But the thing is he will need antibiotics to kill any germs that may be cooking in there. It may hurt your turtle and bite you. How to treat a turtles wounds? In 2017, UT Southwestern doctors used vacuum-assisted closure, or VAC, to help treat a chronic wound on a 30-year-old tortoise at the Dallas Zoo. Tortoise with amputated front limb. [hr] You need to get a … Tortoises are generally pretty hardy, but it can be hard to prevent a tortoise from getting any sort of scratch. He should be able to recover from his wounds. Then cover and conceal. Photo by Kim Alexander. Analgesia and hygiene are cornerstones of the treatment of thermal burns in reptiles and care must be taken that secondary infections do not occur. Treatment of thermal burns can be rewarding; however, the clients must be adequately informed of the length of treatment and overall costs of treatment, which can span many months. To slow the bleeding, cool your turtle down. If the damage leaves a very sharp edge, you can gently file it down like you would a fingernail. Treatment of serious bites. The important thing is not to panic, but to calmly get it to the vet. Don't stop because you think the tortoise is ok. Use them up. You can apply a sterile gauze pad to the wound and use paper tape to protect the shell, then use electrical tape on top of the paper tape for strength and protection. Give the tortoise plenty of warmth and quiet to help it … I recommend leaving the pieces of shell left in the wound for if you pull it out it will lead to constant bleeding. And use the antibiotics until they're gone. For some reason the dog decided to get the turtle somehow and use it as a chew toy...luckily we caught him in time before he killed the poor thing but the turtles shell is badly bitten on the edges. If this happens get bettadine on the wound straight away. I may be wrong since my turtle is still recovering from his third degree puncture. You should clean the wound with use hydrogen peroxide or Beta dine to prevent any infection. Tortoises are surprisingly resilient. Leave in the tub for 15-20 minutes, refreshing the warm water and Betadine as necessary. Tortoises are generally pretty hardy, but it can be hard to prevent a tortoise from getting any sort of scratch. For minor infections, Betadine diluted in water may be enough to treat the wound, but you may also use silver sulfadiazine, for a more thorough treatment. Soak the reptile in warmish chest deep water to which Betadine (povidone-iodine) has been added to color the water to a deep medium tea color. in this video i will show you how i cure the wound of a turtle i found on the side of a road, this process works if the wound is not real bad. A properly diluted (0.05%) chlorhexidine solution is great if you have it, just be sure it is very diluted as it has the potential to harm the skin at higher concentrations. You should clean the wound regularly. 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