# Cracked Turtle Shell



## UFOrosie (Jun 1, 2013)

Hello New Friends:
While out for a drive, my husband happened upon an Eastern Painted Turtle on the road that had been hit by a car. Now, if he had found the turtle injured of natural causes, he would have left him to the natural order of things, but since this injury was man-made, my husband wanted to help this little guy. He has a bad crack on his shell right above his head and 2 small cracks (one on each side) at the midpoint between his front and rear legs. It looks like he was run over on the front portion of his shell, as we can tell from tire scuffs on the shell. We got some VitaShell for his cracks and breaks, but since we live in a small town, there are no exotic vets in office today (Saturday) and we have to wait till Monday to get him checked out. Does anyone have any advice about how we can help him until then? Our ultimate goal is to set up an enclosure for him (we have lots here considering we keep snakes), heal him, and release him back where we found him.
Thank you for any advice. 
UFOrosie


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## The Guy (Nov 26, 2010)

Hi folks 
I no expert with reptiles but made a call to a friend of mine that offered this to try and help this little guy out till you can get him checked at the vet on Monday.
She said try and clean the cracks with a salt solution probably aquarium salt would be best. She also mentioned not to keep him in water as it could cause fungus in the cracks, also to try and stabilize the cracks you can use super glue to help hold to shell together as long as they are not too wide. I think the cracks should be left until the vet has seen him though to allow cleaning the affected area. good luck, keep me posted. Cheers Laurie


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## Pamela (Apr 21, 2010)

You could send an email to [email protected] asking for his advice because he has dealt with cracked turtle shells before. He runs a reptile rescue & is very knowledgeable about turtles. He will probably tell you the same advice that Laurie posted above, but he might have something more to add.


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## scott tang (Jan 29, 2012)

i took in a turtle with a craked shell i cleaned cracks and put a bit of salt water in them to flush it out i also duck taped his shell till it grew back together


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## effox (Apr 21, 2010)

I wouldn't use duct tape on a reptile, but I've crazy glued myself back together and hoped for the best. It really hurts, so I wouldn't do it unless it was out of severe necessity to an animal. I hope the outer shell took the brunt of the damage. Poor guy. I wouldn't want to complicate the matter further for examination on Monday beyond that. Flushing it with a saline or salt solution would probably be the best course of action.

It's awesome that you guys are helping the little one out.


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## mikebike (Sep 8, 2010)

Crazy glue is great in the right place.

I was the first case of crazy glue on the eye ball at SMH.
They ended up shaving it off the eye ball.


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## scott tang (Jan 29, 2012)

u duck taped a cut on my arm so we figured it wass fine lol
o ya and crazy glue was fist used for deep cuts in the nam war


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## Adz1 (Apr 21, 2010)

mikebike said:


> Crazy glue is great in the right place.
> 
> I was the first case of crazy glue on the eye ball at SMH.
> They ended up shaving it off the eye ball.


I would love to hear more about how the crazy glue got on your eye...lol
best of luck with the turtle rescue...


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