A red-eared slider showed up in a box at the medical clinic of the San Jose Animal Care Center with a note indicating that it had been injured. I opened the box to examine the turtle and determine a course of action.

The turtle was a good size and the damage was obvious. It had sustained trauma to the carapace (shell) around the tail.

There was an area where the carapace was missing a large chunk, just over the tail, and a few other fractures in the carapace in that region.

Turtle with Injured Shell

While there was no way to know for sure what happened, it looked as if this turtle’s shell had an encounter with the tires of a vehicle.

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