problem

[GatorBoots]

I have a African spur tortise around 5 yrs old. We live in N Texas. He romes the back yard during the sring and sumer (loves it) in the winter I put him in the garage under a heat lamp. the bulb must of been to warm and it bubbeld up his shell a little. 4 months later it has came off! one round part of his shell has came off and is showing his bone. what do I do? is it going to get infected?

 

[dmmj]

If you can see bone, I would suggest a vet visit yesterday, (if time travel is not possibel yet) Then go today as soon as possible I am no expert but I don't think that is a very good sign.

 

[egyptiandan]

What has happened is the dead scute has come off and exposed the already dead bone. All this happened 4 months ago when it first bubbled. It should already be on it's way to healing completely. If it was going to get infected it would have been 4 months ago that it would have happened.
Make sure you raise the lamp so you are getting a temperature of around 95F at the top of his shell. That will prevent any more damage to his shell this winter.

Danny

 

[dannomite]

Any chance you can post a pic of this? Not that I know anything but am interested to see what it looks like for future reference of my own.

 

[tortoisenerd]

I hope everything turns out ok. Danny is the expert here! So sorry to hear about this and I hope it can be prevented in the future. Great reminder to keep a very close eye on temperatures, and know that the temperature at the floor can be very different from the top of the shell for a tall tortoise too. Does he get UVB in winter or just heat?