shell damage

[makalonca]

Hello!

I have 6 months old greek tortoise. Yesterday I noticed that she was bleeding a little bit on her bottom shell. It's between 2 tiles and it's so small that i can't see if it's a cut or what it is. I cleaned it with water. Today in the morning I saw that it was a little bloody again. Why is that happening and how can I help? Otherwise the tortoise is eating normaly. I feed her Exo terra food and rocked salad, endive or radish.

Thanx for your answers!

 

[tygoh]

Its not bleeding. Its the new born yolk sag that was still on the plastron. It will take awhile naturally to recover.

 

[ascott]

Welcome to the Forum may we see a pic of the area?

 

[Jacob]

Welcome, If You Post Pictures It Will Help Better Understand What You Are talking About,and One Of The Members Will Be able To Give you Advice.

 

[Yvonne G]

Hello Makalonca:


Welcome to the Tortoise Forum!!

What would you like for us to call you?

Also, when we know approximately where you are, it helps us design our answers to better fit your questions.


The area between the "tiles" or scutes, is very tender. That's the new growth of the shell. There may have been a slight injury to the area. You can clean it and treat it just like you would treat a small injury on your own skin.

 

[ALDABRAMAN]

Welcome!

A picture would be great!

 

[makalonca]

Thanx for the answers. I'm posting some pics of the area now. I hope I'll do it right, since I haven't done this before. I'm from Slovenia, so I'm sorry if my english is not correct sometimes.

 

[zesty_17]

i would say to just keep it clean and monitor it for now, some other people may have other recommendations.

 

[Arizona Sulcata]

I've put apoxy on the shell in problem spots to help it seal so no dirt gets in or anything. Works great and goes away in time.

 

[Katherine]

When you mention the area bleeding are you seeing actual blood droplets, or just the pinkish area visible in these pictures?

I've put apoxy on the shell in problem spots to help it seal so no dirt gets in or anything. Works great and goes away in time.

Curious about what type of epoxy you have used with success? A lot of epoxies are incredibly exothermic and I would be reluctant to use or recommend one with a specific brand in mind for this reason. If you are familiar with one which is not caustic or dangerously exothermic I would love to get the name of it.

 

[zesty_17]

keep in mind that although you may think the area is clean before you put epoxy, you could also be sealing in infectious things too. Be very careful using epoxy unless it is an extreme emergency. Epoxy is becoming more and more a last resort for 'fixing' tortoise shell issues because of the high risk of internal infection.

 

[Katherine]

Could be that I am just viewing these pics on my phone so maybe I am missing it...but am I the only one who does not see an injury here? All I see tender but healthy new growth lines. In most if not all of my tortoises (although I do NOT raise Greeks) the new plastron growth comes in pinkish in color and in a tortoise this young seeing a pink area where the yolk sac once was is not at all unusual. Perhaps I am missing something, and if so please point it out to me, but I do not see a cause for concern in these pictures.

 

[makalonca]

Thanx for all replays.

Katherine, the injured spot is it the in the middle of the top in her shell. I checked some photos of yolk sacs in google and I think they were all more in the bottom middle. 2 days in a row I saw something brown smudged around the injured spot. and I assumed that is blod. But for the last two days now there wasn't any brown things.

Todey the spot looks the same, mybe just a litle darker.