Dog attacked my 8mo. Sulcata

[Chrisplus4]

My dog got hold of my Sulcata tortoise. Please don't bash me about irresponsibility. This tortoise is loved more than anything and we just made a mistake. I put the tortoise out in the tortoise garden to get some school. I put the dogs inside knowing the danger. Well we had company come over and one of the boys let our boxer out to keep her from our guests. I noticed Maddie was missing so I told my son to go let Maddie in because the tortoise was outside. It was literally 15 minutes. Tyler my 9 year old comes in white as a ghost and handed me a tortoise that had buttoned down the hatches. He pooped himself and I noticed chew marks on the top of his shell and skirting. I freaked out and my son was wanting to kill our boxer. I explained it was not her fault it was ours. I washed him off and noticed some chew marks and little pieces broke off, there was not any blood, except for one little piece. We have worked so hard to keep his shell perfect and it was so sad to see him like that. He did not come out for over an hour and finally just now started walking around. Do you think he will be OK? Will his shell correct itself and grow back or will he always have battle scars as he grows. We assume he will survive this attack. We are saddened because he literally started coming out of his shell and was starting to trust us and had a personality. I assume it will take a lot now to earn his trust. We feel horrible and will definitely never do that again! I will post some pictures

 

[leigti]

Welcome to the forum but I am sorry it is under these circumstances. It does sound like you were definitely trying to be careful and new the dangers, but sometimes accidents happen. Your son will not Forget this and he will be more careful in the future. I have no first-hand experience with this but I would suggest rinsing your tortoise off with some warm water and putting antibacterial weight limit on the wounds. More experienced people will be along soon to give you more information. Until then, search here for other threads and see what advice was given. Keep us updated on your little tortoise.

 

[Yvonne G]

It looks bad, and I know you feel bad, but that's really not too bad at all. Clean the tortoise off, using some sort of antiseptic wash. You can use Chlorhexidine or Betadine, then keep the flies off him. You'll have to keep him indoors for a couple weeks until there's no more 'fresh' wound to attract flies. It would be helpful to get some oral antibiotic from your vet just to be sure he doesn't develop an infection.

 

[pam]

Welcome hope your tortoise gets better real soon

 

[Chrisplus4]

I am Leaving him inside in his caged in enclosure. I really want him to get some sun. I do have one of those power sun bulbs that I keep on for 12 hours at a time. I don't think my son wants to put him outside anymore! Can I use over the counter antibacterial cleaners?

 

[leigti]

The two that Yvonne mentioned are over-the-counter. I would suggest only using The Betadine once or twice. Repeated use hinders healthy cell growth. A few days without sun will be OK, you have the UVB bulb.

 

[leigti]

Do you have an experienced reptile vet in your area?

 

[Pearly]

View attachment 141676 View attachment 141678 View attachment 141679 View attachment 141680 My dog got hold of my Sulcata tortoise. Please don't bash me about irresponsibility. This tortoise is loved more than anything and we just made a mistake. I put the tortoise out in the tortoise garden to get some school. I put the dogs inside knowing the danger. Well we had company come over and one of the boys let our boxer out to keep her from our guests. I noticed Maddie was missing so I told my son to go let Maddie in because the tortoise was outside. It was literally 15 minutes. Tyler my 9 year old comes in white as a ghost and handed me a tortoise that had buttoned down the hatches. He pooped himself and I noticed chew marks on the top of his shell and skirting. I freaked out and my son was wanting to kill our boxer. I explained it was not her fault it was ours. I washed him off and noticed some chew marks and little pieces broke off, there was not any blood, except for one little piece. We have worked so hard to keep his shell perfect and it was so sad to see him like that. He did not come out for over an hour and finally just now started walking around. Do you think he will be OK? Will his shell correct itself and grow back or will he always have battle scars as he grows. We assume he will survive this attack. We are saddened because he literally started coming out of his shell and was starting to trust us and had a personality. I assume it will take a lot now to earn his trust. We feel horrible and will definitely never do that again! I will post some pictures

I am so sorry to hear about your tort's ordeal. I think couple of questions come to mind: 1) how big is your dog in relation to your tortoise? My concern is the size/power of her jaws/bite 2) will there be any evidence of significant trauma in next 24-48 hrs? In people the true bruises sometimes take that long to come to the surface. I wouldn't even worry about cosmetics of battle scars. My worry would be possible internal injuries (i.e. crush, blunt force trauma type of damage to structures or organs). If this was my pet, I'd take her/him to my reptile vet and ask for thorough physical and xray. Again, I hate that this has happened in your family. And no, I'd never pass quick judgment on you or anybody else. Crap happens to the best of us. We need to learn to be tolerant of forgiving of each other

 

[Keith D.]

