Tortoise Help Please (shell rubs legs)

[Lena Atencio]

Hi all I need some help with our tortoise. Our tortoise was a "hand me down" a friend of our gave to our girls and truthfully I don't know much about them. I've tried to provide him with a good home but something just isn't right and I feel horrible for this guy. He has huge patches on his legs where his shell is rubbing. I've tried to put bandages on the shell to protect the delicate skin from rubbing so it can heal but just about the time it does he rips them open again. I now know this isn't common and clearly something we are doing wrong/not doing. Here are pics of the injuries. His enclosure is a glass aquarium (I now know this isn't best) with both a heat lamp (on 24/7) and uvb lamp on during days. It has aspen wood shavings as the bedding with a large arched piece of bark for a hide. He does dpend a lot of time out of the enclosure. When he's restless he spends a great deal of time cruise the house while it's cold out and now that it's warming up out on the porch. We feed him pellets, worms and organic mixed greens with occasional berries and bananas. I've been reading some that they need to be soaked? I don't know anything about that but if that's the case maybe his skin is getting too dry and that's why it's tearing against the shell? Any suggestions greatly appreciated. We really like this guy and I want to provide him a good home. Any suggestion greatly appreciated! Thank you

 

[Sara G.]

Unfortunately I can't see the pics (iOS app troubles).
Soaking can be done every day for 20 minutes in warm water.
If the skin looks extremely dry and flaky that might help. And it will definitely help your tort be more hydrated.
You kinda can't go wrong with giving your tort a nice soak.

With an adult, you probably wouldn't have to soak every day, but if there's bad problems such as what you're describing then it could be a dry skin problem of some sort.

Was the tort always by itself? Or was it housed with another tort before you got it?

 

[Lena Atencio]

Unfortunately I can't see the pics (iOS app troubles).
Soaking can be done every day for 20 minutes in warm water.
If the skin looks extremely dry and flaky that might help. And it will definitely help your tort be more hydrated.
You kinda can't go wrong with giving your tort a nice soak.

With an adult, you probably wouldn't have to soak every day, but if there's bad problems such as what you're describing then it could be a dry skin problem of some sort.

Was the tort always by itself? Or was it housed with another tort before you got it?

He was always housed alone. One day I came home to find him upside down trying to flip back over. I think that's really when the injury started but has never really healed. How exactly do you soak them? Do you put them in water to completely submerge the shell? Should I add some Epsom salt or something like that to treat the wounds at the same time?

 

[Sara G.]

I put my tortoise in the bathtub. Granted she's a bigger tortoise. But the bathtub really holds the heat well with the water so I'm not changing it halfway through a 20 minute soak.
You want the water to be high enough so their legs get in it pretty good. But you don't want to have them struggling to keep their heads above water.
I put roughly 4 inches of water in, maybe a little more/less.

Don't add anything into the water. Just straight up water is all your tort needs.
Epsom salt is okay for people, not torts.

You can use a container that has high sides and your tort can't see or climb out of. That might work for you.
You'll have to keep an eye on the water, just to make sure it doesn't get too cold for your tort.

 

[Sara G.]

What size enclosure is his aquarium?
Is there any way you can try posting the pics a different way? This iOS app is maddening sometimes (delightful other times).

 

[Hector108]

The water should not be any higher than the bridge ( where lower and upper part of shell meet. Do it in a container with highwalls so he cant climb out

 

[Lena Atencio]

Here's another shot at pics. Its probably a 50 gallon tank, however if he's awake he spend most of his time out of the enclosure. I took a temp earlier and the heat lamp only seems to be keeping that part of the enclosure at 75* and we're up in the mountains so heat (even when outside) is probably an issue as well?

 

[Sara G.]

I can see the pics now!
Looks like you might have a type of Redfoot on your hands (I could be wrong of course).
They're very tropical species and LOVE high humidity.
75* is definitely way too cold.
And a 50 gallon tank is definitely way too small.
Do you have weather where you can keep the tortoise outside all the time? Is it warm where you are?
I'm presuming not if you're up in the mountains.

Tortoises need a basking spot of roughly 95* usually.
They need to be able to heat up their bodies to 85* in order to digest their food, so your tank sounds way too cold.

