Orange area between nostrils

[greektortlover]

My Greek tortoise developed an odd area between his nostrils. I am attaching a before and after picture. I sent the pictures to my vet and he said he is not too worries and thinks my tortoise rubbed his nose on something in his environment. He has check up the end of next week and the doctor said it can wait until then. Anyone ever see anything like this?

His nostrils and eyes have no issues. He is eating and peeing and pooping like normal.

My husband put his food on a rough rock last week that we normally do not use. I am wondering if that was it,

 

[zovick]

I agree with your vet. The tortoise probably rubbed his nose on something and it caused a little inflammation. Pic is a bit blurry, so that is my opinion without seeing it more clearly.

It may be possible that the nose scraped on the rock your husband used but there are other possibilities as well. Has it been forcibly pushing itself into the corners of an indoor enclosure? Rubbing its nose on wood in a corner is one possibility, IMHO. Is there any screening where the tortoise is kept on which the tortoise could have rubbed its nose? A similar type of lesion used to be seen a lot in snakes which were trying to escape from cages with screened tops. Their noses actually appeared to have been "sanded down" by the screening, often to the point of bleeding.

 

[greektortlover]

Hmm his inside house is wood and everyday after he eats he scratches around the same time in one corner to be moved to his outside house. He routinely likes to go out at the same time everyday LOL. It could have happened then though I see him scratch and he never hits his face. I will update again after my vet session next week.