Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I've been watching my brother's labrador this week, and somehow the dog got into my outdoor enclosure and pulled out my five year old RES this evening. I got him away in time to keep him from killing it, but my poor RES got crunched on a bit and has a cracked plastron. I've inspected him pretty thoroughly to see that it's snapped horizontally across the humeral scutes and the cracked piece is pretty much a flap now, dangling there. There's been very minimal bleeding, but you can see the exposed flesh beneath the crack. I have him inside the house now in a 32 qt sterlite keeping him safe and dry, and he's otherwise been acting normal and swimming when allowed in clean water to hydrate...but since you can see the flesh beneath the crack it worries me. There's no herp vets open until Monday at the earliest...what can I do for my guy in the meantime? Anyone have experience with cracked plastrons like this?

Small cracks and chips can usually be left to heal on their own. This doesn't sound like the case here and I agree that a vet visit is essential. Keep him ultra clean, in a sterile type enclosure until the vet has further advice. The tissue underneath should be kept moist, but this isn't really much of a problem for aquatics. If you find he's basking a tonne, then perhaps put on some polysporin ointment. It'll keep the tissue moist, and also help prevent infection.

Good luck,

Ian

clean wound immediatly with diluted iodine then rinse and let dry. then you can use neosporin applied with q-tip. make sure you let wound dry several times a day.

Two trains of thought here. Keeping the tissue moist keeps it viable for possible shell closure or repair. There could be some exposed tissue that you really don't want to descicate.

Letting it dry out kills a lot of the bacteria and fungus that is found in the water. This is the route to take if the wound is to be left open to heal by second intention; a decision the vet would make after seeing it.

How did the vet visit go?

Ian

I have repaired numerous cracked shells in tortoises and turtles, but am not that familiar with the acronyms (RES?). Still, the repair techniques are pretty straightforward and involve cleaning the cracked shell and drying it, and applying an antiseptic cream (Silvidine works great, though neosporin can work, too) into the crack and wipe it carefully from the rest of the plastron. Then, depending on the size of the crack, either just apply a 5 minute epoxy, and let it dry well before letting your pet run around again (best to keep it on a plastic or glass surface first before putting it either in water or on paper or something it will stick to permamently.. epoxy always takes longer to completely dry than they say). If there is a large gap between the pieces of shell, a material will need to be put down before you epoxy to keep the epoxy from oozing down into the deeper tissues. This can be anything from fiberglass material (used to fix holes in kayaks for example) or just a piece of clean plastic (I usually use x-ray film). If the animal is larger and there is a lot of pressure at the fracture site, I drill holes through either side ofthe plastron in mulitple areas and feed surgical wire though and tighten the wire down, and then go one with the repair (you might want your vet to do that part, though it is not all that difficult to do... just need a good clean drill bit- since I am a vet, I have access to a dental drill and that works great).