Upper jaw fang missing

[rachelr]

Hi, My tortoise has never had any jaw issues before (I saw all the threads about underbites and malformations). Suddenly, she's missing the front fang thing that is part of her upper lip.

This happened today. She was fine this morning. I think she bit down on the side of her dish while trying to get a small piece of carrot. (New here, just learned I should be using Terra cotta dishes and not pet store dishes.)

Is this something a vet can correct with a trim so it doesn't grow back incorrectly? Will it grow back?

Pictures: I coaxed her out with a piece of watermelon. I know not to feed that regularly. And that is not her normal dish. I just didn't want her to hurt her mouth picking it up.

 

[zovick]

Hi, My tortoise has never had any jaw issues before (I saw all the threads about underbites and malformations). Suddenly, she's missing the front fang thing that is part of her upper lip.

This happened today. She was fine this morning. I think she bit down on the side of her dish while trying to get a small piece of carrot. (New here, just learned I should be using Terra cotta dishes and not pet store dishes.)

Is this something a vet can correct with a trim so it doesn't grow back incorrectly? Will it grow back?

Pictures: I coaxed her out with a piece of watermelon. I know not to feed that regularly. And that is not her normal dish. I just didn't want her to hurt her mouth picking it up.

The beak should be fine. It was a bit overgrown and the overly long left side broke off. It will grow back over time. It might be helpful to take the tortoise to a good vet and have the right side trimmed back a bit so it doesn't fracture also. At the same time, the rough broken edge on the left side can be smoothed off and beveled to make it grow back better.