Thank you SinLA and Tom
The missing scales it seems are from her rubbing her eye. I watched her today rip of a scale on her leg. This morning is was a little loose, and her repeated rubbing with the left leg continued to loosen it. Finally it just came off, and exposed white flesh underneath. This very aggressive "rubbing" started with the mineral oil use, maybe a coincidence. Today after watching her you could see how the leg scale rubbed right on the top of her head. I did stop the mineral oil for now. Is this normal for the tortoise to "not like" the mineral oil and rub their scales off? And yes Yvonne I think I might of figured out the picture thing.Because of the missing scales on her head I'm guessing the ducks were pecking at her eye. Let's hope it's ok in there under the scab.
These pictures came through ok. Have you figured out what you were doing wrong?
I contacted Dr. Molnar and they told me unfortunately Dr would not be able to help due to being out of the country. They did give me a list of other Vet's, but none were "tortoise" Dr.'s. I continued my search and found@Tom recommends this vet, if you can make the drive. If you can make the drive, that would be the best one:
Dr. Molnar up in Calabasas. All Animals Veterinary
By that time things might have righted themselves. Debride, if you didn't look it up, is basically scrub off. Personally, I'd stop all oils. Maybe look up burn care in reptiles. New tort owner, just going on other animal experience.UPDATE: 10/25 So weight 636 grams today, last night pooped out what looks like couch stuffing. It is a ball of nylon "thread/string" the kind used for cheap furniture stuffing. Still very active and hungry.
Today 10/26 I tried Vaseline instead of Mineral oil to see if that irritated her and made her want to rub it off. It did, even the Vaseline made her rub, rub, rub. It does appear that there's something under the cap on her eye. I
I contacted Dr. Molnar and they told me unfortunately Dr would not be able to help due to being out of the country. They did give me a list of other Vet's, but none were "tortoise" Dr.'s. I continued my search and found
Rose Rakow DVM
We have an appointment for a "Debridement" procedure on 11/28............Yippppppy
@Tom in case he knows of another or knows herUPDATE: 10/25 So weight 636 grams today, last night pooped out what looks like couch stuffing. It is a ball of nylon "thread/string" the kind used for cheap furniture stuffing. Still very active and hungry.
Today 10/26 I tried Vaseline instead of Mineral oil to see if that irritated her and made her want to rub it off. It did, even the Vaseline made her rub, rub, rub. It does appear that there's something under the cap on her eye. I
I contacted Dr. Molnar and they told me unfortunately Dr would not be able to help due to being out of the country. They did give me a list of other Vet's, but none were "tortoise" Dr.'s. I continued my search and found
Rose Rakow DVM
We have an appointment for a "Debridement" procedure on 11/28............Yippppppy
Tough tort.By her behavior no more oils will be used. It seems this crack happened sometime ago, and was never supported. Her body naturally tried to heal the crack but without it being immobilized it never did heal. Everyday her "support" is changed twice and the crack cleaned and hydrogel applied. Our goal is to keep it immobile till the vet visit, have the scrub off happen, then keep it immobilized again. Hopefully this scrub off will encourage new growth, it being immobile will allow it to heal correctly. Who knows though what the vet says.
She just pooped out another ball of nylon thread......I should of kept all this foreign object poop and weighed and photographed it. Crazy how much non-food is in her.
Yvonne won't blame you for anything...She has me for a sister, she's used to outrageous behavior...lol I freakin LOVE LOVE the eggs.....When we lived next door to you Yvonne our son's bus stop was on the street side of your property. Every morning when the bus would pull over and stop to pick up my son, a truck would disregard the flashing lights and stop sign and pass. I hated this as my 6 year old was getting on this bus that some a hole couldn't wait for. I could see this guy causing a wreck on a main road with this school bus my son was on. Our chicken roosted in our garage, so every morning when we would go to the bus we would let the chicken out and get her egg. Pretty sure you see whats coming. We're at the bus and here he goes passing the bus, so I stepped in front of said truck to stop it. When he slowed down to avoid me I let the egg fly, right into his windshield.
Of course he didn't stop, of course he called the police and reported me, as did the bus driver. I called the transportation office for the school and explained what happened. They advised me that they had filed a report with the Highway Patrol. When I called the Highway Patrol office and explained what had occurred they laughed hysterically. "You egged his truck....Ha Ha Ha" is what they just kept repeating.
So what happened was the bus driver was only turning on the flashing lights, not the stop sign. This was so cars could pass and the bus wouldn't cause a traffic jam, even though it's illegal to pass a bus loading kids. The bus driver was reprimanded for not using the stop sign. The truck driver received a warning for passing the bus while red lights were flashing.
None of this matters........of course, it's easier to blame me for my "outrageous" behavior.
Actually, Maggie, I think he was very restrained in his behaviour. Only one egg ! He could have saved up several - or at least used a bad one !Yvonne won't blame you for anything...She has me for a sister, she's used to outrageous behavior...lol I freakin LOVE LOVE the eggs.....
Poor little Jo Jo -it's such a shame about her eye, but she must be such a resilient little thing that she will maybe learn to compensate in her walking. Is the poop she is producing mazuri, do you think, or still something from before you got her?Here’s an example of what we “trim” off and her poop size.
It must be so lovely for JoJo to feel more comfortable inside herself - no more horrible sharp things probably causing her pain - just a pleasantly filled stomach-and lots of space to walk in - and to check out any otherThe problem with the mineral oil was me, putting to much. Mineral oil or Vaseline and she’s ok with it, in the right amount. Is 3 x day enough?
UPDATE: 11/1 635 grams
11/2 641 grams. Her poop is Mazuri we’re pretty sure. Occasionally a fiber but other than that it’s the Mazuri. She is so strong, and pretty fast. We will not leave her at all. We sit with her or put her where we are working. The weather is about to change so outside time is critical. I’m looking on the site to figure out all the new stuff needed. We’re going to use a room to house Jo Jo as well as our 2 razor backs in and hermanns.
Congratulations on the urates - it certainly proves that her system is functioning much better ! You said you have an appointment with a vet at the end of the month - is it far away? I was just wondering how JoJo will get on with the travel, and if you may need to accustom her to it before then, so she doesn't get agitated.UPDATE: 11/3 602 grams. Yep that’s right she lost 39 grams. She pooped, pee and “urates,” yippee. Urates or uric acid is a “Big” part of a healthy tort. Well at least the secretion of uric acid is. It took 3 weeks to see signs of protein being metabolized.
UPDATE: 11/4 622 grams. Operation “Eye Oil” is in full swing. Keeping her eye cap oiled has become priority 1. Every 3-4 hrs. I check to make sure the cap isn’t drying out. She has slowed down on the Mazuri, instead favoring the stuff she’d eat naturally. She escaped today on her walk, well got out of our sight. She slipped under a hole in the chicken wire. Both my wife and I were beyond worried. Imagine this, we loose the tort with a cracked shell that we’re trying to help. Yea I would feel like an idiot for about the next 20 yrs. We did finally find her, munching on her favorite greens.
Question about the mineral oil…. So am I putting oil on the cap to prevent it from loosing it’s natural moisture? Since oil and water don’t mix. Do her face scales ever grow back?