Damage to plastron...Any thoughts?

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jrholls

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Probably got it from climbing on her rocks...it's pretty small, but I don't want to take any chances. Do you guys think I need to take her to the vet? She's not bleeding from it. I also am wondering if this is normal wear and tear, or if it's an indicator of insufficient calcium. Her plastron and shell both don't feel soft at all.
 

moswen

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i'm no expert in tortoise damage, but those look to be caused by waaaayyy worse than just "normal wear and tear". that couldn't normally happen to a tort in the wild, they'd all get infections and die if that could happen just due to the torts doing what they do... do you have other torts in your pen? it's in an unlikely spot to be caused by another tortoise ramming her, but it could possibly have happened that way. if you do have a dog, and he/she could have possibly gotten ahold of your tort without you knowing about it, it could have been caused by dog bites. i don't see any white fungus or anything around the hole so i don't think it could be shell rot, but i really don't know a whole lot about shell rot. it cold happen without the white stuff and i just haven't heard that yet. if someone was holding her and she got dropped on some sharp rocks, that MAY have caused it... insufficient calcium usually causes soft shells and weak bones, making your tortoise walk "shaky" or "uncertainly," so if she's got MBD then the first thing to happen would not be holes in the shell. do you have an MVB or tube light that is less than a year old, it's on for at least 12 hours of the day, and you suppliment calcium every other day or every two days? if you do these things, and give her as much natural sunlight as you possibly can in the summer months, then she should not have any problems with calcium.
 

Yvonne G

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Is this something that just happened?

Just seeing it without any history, I think its old shell rot. All healed up. Heal up dog bites look like that too.
 

jrholls

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I don't know if this is something recent or not. We've only had Bo for a couple months and she's all alone in her enclosure. We bought her from Petsmart, and they of course said she was CB, but I don't believe them. We don't have a dog. Perhaps she's been rehomed a time or two before we got her? Her enclosure has two 100W MVB's and two CHE's. She gets calcium supplementation a few times a week.
She loves climbing on her rocks, and they do have a few sharp corners. Maybe I should remove them? Will this heal over time?
 

Yvonne G

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It looks like it already IS healed. That's probably as good as its ever going to get.
 
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