Shell growth, trauma, or rot?

[TmattyD]

I’ve had my Russian tortoise for about 3 weeks now and he came with a whole host of issues. I assumed his shell had endured trauma and that’s what these white spots are. They are indented and rough. He also has scratches and cracks all over. Is this shell rot? Or is it just trauma? Will it heal? Or will it remain a scar?

 

[KarenSoCal]

He looks to be a wild caught adult. Shell rot occurs on the plastron of a tortoise, not the carapace.

Dents and scrapes are generally caused by normal "wear 'n tear" on the shell as the tort goes about his daily business. They bang against rocks, scrape the dirt and rocks in their burrow, etc.

Cracks could have been caused by an animal attack. I see one or two spots where a tooth could have gone in, and are now all healed.

The damage to his shell won't go away. It all looks to me like it's well healed. Sometimes when there is extensive trauma to the shell, part of it dies and eventually falls off. New bone grows underneath. But I don't see damage that devastating here.

We'll see what somebody else thinks, but that's what I see.

 

[ZEROPILOT]

Russians are very aggressive and prone to fight.
Importers keep dozens. If not hundreds together and they get pretty banged up. Even captive born Russians get battle scars.
He looks perfectly normal.

 

[Sleppo]

They are a very scrappy persistent species, I've had to alter one of my girls sleeping houses about 100 times because she wanted to dig beside a rock and has worn her shell thin on one side. They aren't show ponies and you wont be winning any awards on pristine shells.