Crack in scute on my hingeback

[Riverhorse]

I have a 15 year old hingeback female who is doing very well and is healthy, she spent 14 years in a small aquarium, but now is in humid large tortoise house, she has had two sets of eggs since we got her two summers ago, but now is showing cracks on the top scute adjacent to the hinge on the top center of her shell.

You can see the large crack in the center of the scute easily, there is also a crack toward the edge of the scute in the large hexagonal ridge pattern, there are also smaller cracks on the edge of the same scute which look like they could possibly extend across the scute were they to grow,
does anyone have any insight into this, is is a dangerous situation is it reversible?

could this be because she has a healthier diet and is growing?

Thanks

 

[tyrs4u]

Healthy, pretty, growth lines... Healthy!!!!!

 

[theelectraco]

Healthy, pretty, growth lines... Healthy!!!!!

Those cracks do not look like healthy growth lines.

 

[tyrs4u]

Healthy wild

 

[Jacqui]

These cracks are all in the carapace where the hinge is, correct?

 

[tortadise]

They look to be old. This just started to happen? They don't look too deep which is a good thing. Weird how they did follow at the hinge. Kinda like a stress crack in concrete is going to start and carry on at 2 points of movement. In this case the hinge. I would clean the area with some hibiclense or chlorahexadine dry it off and rinse with distilled water. Then apply some mineral oil, and vitamin E/D on it. You can also use vitashell once the crack gets a little better. For sure make certain her diet gets Vitamin D(protein) and sufficient UVB. Is this a forest or serrated hingeback or bells? That will determine what kind of lighting you can boost to her.

 

[Riverhorse]

Thanks for this...

Pearl is a forest hingeback, Home's Hingeback. The first crack began about two years ago after we adopted her. That is why I think it may be caused by an increase in nutrition. The crack in the middle of the top scute is the oldest and perhaps the deepest. I asked the vet about it two years ago and she said she was not concerned. It began to get wider and deeper about a year later (after her first delivery of eggs). About 4 months ago it became even wider and the scutes next to her hinges started to split as well. I don't know if they are visible in the pictures. She delivered 3 very large eggs about 3 months ago. Is this the culprit? The second crack in the top scute that is close to the edge started about 4 months ago, but became more noticeable this week. It is not deep. The mini cracks on each side, we just noticed this week.

The vet gave us silver sulfate for her hinges two years ago. Is that similar to mineral oil and vitamin E/D? Will it be helpful to her shell?

She has been getting UVB daily for 15 to 30 minutes. Some tortoise owners say that Hingeback Homes don't need that much uvb because they are forest dwellers. She gets a worm or grasshopper once a week, she gets calcium and vitamins sprinkled on her food twice a week.

Could too much humidity cause the cracks?

Do cracks ever fill themselves in again?

They look to be old. This just started to happen? They don't look too deep which is a good thing. Weird how they did follow at the hinge. Kinda like a stress crack in concrete is going to start and carry on at 2 points of movement. In this case the hinge. I would clean the area with some hibiclense or chlorahexadine dry it off and rinse with distilled water. Then apply some mineral oil, and vitamin E/D on it. You can also use vitashell once the crack gets a little better. For sure make certain her diet gets Vitamin D(protein) and sufficient UVB. Is this a forest or serrated hingeback or bells? That will determine what kind of lighting you can boost to her.

 

[tortadise]

Thanks for this...

Pearl is a forest hingeback, Home's Hingeback. The first crack began about two years ago after we adopted her. That is why I think it may be caused by an increase in nutrition. The crack in the middle of the top scute is the oldest and perhaps the deepest. I asked the vet about it two years ago and she said she was not concerned. It began to get wider and deeper about a year later (after her first delivery of eggs). About 4 months ago it became even wider and the scutes next to her hinges started to split as well. I don't know if they are visible in the pictures. She delivered 3 very large eggs about 3 months ago. Is this the culprit? The second crack in the top scute that is close to the edge started about 4 months ago, but became more noticeable this week. It is not deep. The mini cracks on each side, we just noticed this week.

The vet gave us silver sulfate for her hinges two years ago. Is that similar to mineral oil and vitamin E/D? Will it be helpful to her shell?

She has been getting UVB daily for 15 to 30 minutes. Some tortoise owners say that Hingeback Homes don't need that much uvb because they are forest dwellers. She gets a worm or grasshopper once a week, she gets calcium and vitamins sprinkled on her food twice a week.

Could too much humidity cause the cracks?

Do cracks ever fill themselves in again?

