It is very possible that it is a puncture and a piece of the object broke off inside and that is why it initially healed and then reopened. Glad you shared this with us Paul.
Tom, that is a definite possibility and now that you get me thinking (as you usually do)...I wonder if the puncture drug a piece of plastron into the subcutaneous tissues and that is what is causing the problem. It's kind of like many of the wounds suffered by Civil War soldiers...alot of them would have survived musket wounds, had the ball not dragged a piece of thier clothing into the wounds. I've removed foriegn bodies from many species that had been their for years causing wounds that periodically opened and drained, then partially healed again...only to repeat the process months or years later.
... and that's why we all LOVE having a real vet here!!! Nothing beats first hand experience combined with intelligence and years of the study of medical science.
This has been a really interesting post. I want to throw out my 2 cents before the vet officially answers... To me it looks like a really bad infection (caused by a puncture) that is causing septicemia. One of the pics you can see blood coming for the shell above the infected area.
I agree w/Tom. My first look, I was thinking a dog bite.
Tom said:
... and that's why we all LOVE having a real vet here!!! Nothing beats first hand experience combined with intelligence and years of the study of medical science.