Underbite with lifted scale on face

[Marginatedharold]

My 5 year old Marginated tortoise has an underbite and I just noticed the scale under her eye appears lifted up. She isn’t having trouble eating and can open her mouth fully. I am going to file her beak as well as add more calcium to her diet. Any other suggestions for home care before consulting a veterinarian? Or has anyone seen this issue on their cheek before?

 

[harrythetortoise]

My 5 year old Marginated tortoise has an underbite and I just noticed the scale under her eye appears lifted up. She isn’t having trouble eating and can open her mouth fully. I am going to file her beak as well as add more calcium to her diet. Any other suggestions for home care before consulting a veterinarian? Or has anyone seen this issue on their cheek before?View attachment 318559

Maybe feeding him on a slate would help?

 

[TeamZissou]

Has this tortoise always had the under bite or did it develop more recently? What are you currently feeding?

 

[Marginatedharold]

Has this tortoise always had the under bite or did it develop more recently? What are you currently feeding?

the underbite has developed over the last 6m she gets mostly fresh greens diet (kale, dandelion, radish green, mustard green) with occasional mazuri pellets when greens are low. She has access to bone but I haven’t seen her chewing in a while

 

[TeamZissou]

While it's more common to see upper part of the beak overgrown, the lower part can be overgrown like in your tortoise.

People typically trim the upper part of the beak carefully with a dremel tool or large nail clippers. It may be difficult to do the lower beak. You may need an extra set of hands to hold the tortoise and to keep its mouth open. You probably want to use one of the smaller dremel grinding wheels, maybe about 1/8" diameter. If you don't feel comfortable doing this, finding a good tortoise specialist vet would be the way to go.

For some reason the detached scale usually comes with the overgrown beak. I guess the growing beak slowly displaces the scale and ends up shearing the scale loose, resulting in a hanging scale like you have. I think people usually just carefully trim the beak and leave the scale alone.

As you mentioned, feeding on a rough surface, increasing calcium, and providing more fiber in the diet can help avoid this. More weedy greens are preferable as grocery store greens are a bit lower in fiber. People usually recommend endive and escarole as staples during months when weeds aren't available, though radish greens are good too. Sometimes the overgrown beak can resolve itself with proper diet alone. This might be something to try if you don't want to trim yourself or can't find a vet to do it right away.

 

[rostykochergen]

Did this issue ever get resolved? My Greek tortoises cheek looks just like this! How did you fix it?