Reptile & Amphibian Forums

i found the poor thing in the road, i believe its a painted turtle, not sure what species(he was found in Idaho).

its shell is cracked form, his left side of his shell(where his shoulder blade bedins to where his neck starts, basically the top left corner) is cracked, and you can see flesh underneith it, its cracked down the side of his left front leg also, lots of blood, but it seems to have clotted.

Still very alert, looks like it happened in the last few hours, if I can save this poor thing please give me some tips

also a small crack under his left shoulder blade(on the bottem part of his shell), please help...

Without a vet there isn't much you can do for a broken turtle. Generally if the shell has been broken for more than 24 hours then infection has already set it. A broken one needs a vet to flush it, get it on medication & then put that shell back together. Usually they will use an acrylic material made for veterinary use to repair the shell. I have to say after having 1 box turtle & 1 sulcata tortoise (which were both found) repaired correctly by a vet, I've never regretted the money it cost because it worked!
Good luck with this.. if for some reason you can't take it to a vet, have you thought of contacting local vets to get you in touch with a wildlife rehabber?
PHRatz