Reptile & Amphibian Forums

o snap! today when i was feeding my boxies, i saw that my females nail had broke. the break is pretty far down at the base of the nail and its still connected, but barely. it looks like it being held on by the skin around the nail.so basically the whole nail broke. what should i do? mahalo and aloha

I'm not giving any advice here, but personally what I would do, by what you discribe and without actually seeing it, would be as long as there isn't any gaping wound, I would just carefully trim the broken part of the nail off with a dog/cat nail trimmer, at least that way it's not further irritating the socket by wiggling around which could lead to a sore and infection, the nail will either grow back or just heal over, if in the process of of trimming you have to take a little bit of surface skin watch for infection afterwards and take to Vet. if you see any swelling or sore. Or if that doesn't seem like something you want to or can do or their is already swelling or signs of infection take to Vet. or if in doubt better to take to Vet. and be safe and have it taken care of right in the first place than sorry later if a serious infection were to devolope. When in doubt take to Vet.
Thats my two cents and it's really probably not even worth that.
-----
Jeff Benfer
1.0 cinnamon pastel Python regius
1.1 pastel Python regius
1.1 mojave Python regius
0.3 normal Python regius
1.3 Terrapene carolina thriunguis
2.3 Terrapene carolina carolina
4.1 Kinosternon baurii
1.1 Malaclemys terrapin terrapin
2.2 double het albino and anerythristicThamnophis sirtalis parietalis
1.0 anerythristic Thamnophis sirtalis parietalis
2.3 Iowa snow Thamnophis radix
0.2 het Christmas albino Thamnophis radix
1.1 double het cherry erythristic, albino Thamnophis sirtalis sirtalis
1.1 melanistic Thamnophis sirtalis sirtalis
2.0 66% het snow Thamnophis sirtalis sirtalis
1.1 triple heterozygous for amelanistic,carmel, and stripe Pantherophis guttatus
0.1 anerythristic motley Pantherophis guttatus
0.1 butter p.h. stripe Pantherophis guttatus
0.1 carmel stripe p.h. amel Pantherophis guttatus
0.1 amelanistic p.h. carmel,stripe Pantherophis guttatus

Sounds like you are in the tropics where there are lots of inscts and things that can cause infections. Turtles can break a nail by getting it twisted off from catching it between rocks or bricks, or it could be long and dry and break off with little effort. Since I don't know about her care, I can't tell you if it's something you don't have to worry about, so it's bettter to be safe than sorry.

You should take the turtle to a vet to be sure she is growing correctly or have a very experienced keeper look at her. If you feel comfortable that it only an accident and a minor issue-cut the nail off as much as you can-dip the nail in corn starch to stop any bleeding and keep her in indoors for a few weeks till the nail no longer bleeds and looks to be growing again. Even a little blood, or infection will attract flies. Good luck!
-----
Tess Cook
www.boxturtlesite.info