedding. (I hope but I’m worried about a couple shots on her shell. Anyone think this is shell rot?
One is a chip on the front of her shell near her head. The next two are the same spots one while wet and then dry. Then the last is her head that is correctly shedding but looks normal to me! She has a VET check up next Friday. But I thought I would hopefully get some peace of mind here!
 

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Yvonne G

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Well, since shell rot is caused by the tortoise all the time sitting in wet, dirty substrate, and in over 30 years of tortoise rescue I've never seen shell rot on parts of the shell that don't come in contact with wet, dirty substrate like the carapace, I think that's safe to assume it's not shell rot. I see the bit of normal peeling on the head but I don't see what you're concerned about on the shell.
 

zovick

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My 4 year old Greek is correctly shedding. (I hope but I’m worried about a couple shots on her shell. Anyone think this is shell rot?
One is a chip on the front of her shell near her head. The next two are the same spots one while wet and then dry. Then the last is her head that is correctly shedding but looks normal to me! She has a VET check up next Friday. But I thought I would hopefully get some peace of mind here!
Those spots are not shell rot. As Yvonne said, shell rot is almost always restricted to the bottom shell (the plastron), and is normally somewhat whitish in appearance.

I do see a couple of little imperfections (surface breaks) in the keratin layer of the scutes in pix 2 and 3. Not sure what I see in the first pic, but if you mean the darker area at the lower border near the corner of the scute, it may just be "exuberant" growth of keratin, possibly from rapid growth of the tortoise. I have seen that same thing in some of my baby Radiated Tortoises over the years. It will probably disappear over time. You might be able to smooth it and remove some of it with an emery board if you wish to try that.
 

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