I'm not exactly sure what size you would need for a full grown Redfoot. But it would be big. At least, bigger than a 50 gallon tank.
I think at least you're probably looking at a 6 foot by 8 foot enclosure.
But other members who keep Redfoots might be able to help.
@ZEROPILOT I think has Redfoots
And @Pearly has two baby Redfoots

 

[dmmj]

that big of a tortojse (Redfoot by the way) he needs to be outside full-time or have an entire room in the house dedicated to it.

 

[Lena Atencio]

Thank you so much for your help! He is a red foot. We are in the northern mountains of NM so a hot day in the summer for us may be 95* with night temps down in the high 40's to 50's (inside at night can dip into the 60's) I didn't know about the humidity so I'm not sure how to do that part either. Being NM it is quite dry and we heat with wood during the winter. Poor guy, I'm doing this all wrong!

 

[Lena Atencio]

that big of a tortojse (Redfoot by the way) he needs to be outside full-time or have an entire room in the house dedicated to it.

I was thinking about fencing in under the kids trampoline for him this summer. If the night time temps dip down to 50's in the summer would he still be ok under a heat lamp or is that too cold?

 

[dmmj]

Thank you so much for your help! He is a red foot. We are in the northern mountains of NM so a hot day in the summer for us may be 95* with night temps down in the high 40's to 50's (inside at night can dip into the 60's) I didn't know about the humidity so I'm not sure how to do that part either. Being NM it is quite dry and we heat with wood during the winter. Poor guy, I'm doing this all wrong!

don't worry and please stop beating yourself up you're here to learn you'll get better we all have to start somewhere

 

[Yvonne G]

Hi Lena, and welcome to the Forum!

Unfortunately, your little redfoot tortoise is suffering from poor care by his previous keeper. He was raised much too dry, kept in the wrong kind of conditions and fed an incorrect diet. This has caused his shell to grow down into his legs, causing the rubbing. The shell needs to be cut/filed in order to stop it from rubbing his legs. This should be done by a vet because it's going to bleed and the vet will be able to stop the bleeding.

In the meantime, set the tortoise up in a more moist environment, with plants and humidity. Read about redfooted tortoises at the Tortoise Library and make the necessary adjustments to your care of the tortoise as shown in the info at the library.

 

[Loohan]

Given that there are open wounds, i wonder if something shouldn't be added to the soak water.

 

[Gillian M]

A warm welcome to the forum!

Don't worry, you'll get the help you need here. Please read the so-called "Beginners Mistake" Thread as well as different care sheets and do NOT hesitate to ask any question.

 

[dmmj]

Given that there are open wounds, i wonder if something shouldn't be added to the soak water.

I would not add anything to the water personally, but you could always put triple antibiotic cream on the wounds for now

 

[christinaland128]

Welcome to the forum! Hopefully you can get this little guy back to good health. Be sure to listen to the members of the forum, they've been very helpful to me and I'm thankful for them.

 

[TortoiseWarrior]

Hi! Welcome.

 

[jockma]

I would keep him on sterile substrate with a DRY top layer, soak him twice or three times daily, and apply antibacterial ointment to the wounds. The wounds will continue to reopen if he is too dry. High humidity (I'd try for at least 80%) and daily soaks should help. He should always have water available to drink.

@Loohan I wonder as well, simply because these wounds have been reopening for some time and offering plenty of opportunity for infection. I would get a blood panel done, honestly. Mine had a little scrape on his head that wasn't going away, blood panel showed infection, turns out the "scrape" was actually from him planting face-first in the ground while climbing outside and his shell gouged a flap of skin off of his head and fell back down so it looked like nothing. It was much deeper than it looked and it did not heal until I used antibiotics.

 

[jockma]

Actually I think triple antibiotic ointment might be necessary and not optional in this case to increase lubrication and prevent the wound from reopening since it will take time for them to fully rehydrate. Torts, especially "wet" species like RFs, can have their skin split open just from being too dry with no other physical trauma. You can see it on a lot of RFs on the corners of their mouths, where their head connects to their neck, their "armpit" area, etc.