Question for someone with large aldabra experience

Holycow

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This tortoise belongs to a facility that has had no real consistency of keepers for this animal. Nobody really knows what caused the damage or how long it was there. Evidently it had been treated and has not gotten worse in several years.
Is there a way to promote faster healing or better shell health in general for something like this? Something to apply to the shell perhaps?
This animal is suspected to be about 100 yeas old- imported into the US- it's records supposedly go back 50 years.
Any ideas on the shell issue?
Thanks.
--Jeff2014-04-24_12-42-38_264.jpg
 

T33's Torts

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We need a light symbol to shine into the sky when we need Greg. Like a big tort or something!
 

Holycow

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This tortoise belongs to a facility that has had no real consistency of keepers for this animal. Nobody really knows what caused the damage or how long it was there. Evidently it had been treated and has not gotten worse in several years.
Is there a way to promote faster healing or better shell health in general for something like this? Something to apply to the shell perhaps?
This animal is suspected to be about 100 yeas old- imported into the US- it's records supposedly go back 50 years.
Any ideas on the shell issue?
Thanks.
--JeffView attachment 77597

2014-04-24_12-42-24_504.jpg
 

mike taylor

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That looks like a burn . How are they keeping the tortoise house warm? If they are using heat lamps there's your problem . Should be using a heating system like to warm the air . Oil filled heater or a central unit .
 

Yvonne G

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It looks like an old spot, not something current.
 

ALDABRAMAN

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That looks like shell damage/rot. Unfortunately this is common amongst the older imports. This could have been started by simply shell damage or injury and has gotten worse. I have seen this when they are kept in wet environments and the initial damage/rot is untreated and spreads. We had a female that had a small spot of shell rot on the surface and when we started to treat it it had spread under the top layer of her shell and spread very large. At the direction of our vet we cleared all of the dead layers off and treated. It healed up nicely!
 

Holycow

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Any recommendations
That looks like a burn . How are they keeping the tortoise house warm? If they are using heat lamps there's your problem . Should be using a heating system like to warm the air . Oil filled heater or a central unit .

The heat light system they have now is not the culprit. (I though the same thing and checked while I was there). But who knows what they were using 5-50 years ago.
 

mike taylor

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I would go with aldabraman on this . I'm just guessing . But whatever is going on it looks like some of the scutes are about to come off .
 
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