Trauma to shell, Help, No Vet for 2 weeks!

[Yael]

My tortoise, has lost a small part of her shell. (See picS)

It hasn't exposed her insides but you can see the skin like under shell bit.
I found her hiding from my male, which means the trauma is from falling down the small step into the males "pen" or he's found her, had is way and hurt her in the process.

I have washed her "wound", covered the area in iodine (which I'm not sure is right, but my first aid training tell me it'll kill any germs) and covered it up.

My worry is I found her with a fly on the area, which is what alerted me to the "wound".

I cannot get an appointment with an exotic vet for 2 weeks. No blood, puss or anything is coming out of the area. As you can see, inside the red circle that she's chipped a bit of shell off at the top and between the growing part.

I am not amazing with tortoise language, or descriptions.

She fine character wise, and is currently destroying my kitchen trying to get outside.

 

[TammyJ]

They are free roaming in your house? Don't they have their own tortoise suited enclosures within your home?
Lots to talk about here, but I am not the expert...someone else will come along and get this sorted for you.
Welcome to the site.

 

[daniellenc]

http://www.anapsid.org/shellrepair.html

I found this online but I would keep it clean, dry, and covered until you can see a vet to prevent bacteria. Not sure what is safe to clean it with but this article suggests alcohol? Though I wonder if that would be painful? I'm sure someone here can recommend something safe to clean it with

 

[TammyJ]

Maybe betadine on the shell wound? I also know that Silver Sulfadiazene (Silvadene) is very good, and Neosporin without the pain killer. But you have to keep the flies away! Cover the enclosure with a fine mesh screen.

 

[teresaf]

How about Neosporin and a bandaid? It doesn't look bad too me but a bandaid would keep flies out.

 

[Yvonne G]

You can treat this type of wound the same way you would treat a minor injury on yourself or your human child. It's very minor. The main thing it to make sure flies can't lay eggs on the spot.

 

[wellington]

Yvonnes advice would be the one to follow here. It's not that big of a wound. The bigger problem is the roaming the house that caused this problem to begin with. Your tortoises need their own enclosures, seperate from each other and from this type of roaming the house dangers. We see too many of these things happening because people swear their torts are safe roaming the house. Obviously they are not and its not good for them. They need a proper enclosure with proper heat, humidity, substrate, etc, etc. this needs attention ASAP.

 

[Yvonne G]

I got the impression the tortoise is only being kept in the kitchen now because of the injury.