Shell rot?

Lazarustortoise

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Hiya a couple of weeks ago my tortoise escaped but was luckily found the next day by some lovely people who looked after him well and contacted us immediately! When we picked him up we noticed some scratches on the back of his shell and we just assumed that he had upturned himself onto his back or gone under a fence but over time this scratch has become a crack and seems to be spreading is this shell rot please someone help as I would like to get him treated as soon as possible!! Oh and he is a hermann tortoise4F1E3164-7BA2-4849-A552-0D6FA012F862.jpeg4F1E3164-7BA2-4849-A552-0D6FA012F862.jpegplease help I am so worried
 

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KarenSoCal

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I'm going to give this a try, but hopefully someone with a lot more experience will offer an opinion.
@Tom
@ZEROPILOT
@Yvonne G

My thoughts are that this is not shell rot. I don't think Hermann's are prone to getting it. And shell rot is a disease of the plastron, not the carapace.

I'm concerned about the small places that look like broken shell.. One on his carapace on the right front marginal, and two underneath on the plastron near the neck area, one on each side.

Were these there before the escape? Along with the "scratches", I don't know what could have happened.

Let's see what other members suggest.
 

Kim&Tim

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I agree, it doesn't look like shell rot, but damage from his little holiday. I think he got stuck somewhere and scraped his shell. A shell is like finger nails. I had my finger stuck in my horses mouth once, don't ask?, and at first it looked fine, it only didn't feel fine. But after a day damage was visible, there was a dent and a bit of toplayer came off.

I think your tortoise looks very well, good condition.
 

Lazarustortoise

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That you guys for your help he is very active and adventurous so he quite often tries to fit into places that he doesn’t we are going to keep an eye on the shell problems and see if they get worse we have some athletes foot cream if needed because you never know if it continues to get worse we will have to take him to the vet but with the problems in the world it might be difficult??
 

Kim&Tim

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That you guys for your help he is very active and adventurous so he quite often tries to fit into places that he doesn’t we are going to keep an eye on the shell problems and see if they get worse we have some athletes foot cream if needed because you never know if it continues to get worse we will have to take him to the vet but with the problems in the world it might be difficult??
I think you'll be ok? maybe a little more will come off, but underneath will be new growth, that's why it's coming off. It's dead, so needs to come off. But he looks good. Shellrot is more round patches, like a whitish patch. Google on it then you'll see what I mean.
 

Tom

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Good info from previous posters on this thread. I would add that it could be from a dog chewing on him too. In any case, the damage is done, and there is nothing to do about it now except preventing another escape but fixing the problem.
 

Lazarustortoise

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Good info from previous posters on this thread. I would add that it could be from a dog chewing on him too. In any case, the damage is done, and there is nothing to do about it now except preventing another escape but fixing the problem.
That could be an explanation because our dog is very friendly with him and they like each other so he is friendly towards other dogs even though they might not like the look of the moving rock ?and they may attack him thank you for the suggestions06B2A6E2-C543-49FC-93C4-57F4D53BA632.jpegthis was them a while back (probably 1 or 2 years) as you can see he has always had that chip in the front of the shell from when he was younger and that has healed more over time and now is smooth he just has asmall scar now but as you can seeour dog and him are quite content together and he is obviously comfortable around them which means he was quite likely to approach one on his travels?
 

Tom

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Next to dehydration, dogs are probably the biggest killer of tortoises. People tend to worry about raccoons, hawks, foxes and coyotes, but its the family dog that poses a bigger threat than all of those combined.
 

Lazarustortoise

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Thanks everyone for the feedback his shell is so much better now and he is enjoying the summer sun! I just weighed him and used the Jackson ratio calculator and it says he is good weight for his size but needs a bit more food for hibernation... I would like to make sure he is sufficient weight for hibernation how can I do this? Thank you!5BFCBB9D-19BF-47BB-9270-CC04FFAA2C22.jpeg
 
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