They look to be old. This just started to happen? They don't look too deep which is a good thing. Weird how they did follow at the hinge. Kinda like a stress crack in concrete is going to start and carry on at 2 points of movement. In this case the hinge. I would clean the area with some hibiclense or chlorahexadine dry it off and rinse with distilled water. Then apply some mineral oil, and vitamin E/D on it. You can also use vitashell once the crack gets a little better. For sure make certain her diet gets Vitamin D(protein) and sufficient UVB. Is this a forest or serrated hingeback or bells? That will determine what kind of lighting you can boost to her.

Silver sulfate is great for this. Give it some time and it should heal. I wonder if the eggs might be the culprit. I would stick with a good diet, and mineral/calcium supplement and let it heal over time. The scutes and shell are what grow and take some time to grow and heal. So it wont happen over night.

These guys needs high humidity too. So that will have no issue to bare.
What kinda enclosure are you keeping her in? Also whats your diet like that she gets?

 

[Riverhorse]

Pearl's habitat is a "Tortoise House", a wood box that we extended to be 24" W x 42" L x 15" H (she is tall when she stands on her hind legs). The temp is at 72 and 80 degrees plus a UVB flourescent that is on her for at least 15 min to 30 min. until she wanders back in to her dark hide for most of the day. She also has access to sunlight streaming in through the windows into her enclosure. Her substrate is a blend of coconut coir, "forest floor", a small amount of peat, and a few sheets of bark from logs. Twice a year we put moss in and she likes to munch on it when her food runs out.

We give her between 1/3 to 1/2 cup of food. She will sometimes skip eating for a day. The blend of food is 40% greens (dandelion, mustard, or watercress) , 40% mushrooms, 20% vegetable (squash, sweet potato, or bell pepper). Sometimes we will exchange the greens with dried grass pellets. 3x week we give her fruit (size of a grape). 1x a week she gets a grasshopper (we grind up the poor little dried hopper)or mealworm and 2x or 3x a week she gets a Calcium/D vitamin powder sprinkled on her food. Recently, we thought she was not pooping. Then I found that she is eating her poop although sometimes there is still food left on her plate. I am not sure what that is about.

She seems very healthy. I am so glad to hear that the her shell might heal. The eggs were beautiful. She had only had one egg in 14 years while she lived with her previous owner. We think when she came to her new home, the environment was more hospitable and she laid 4 eggs in the first year. They were over an inch in diameter each. The second year she laid 3 eggs and they were a bit bigger. Thanks for your advice.

Thanks for this...

Pearl is a forest hingeback, Home's Hingeback. The first crack began about two years ago after we adopted her. That is why I think it may be caused by an increase in nutrition. The crack in the middle of the top scute is the oldest and perhaps the deepest. I asked the vet about it two years ago and she said she was not concerned. It began to get wider and deeper about a year later (after her first delivery of eggs). About 4 months ago it became even wider and the scutes next to her hinges started to split as well. I don't know if they are visible in the pictures. She delivered 3 very large eggs about 3 months ago. Is this the culprit? The second crack in the top scute that is close to the edge started about 4 months ago, but became more noticeable this week. It is not deep. The mini cracks on each side, we just noticed this week.

The vet gave us silver sulfate for her hinges two years ago. Is that similar to mineral oil and vitamin E/D? Will it be helpful to her shell?

She has been getting UVB daily for 15 to 30 minutes. Some tortoise owners say that Hingeback Homes don't need that much uvb because they are forest dwellers. She gets a worm or grasshopper once a week, she gets calcium and vitamins sprinkled on her food twice a week.

Could too much humidity cause the cracks?

Do cracks ever fill themselves in again?

They look to be old. This just started to happen? They don't look too deep which is a good thing. Weird how they did follow at the hinge. Kinda like a stress crack in concrete is going to start and carry on at 2 points of movement. In this case the hinge. I would clean the area with some hibiclense or chlorahexadine dry it off and rinse with distilled water. Then apply some mineral oil, and vitamin E/D on it. You can also use vitashell once the crack gets a little better. For sure make certain her diet gets Vitamin D(protein) and sufficient UVB. Is this a forest or serrated hingeback or bells? That will determine what kind of lighting you can boost to her.

Silver sulfate is great for this. Give it some time and it should heal. I wonder if the eggs might be the culprit. I would stick with a good diet, and mineral/calcium supplement and let it heal over time. The scutes and shell are what grow and take some time to grow and heal. So it wont happen over night.

These guys needs high humidity too. So that will have no issue to bare.
What kinda enclosure are you keeping her in? Also whats your diet like that she gets?