Shell rot or just damaged?

[cajf]

Hello everyone. My 17 year old sulcata David has been burrowing the last few years. I know he is down to hard pan at this point and I noticed today a piece of his scute fell off, maybe the size of a quarter. I figured he is probably digging in the hard pan and rubbing that piece of his shell on the hard dirt above him, causing this piece to fall off. I thought this could be the case because I can see the scratches around it, indicating he has been rubbing it. Could this be shell rot or just an injury at this point? Any pointers for how to address this and help it heal?

 

[zovick]

Hello everyone. My 17 year old sulcata David has been burrowing the last few years. I know he is down to hard pan at this point and I noticed today a piece of his scute fell off, maybe the size of a quarter. I figured he is probably digging in the hard pan and rubbing that piece of his shell on the hard dirt above him, causing this piece to fall off. I thought this could be the case because I can see the scratches around it, indicating he has been rubbing it. Could this be shell rot or just an injury at this point? Any pointers for how to address this and help it heal?

It's not shell rot.

The bare spot doesn't look fresh enough to have been caused solely by digging. It could be an older keratin injury from the tortoise being too close to a heat lamp at some point in its life and the digging may have rubbed off some of the dead keratin. If you look closely at the picture, the next scute back has two smaller chips which look similar.

 

[ZEROPILOT]

Agreed
This is not what a fungal issue looks like

 

[cajf]

Thank you both for the responses. In your experience, should I be concerned with the missing piece or just let him live life as he has been? Anything I can do to help him heal or will the shell never grow back in that spot?