Reptile & Amphibian Forums

This morning when I fed PigPen I noticed a piece of the tip of his lower jaw is missing. It looks like it broke off. He eats fine, swims fine...and acts as though nothing has happened. He is a 2.5 inch map turtle. His tank is a 20L w/6-8 inches of water, two filters, a turtle dock, plastic and real plants, a 75 watt basking lamp and a zoomed uvb lamp.

Should I do anything for it? Will it grow back? Any ideas how or why this happened??

Thanks in advance for any and all your help.
Carrie

Is it the actual jaw or just the beak part of the mouth. Sounds like you are talking about the beak part which may have just chipped off a bit. Can you provide a picture?

not just the beak. I'll get a pic today and post it.

Carrie

>>Is it the actual jaw or just the beak part of the mouth. Sounds like you are talking about the beak part which may have just chipped off a bit. Can you provide a picture?

Is there anything I should do?

Thanks!

That's a rather clean piece missing. It is mostly the beak area. Looks like there is nothing exposed that would cause any infection. If there is no mouthrot going on I really don't what more you could do. I would suggest a trip to the vet though just to check him out and make sure there is nothing else going on.

you obviously can't do this but i was watching animal planet and there was a turtle on there that broke a peice of it's jaw and they used plaster of paris to "build" it a new one....it was cool
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~walnut~
Turtle Pics
1 Dog- Mollianna Mae
1 Cat- Macey Montana
2 Red Eared Sliders- Gator and No-No
2 Beta- Swamp and Swims
4 Fish- One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish

Thanks. I made an appt yesterday for Friday. My vet isn't very knowledgeable w/turtles, but he tries really hard.

Thanks again!
Carrie

>>That's a rather clean piece missing. It is mostly the beak area. Looks like there is nothing exposed that would cause any infection. If there is no mouthrot going on I really don't what more you could do. I would suggest a trip to the vet though just to check him out and make sure there is nothing else going on.

If he has access to someone who has knowledge and is willing to learn then you are in good shape. How else do we get more herp friendly vets??

I think he will probably say that best thing to do is leave him be and see how much this all grows back. It really does look like the beak portion of the mouth and not any of the jawbone itself so it may just grow back a bit. He can still eat and as long as there is no mouth rot or anything else causing this he should be okay.

I have caught a cooter once that had almost half of the right side of its jaw broken off. Seemed to be from a battle with a fisherman. It looked like it had healed a long time ago, and the turtle was very alert and healthy.

I agree, as long as there is nothing else going on, the turtle should be OK with the piece missing. I resently got in a huge wild RES with an obviously old lower jaw fracture. It too looked like an old encounter with a fish hook. A piece was missing out of the middle of the side and it left her with an opening into her mouth. I could tell she would bite the fish I fed her mostly on the good side. She was very healthy and heavy. Amazing what they can go though and still come out OK. If I knew how to post a photo here I'd post the one of her jaw if anyone wanted to see it.
GCTTS