Concerned about flaky shell?

[Gordon]

Originally Posted by Yvonne G

The picture's so big it's hard to get the proper perspective, but I'm thinking this is on the side of the carapace? Nothing needs to be done about it. It's not fungus or shell rot, as those almost always are caused by the tortoise sitting constantly in dirty, wet substrate, poop or pee, hence it will first show up on the plastron, not the carapace.

Your tortoise's shell damage is old and will always look like that. There's no need to do anything. It's not harmful nor painful to him, and it's not going to get any worse unless he keeps knocking it on something hard. Is it in an area where he continuously bangs it as he walks along the edge of a stone wall or the stucco house, something like that?

Not that I'm back tracking but this is probably the case but as I said it wont do any harm to put some on.
I have some old tortoises that have bits and pieces missing from bashing on stones rocks etc and also from mating and to be honest I do nothing. As Yvonne says shell rot normally is underneath but I did take in one a few years ago that had it all over to the point the scutes were all peeling off and I treated it with dactarin (athletes foot cream) and it all came good and now most of the scutes underneath have grown back but the ones on its back are not so just bone. This tortoise although not looking good is now back up and running and breeds.