a vet could also anesthetize the turtle , or at least inject a little lidocaine ........... I’ve only dealt with this twice on newly acquired turtles , so I’m not that familiar with it , although one of these two cases took 4 or 5 tries to get rid of it , so actually I’ve seen it fail more than I’ve seen it work ….. from my limited experience just lancing it may not be enough . it seemed to me the “pus” inside the abscess is not like pus you would normally think of , it’s not runny at all , it has the consistency of wax , it can be pretty solid , and it will need physically removed and the ear canal flushed out with an antibiotic ……….. I can tell you in the harder case I kept the turtle (a blanding’s) in wet sphagnum moss and about a half an inch of water for 2 weeks , only putting him in water deep enough he could submerge his ear when he ate , and applied gentamicin daily ……