New to the forum but not to forums in general. Haven't introduced myself yet, but will in the correct section.
Last week we went to the Central Florida Turtle and Tortoise club annual auction and left with a baby sulcata. He's maybe 2" in length and weighs 57g. The size of maybe a hacky-sack.
I'll start off with some husbandry details:
We have him housed in a 2ft x 4ft plastic storage bin for now. We use cypress mulch as substrate and mist it once or twice a day. Humidity hovers around 80% (not very hard here in Florida). Cool side temp is 80-82, warm side is 88-90, basking temp is 98-100, night time temp is 78-80.
The heat light/UVB light is a 100w Powersun UVB. Also use a 60w CHE to maintain cool side and night time temps. I use an digital temp gun to check basking/cool side/warm side/shell temps. Also have a regular thermometer/hydrometer on the cool side under the CHE to make sure the minimum temp in the bin doesn't drop below 78-80.
Diet is mostly spring mix. I also keep some moistened grassland tortoise pellets in there but haven't seen him touch it yet. I've only ever seen him eat the spring mix.
He gets a nice warm soak once a day and seems to enjoy it. He'll stick his head right in the water and drink a bunch. He hasn't pooped in the water yet, he saves it for his basking rock, lol.
He is active but doesn't really each much.
So, now on to the issue.....
Shortly after we first brought him home we noticed a small bump on the side of his face. We didn't really think anything of it until yesterday i noticed it was swollen and ugly looking. Here's a pic of that:
Today in his bath he was rubbing his face on his leg and the "growth" came right off except it left an ugly looking crater in his face. It doesn't seem to bother him and he even let me put some neosporin on it.
Here's what it looks like now:
It's ugly. It doesn't go all the way through and it never bled. Will it grow back? Has anyone seen anything like it?
I imagine if it doesn't heal up quickly or gets worse I'll need to take him to the vet.
Any suggestions, thoughts, etc?
Last week we went to the Central Florida Turtle and Tortoise club annual auction and left with a baby sulcata. He's maybe 2" in length and weighs 57g. The size of maybe a hacky-sack.
I'll start off with some husbandry details:
We have him housed in a 2ft x 4ft plastic storage bin for now. We use cypress mulch as substrate and mist it once or twice a day. Humidity hovers around 80% (not very hard here in Florida). Cool side temp is 80-82, warm side is 88-90, basking temp is 98-100, night time temp is 78-80.
The heat light/UVB light is a 100w Powersun UVB. Also use a 60w CHE to maintain cool side and night time temps. I use an digital temp gun to check basking/cool side/warm side/shell temps. Also have a regular thermometer/hydrometer on the cool side under the CHE to make sure the minimum temp in the bin doesn't drop below 78-80.
Diet is mostly spring mix. I also keep some moistened grassland tortoise pellets in there but haven't seen him touch it yet. I've only ever seen him eat the spring mix.
He gets a nice warm soak once a day and seems to enjoy it. He'll stick his head right in the water and drink a bunch. He hasn't pooped in the water yet, he saves it for his basking rock, lol.
He is active but doesn't really each much.
So, now on to the issue.....
Shortly after we first brought him home we noticed a small bump on the side of his face. We didn't really think anything of it until yesterday i noticed it was swollen and ugly looking. Here's a pic of that:
Today in his bath he was rubbing his face on his leg and the "growth" came right off except it left an ugly looking crater in his face. It doesn't seem to bother him and he even let me put some neosporin on it.
Here's what it looks like now:
It's ugly. It doesn't go all the way through and it never bled. Will it grow back? Has anyone seen anything like it?
I imagine if it doesn't heal up quickly or gets worse I'll need to take him to the vet.
Any suggestions, thoughts, etc?