leopard with underbite/deformed jaw

[lvstorts]

Hello everyone,
I'm fostering a 2 year old leopard tort and promised the owner I'd post pictures of Rigby's deformed jaw and ask your opinions. I'm not too experienced with deformities nor Leopards (I don't know what subspecies he is).

As far as I can tell it doesn't hinder him. He's active and eats fine. I wonder about his future...any thoughts? Should I trim the under bite? Please see attached pictures.

Additionally, some scutes (see pic) seem to "overlap." Is this a structural thing or a deformity thing? The shape of the shell, normal?

To reiterate, I'm not experienced with Leopards at all and I'm taking him while the owner deals with a domestic situation. I'm following a care sheet written by Misty Corton found on the World Chelonian Tust site for husbandry and feeding guidelines.

Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

 

[egyptiandan]

Yes that should be trimmed. As well you will need to look at the upper beak with the mouth open. It maybe curling inwards and need trimming also. I'm not seeing a thing wrong with the shell. Her subspecies is Stigmochelys pardalis babcocki.

Danny

 

[lvstorts]

Danny,
Thanks for the info and taking a look. I checked his upper jaw and it grows normal, not into his mouth. Any helpful hints on trimming the under bite? I'm guessing using a really small drimmel attachment...maybe somehow clip it off with a manicure scissors....thoughts?

Any recommendations on how to hold his neck out? It's so small, I don't want to hurt him. I've trimmed big guys but nothing this small!

Thanks again.

 

[Neal]

What are you feeding the tortoise?

If I were you I would take him to a vet to have the beak trimmed, and make sure he has a grassy area to graze or put some cuttle bone in his enclosure. The shell actually looks really good! One of the rear scutes looks like it had an issue, maybe when it was younger, but the new growth looks good.

 

[tortoisenerd]

If it were me I would take it to an experienced vet, and once it is done you just keep it up with a hard eating surface (treats on a cement pad if he grazes) and cuttlebone and such. Some people also give veggies for the tort to chew on. Depends what you are comfortable with (I wouldn't). Or, since you say you have trimmed them before, if you trust yourself to do it, get one or two people to help you hold it and wedge something in between the neck and shell so the tort's head & neck stay out. You might do better holding him "standing" on the hind legs than regular on all fours. Experiment a bit before you start to get a stable patient, lol. I'd want to have some of that powder to stop bleeding on hand just in case things go wrong...

 

[Yourlocalpoet]

Poor little guy. He might have a deformed jaw but it kinda makes him look cuter! The shell looks lovely, nice and smooth and very domed, i shouldn't think he'll have any future problems as long as the beak stays trimmed. Lovely tort.