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).

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