I am Leaving him inside in his caged in enclosure. I really want him to get some sun. I do have one of those power sun bulbs that I keep on for 12 hours at a time. I don't think my son wants to put him outside anymore! Can I use over the counter antibacterial cleaners?

Hiya Chris and welcome. I would wash him off really well and if you don't want to use antibacterial cream you can use some Organic Extra Virgin Unrefined Cold Pressed Coconut Oil. It has natural antibiotic properties. Please make sure to only use it on his shell not his skin. Do you have a MVB bulb for him since he won't be going outside for a while.

 

[Chrisplus4]

I do have some coconut oil. Should I just apply it to the wounds directly? My dog is a boxer, it does not appear that she squeezed the tortoise as hard as she could. I know if she wanted to she could have chomped through it easily. It was as though she was nawing on the end trying to get at his face. The tortoise urinated and pooped in the boxers mouth and that slowed her down a bit. The tortoise is eating and acting normal right now. If I notice any changes I will take him to the vet.

 

[MPRC]

Keep a close eye on the tort for any changes in demeanor and appetite. Also once you have cleaned the wounds be sure to keep checking them. Also once he's out of his shell examine around his head/neck/legs for any damage that he might have been hiding. If you let folks know where you're from we may be able to suggest a good vet in case you need one. it's better to have their number and not need it than to go to the wrong vet and shell out a bunch of money for bad advice!

 

[leigti]

I would use the Betadine or the other one that Yvonne suggested first. You need to kill the bacteria that got into the tortoise from the bites. And your dog probably slobbered all over it also, there is some poetic justice with the tortoise PNM pooping in the dogs mouth use the Betadine to kill off all the nasty stuff. I don't really have an opinion on the coconut oil after that.

 

[Grandpa Turtle 144]

Hello

 

[Jodie]

Welcome to the forum. I too made this mistake once. My guy survived and the shell very slowly recovers. Broken off pieces will not come back. My tortoises enclosures are now behind tall dog proof cyclone fences in my backyard.

 

[Chrisplus4]

I washed him Immediately. I live in College Station, TX and have Texas A&M University here. So they have a clinic that caters to all animals at the Vet school. They do charge an arm and a leg. I will keep an eye on him and make sure he stays clean and wash him everyday in warm water for the next few days.

 

[Chrisplus4]

Welcome to the forum. I too made this mistake once. My guy survived and the shell very slowly recovers. Broken off pieces will not come back. My tortoises enclosures are now behind tall dog proof cyclone fences in my backyard.

That's what I need to do is fence off an area. At this point I'm a little worried about him being outside. I may wait till he can't fit in a dogs mouth!

 

[Angel Carrion]

Hiya Chris and welcome. I would wash him off really well and if you don't want to use antibacterial cream you can use some Organic Extra Virgin Unrefined Cold Pressed Coconut Oil. It has natural antibiotic properties. Please make sure to only use it on his shell not his skin. Do you have a MVB bulb for him since he won't be going outside for a while.

May I ask why you say to only use the coconut oil on the shell, not the skin?

 

[Jodie]

Outside is good with the proper safety. I would bump his temps up. They need to be warm to fight infection. 85F would be a good minimum temp for the next few weeks.

 

[Keith D.]

May I ask why you say to only use the coconut oil on the shell, not the skin?

We use EVCO on the shell only because EVCO is a natural sunblock as well and will not allow the UVA/UVB rays to penetrate and be absorbed in the way it needs to be. Hope that helped you out

 

[Angel Carrion]

We use EVCO on the shell only because EVCO is a natural sunblock as well and will not allow the UVA/UVB rays to penetrate and be absorbed in the way it needs to be. Hope that helped you out

Thank you, yes. I use evco as well and became worried when I read your post saying to only use it on the shell. I thought maybe it did something to their skin and that's why you were saying to only use it on their shell.