10 month old with an abscess

[diaboliqueturtle]

My 10 month old Eastern developed an abscess over the weekend. On Sunday the vet lanced and cleaned it, gave me Baytril and we went home. Today it looked like it was back, still swollen and I could see white pus under the skin.
She's a trooper, still eating well but while pawing at her mouth with her arm, her scales re-opened the wound and the chunk of pus came out. I'm thinking that's a good thing but now my question is, should I have her on moist paper towels? She's in a hospital tank with new coco coir but I don't know if I run the chance of getting debris in the wound and thus re-infecting it? I'm thinking that's why it came back so quickly.

This is before going to the vet, his face and eye are swollen.

Wiggly and blurry side view.

This is just now, after she scraped it open. There's literally a little hole.

 

[Yvonne G]

Wow, she's young to be having an abscess already. The reason it came back was because the vet didn't get it all out. I usually make an "X" incision across the whole bump, not just a little hole.

I wouldn't worry about reinfecting. The abscess was from an internal problem, not external. The Baytril should take care of the reason for the bump and kill any infection in the turtle.

I have never kept a cleaned abscess on paper. I put them in a hospital tank in the house to keep flies off the wound, but I still use my orchid bark substrate.

 

[diaboliqueturtle]

Thanks so much for the quick response. I put her in her tank and she burrowed herself, which was my concern. The vet had to put her under, she was too small and wriggly to attempt as free hand.
To be honest, I'm skeptical that she's 10 months old, she's 1 3/4" long and 16g! That's the size my 3 toed was at 3 months. At 13 months, she's just shy of 3" and 66g.
I got Vmax and her "sister" Gixxer off Kijiji (same as Craigslist) 3 weeks ago and the guy said they hatched in July. Aside from the coil UV bulb, which I pointed out, his enclosures looked good.

 

[diaboliqueturtle]

You know that feeling you get when a teeny baby turtle opens its mouth wide enough to insert and inject meds from a syringe? Well I'm feelin' it right now!!! It's on its way to heal properly now, no more swelling. Nothing getting in the way of that earth worm :-D

 

[pinkspore]

She's adorable! Glad to hear she's healing up nicely.

 

[diaboliqueturtle]

So am I! She's a little trooper, it didn't slow her down at all