Will damaged beak ever recover a natural shape?

[RobertFlak]

Pretty sure I know the answer is NO, but thought I'd put this out there in case there are any known solutions.

Years ago my Dalmation chomped down on some chicken wire, shattering off the thin sides of his beak and creating notches.
Food migrates into the notches when he eats and his beak no longer wears down naturally as a result.




The re

 

[wellington]

Tortoises do everything slow, even heal. But after 6 years I would think it would have healed back to normal.
@Yvonne G

 

[Wpagey]

Our big sulcata broke part of his beak twice, the first took over a year to grow back, and the second is still in the process. Yes, they seem to do everything slowly! Since this injury is 2 years old, I wonder at what point the break is too deep for that portion to come back.

 

[RobertFlak]

The problem is the once the notches formed, they self perpetuated.
Everything he eats rides into the notches- so all the wear occurs there. The point of his beak never gets used, the sides never get used.
Apart from putting him on a soft diet (which I've never tried), I don't see what can be done.

 

[zolasmum]

The problem is the once the notches formed, they self perpetuated.
Everything he eats rides into the notches- so all the wear occurs there. The point of his beak never gets used, the sides never get used.
Apart from putting him on a soft diet (which I've never tried), I don't see what can be done.

I wonder if a vet could sand down and even up the front of his beak, to make the notches less deep in relation to the rest of it -then try again in a few months to do a bit more - and so on - basically trying to reshape it? It might be worth checking out - I don't think it would be very expensive - I think they usually use a dremel tool to do it, - ours does, anyway.
Angie

 

[zovick]

Pretty sure I know the answer is NO, but thought I'd put this out there in case there are any known solutions.

Years ago my Dalmation chomped down on some chicken wire, shattering off the thin sides of his beak and creating notches.
Food migrates into the notches when he eats and his beak no longer wears down naturally as a result.



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The re

There is a two-fold solution to this problem, but it would probably be much more costly than you would like. Most probably it would be high multiple times what you paid for the tortoise.

You could take the tortoise to a good reptile vet and have the beak trimmed to help this situation. It might need to be done several different times over the course of a couple of years to get the beak back to normal.

Also it should be repaired where the cracks go up toward the eyes with an epoxy which will hold the two sides of the cracks together and keep them from further damage by preventing food from continuing to get caught in them.

If you are near a veterinary school with a good exotics department such as the University of GA or University of PA vet schools, you might be able to get the department head to use this as a teaching case and pay very reasonable fees.

 

[zovick]

I wonder if a vet could sand down and even up the front of his beak, to make the notches less deep in relation to the rest of it -then try again in a few months to do a bit more - and so on - basically trying to reshape it? It might be worth checking out - I don't think it would be very expensive - I think they usually use a dremel tool to do it, - ours does, anyway.
Angie

Good idea, but here in the US, I think it would be a good bit more costly than in your area.