2 bad bacteria in my sulcata

[louise]

Scooter is 8 and about 45 lbs. about a month ago the emergency vet said he got bitten by a scorpion and gave him morphine and valium. He was no better ( tremors and huge amt of stuff and goo coming from his nose) so we saw another vet who said sinus infection and I gave him Baytril by mouth for 10 days. He seemed to be better. Took him to a 3rd vet when he just didn't seem to fabulous and this vet cultured the goo and found pseudomonas and enterococcus bacteria. I went away and boarded him with the vet and all seemed good. Now, however, he is having motor (leg) coordination problems and isn't eating like before all this happened. I need to know where to go with this. The entero bacteria is very serious yet I've got $1000 in vet bills! Anybody know anything about treating these 2 bacteria? I live in Scottsdale AZ

 

[Yvonne G]

Hi Louise: I'm so very sorry about your tortoise's problems...and I'm sorry that I won't be able to help you with your problem I don't know anything about the kinds of things that were found on the culture. But I can offer you one thing: motor problems like what you describe often occur when the tortoise has been poisoned. You didn't, by chance, happen to de-worm the tortoise with Ivermectin, did you? This is extremely toxic to tortoises. If not, then I would say lots of soaks to try to get whatever toxin the tortoise has out of his system. I've notice with sick box turtles, that they stay in the water 24/7. They seem to know that soaking is beneficial. I would stay with the vet who did the culture on the saliva. It sounds as if he has a handle on it.

Yvonne

 

[Yvonne G]

Wow, Lukas: I'm so glad that you have joined our forum. I just knew it would be beneficial to us for you to be here! So what you are saying is that the loss of motor control might be from the very first administration of the morphine, valium and maybe the scorpion? If that's the case, then for sure soak the tortoise every day! to get that out of his system.

Yvonne