Abscess in my Ca Desert tort

[Cristna007]

Looking for some answers. My tortoise came out of hibernation with 2 abscesses on chin. I took him to the vet, dr emptied out "cottage cheese" and put him on baytril oral. First I am having a hard time getting him to take his meds. I injected them into the stems of the greens and he learned how to sniff them out. I am trying to just squirt them into his mouth now but he spits it out. Any other ideas on how to make my big guy take his meds?
Second, I started to see one or two bubbles blown from his nose. It is only when he eats. Nothing going on the rest of the time. Normal or not? I have him indoors right now because I am afraid if the flies landing on him. Any opinions on indoor vs outdoor.

 

[Yvonne G]

Hi Christna, and welcome to the Forum!

Can you take a picture of the two abscesses for us? I'd like to see the placement of them.

If you hold the tortoise's head between thumb and forefinger right behind the jaws, then open the mouth (a credit card works well for this) and place the dropper as far back on the tongue as you can get it, then continue holding the head, but let the mouth close, he'll swallow the medication.

I'm just curious if the vet took a smear of the cottage cheese and tested it to see what antibiotic works best on that type of infection. Seems like vets have gotten into the habit of using Baytril and now its the be all know all of antibiotics. There are other meds just as good, and you really need to be using the one that targets your specific infection.

 

[Arnold_rules]

Based on your description, I would say you have a male and those are his scent glands that got blocked. Perfectly normal and nothing to worry about. My vet did the same for my male, although did not put him on antibiotics.

Just found an older posting that discusses the glands:

http://www.tortoiseforum.org/thread-16118.html

 

[Yvonne G]

That's why I asked to see a picture.

 

[Cristna007]

Yes, my tort is a male. Meet Henry! Here is a couple of pics while he was with me at the vet. One side profile and the other is a little blurry. Hope you can see it. Dr told me to clean out the abscesses with tincture of iodine once a day. No he did not smear the "cheese".

 

[ascott]

Ok, so Yvonne may remember my curiosity from last year....One of the male CDTs here, adult, had really enlarged glands (around the time near to coming out of brumation---the time kinda in line with what would be active "female" time) well, I gently touched the glands and fluid came out of each (after I placed a little pressure on each) and when this happened he also had some fluid come from the nostril, now he did not blow bubbles nor any of the tall tell signs of a RI, but each time I placed gentle pressure on the glands, fluid would come from them as well as his nostril....well, I am going to see if the same thing occurs this year....

When the vet pressed on the glands, did the vet describe to you that the area he was depressing on was the male glands? Or did he simply say that the area he was attending to was abscess? Is this vet a reptile specialist? For how long? Is the tort "normal" in every other way? Active, basking, eating, soaking-drinking???

 

[Arnold_rules]

Yes, my tort is a male. Meet Henry! Here is a couple of pics while he was with me at the vet. One side profile and the other is a little blurry. Hope you can see it. Dr told me to clean out the abscesses with tincture of iodine once a day. No he did not smear the "cheese".

Kind of hard to tell from the pictures where the abscess the might be seeing, not discounting that, but from the frontal view, it appears his glands are a little swollen. If you look at the picture, you will notice the two larger areas on each side of his jaw line right under the chin, those are the scent glands. They can get blocked and the fluid produced by the glands can fill up and get very thick. To expell the plug and the congelled fluid, you gently press on each side of the gland. It will appear to be very cheese like and not very nice looking. The only reason I know this, other than I pester my vet with lots of questions (thank goodness he is very patient) and my male had this happen. That was about three years ago and hasn't had a problem since.