So this is mainly to get the conversation started. Is fiberglass a good option for the repair of a tortoise carapace? I've seen plenty of repair jobs done with fiberglass, but that resin seems toxic to me. Input folks?
Fiberglass carapace repair
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Maggie Cummings
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No, you mostly don't want to close up a carapace wound as there's a big chance you'll close in bacteria and that will be bad...So when the wound is fresh you treat and wrap with sterile gauze to hold it together...Then later when there's not chance of bacteria, you use dental cement and glue....
Thanks Maggie. With the living nature of the carapace, it just seems long term if not short term it couldn't be good for them. I've no direct experience either way.
There was a time, (not to many years ago), that fiberglass resin, along with fiberglass mat was the go to fix for many shell injuries, especially if some of the shell was missing. Today you can probably make a repair patch with a 3D printer. One problem using fiberglass is that it doesn't grow along with the rest of the shell. But if applied correctly it will last forever. I personally have had experience with only one (long term) tortoise that was saved using fiberglass.
See, that was my thinking. The carapace continues to grow, while a fiberglass patch doesn't.
not too long ago someone posted a thread where the particular vet used nuts and bolts to put a Russian back together. I believe it was a Canadian vet. They would place the screws/bolts and then use wire between two screws to pull the shell together. This particular tort, I believe should have been put down, it had like 25 screws all over it. However, the vet said this was the new, better way. The old way could hold in infection and was not easily treated, as it would have to be cut open again, if a infection developed. I have never seen one fiberglassed in person, but I remember even as a kid, fiverglass was the procedure used.
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Maggie Cummings
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I wish @TortoiseDVM would respond here. I know they stopped using fiberglass for the reasons mentioned. But dental cement seems to be the latest thing...maybe it moves and wouldn't hinder growth...I'm not sure anymore...
Someone gave me a sulcata female about 5 years ago. About a year before I received it, she was run over by a car. The vet who treated her used fiberglass/resin. She is healthy, but the shell is deformed due to the shell growing and the fiberglass not growing. Her egg reproduction is affected and has laid eggs only one time since I have had her. She has a great personality, but her growth is very slow which I suspect is from the fiberglass.
I will get a pic in the next day or two.
I will get a pic in the next day or two.
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Fiberglass resin gets pretty hot when set off by the catalyst. Has that ever been an issue? I recently saw a huge tortoise at the zoo with a giant fiberglass patch.
I saw some repairs made with leather patches, so that the shell could grow. They still had to be replaced if the growth was too big.
The way I know I are fiberglass is to create the desired or needed size to cover the opening resin and let it set up. Then apply it over the area and user focal grade cement to secure the fiberglass. You don't place it on the animal and then apply the resin on the Area desired. If imagine that would cause serious pain and chemical infection. Surgical grade cement bonding agents just hold the fiberglass patch in place. However this is usually done after the area is treated and cleaned and beginning to heal(the soft tissue portion). It's a Multi stage process.
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That DOES make much more sense.
Current veterinary medicine promotes use of surgical wire in conjunction with screws to allow proper apposition for normal healing. Fiberglass repair of shell damage is considered "Old School" for several reasons. First the resin that penetrates the shell defect does not allow for normal healing and can actually cause severe damage to soft tissue during the setting process when the resin heats up. Screw and wire technique brings pieces of shell into apposition, a granulation bed forms in the narrowed defect and the boney plate of the plastron/ carapace slowly grows over. With fiberglass repair cases that went well short term, it was found that later when breakdown occurred ( several years to 8 years down the road) a defected shell was still present and reopened the defect for movement and invasion of serious infection (osteomyelitis).
In summary, though it seems like a good idea to quickly "patch" a shell with man made shell like material, it is better to promote the natural healing process with the screw and wire technique or allowing a deep granulation bed to keratinize for long term repair in a long lived species rather than choosing a quick method that eventually fails.
That said, I have used fiberglass repair recently in a gravid chicken turtle that was hit by a car while crossing the road. Her cranial plastron was "spider cracked" and her prognosis was poor. The reason I chose to use fiberglass repair in this particular case was that it was quick and didn't require anesthesia. Placing this female under anesthesia would have likely killed the embryos, as well as the table time of flipping her on her back may have caused rupture of the eggs leading to internal infection. In her case fiberglass repair was chosen and her eggs were laid three weeks later.
Thank you very much for these insights. I've started this thread inthat I'm almost considering a Leo that had heat concentration damage that was repaired some time ago with a fiberglass patch. I'll try to find a picture.
Before repair 
After repair
After repair
Ken: In my opinion (for what it's worth) that shell should have just been left alone. The bone you see dies and new keratin and bone starts growing underneath it. It takes a very long time - years - but eventually the white, dead bone raises up and pops off, showing new keratin underneath. I've seen it time and again with dog-chewed box turtles.
The 3rd vertebral scute in the first picture completely lacks keratin. In the second photo it appears that there is keratin pigmentation under the fiberglass.
Other than the lack of keratin, I did not see a defect to the boney plate. It is interesting that fiberglass repair was used in this case, nevertheless it appears that you do have new keratin under the fiberglass, and if that is the case and I'm not missing something else from the photos, looks great! The concern with fiberglass stems from repairing fractures of the shell, though it appears it was used in this case for keratin defect repair and I'm not dire that was necessary, however it looks good!
Other than the lack of keratin, I did not see a defect to the boney plate. It is interesting that fiberglass repair was used in this case, nevertheless it appears that you do have new keratin under the fiberglass, and if that is the case and I'm not missing something else from the photos, looks great! The concern with fiberglass stems from repairing fractures of the shell, though it appears it was used in this case for keratin defect repair and I'm not dire that was necessary, however it looks good!
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Maggie Cummings
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Thank you so much for the explanation....there's so much new stuff happening in chelonian husbandry, it nice to have an expert around...
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