Morty23
New Member
Hello Everyone. Sorry in advance for what may turn out to be a longer post than I'm planning but I'm looking for advice/opinions.
I rescued a box turtle about 4 years ago. He had been through about 5 families previously so could be somewhere 12-20 years old and was fed a diet of iceberg lettuce with occasional kale and sometimes those fruity pebbles looking tortoise food. Needless to say he's really deformed. His carapace never really grew so it looks like his back has a tiny top hat shell. I'd hoped to give him to a local sanctuary but it wasn't possible because he can't pull his head or legs into his shell.
He's been doing really well and I've done my best to learn quickly how to care for him. Unfortunately due to the wildfire smoke, I had to pull him out of his gladiator arena and put him back inside. All was going fine until about a month or so ago, he went off his food. I clean his beak frequently because it's deformed and tends to want to collect food. When I opened his mouth, I noticed strange yellow growths on his tongue. Mouth rot? Herpes? I cranked up the heat and scheduled an appointment with a local exotic vet that a lot of tort owners reviewed well on Yelp (which means nothing really but it's all I had to go by).
He couldn't figure out what the growths were (viral/bacterial/fungal?) so sent him home with oral Baytril I was to give once a day for 3 weeks. Without asking me, he trimmed Morty's beak. I didn't have a chance to look at it as they handed him back to me in the parking lot. These Covid restrictions for vet hospitals are insane. His beak bled pretty badly that night and was trimmed short enough he still can't close his mouth 4 weeks later. Super helpful.
I waited 5 days and he still wasn't eating and had a butchered beak so I scheduled a second opinion with my regular exotic vet. She had me stop the Baytril after a week and wasn't happy about the trim but couldn't really find anything else wrong with him other than the growths on his tongue. She thought maybe they are papillomas and was going to reach out to some breeders to see if they had seen anything similar. I can't find much info for those online other than in sea turtles and the growths look totally different. He's bright and alert and active and sassy and doing all of his normal things. Just won't eat and has these weird yellow tongue growths. They aren't red and don't seem to be painful when you touch them.
For now I am soaking him and syringe feeding him and he's super cool about it. He's in a hospital tank with a ceramic heater, basking bulb, and undertank heater. Heat range is 75-90 from cool side to basking side.
I'll post a pic of his tongue. Curious if any of you have seen anything like it? The vet said she can sedate him and try to biopsy but he's so tiny and not eating on his own...I hate to put him under if I can help it. It's so hard because he's acting normally. Just not eating on his own. Today I put him outside in the sun and he cruised around with a rock in his mouth fo a good ten minutes...lol. Love this little dude.
I rescued a box turtle about 4 years ago. He had been through about 5 families previously so could be somewhere 12-20 years old and was fed a diet of iceberg lettuce with occasional kale and sometimes those fruity pebbles looking tortoise food. Needless to say he's really deformed. His carapace never really grew so it looks like his back has a tiny top hat shell. I'd hoped to give him to a local sanctuary but it wasn't possible because he can't pull his head or legs into his shell.
He's been doing really well and I've done my best to learn quickly how to care for him. Unfortunately due to the wildfire smoke, I had to pull him out of his gladiator arena and put him back inside. All was going fine until about a month or so ago, he went off his food. I clean his beak frequently because it's deformed and tends to want to collect food. When I opened his mouth, I noticed strange yellow growths on his tongue. Mouth rot? Herpes? I cranked up the heat and scheduled an appointment with a local exotic vet that a lot of tort owners reviewed well on Yelp (which means nothing really but it's all I had to go by).
He couldn't figure out what the growths were (viral/bacterial/fungal?) so sent him home with oral Baytril I was to give once a day for 3 weeks. Without asking me, he trimmed Morty's beak. I didn't have a chance to look at it as they handed him back to me in the parking lot. These Covid restrictions for vet hospitals are insane. His beak bled pretty badly that night and was trimmed short enough he still can't close his mouth 4 weeks later. Super helpful.
I waited 5 days and he still wasn't eating and had a butchered beak so I scheduled a second opinion with my regular exotic vet. She had me stop the Baytril after a week and wasn't happy about the trim but couldn't really find anything else wrong with him other than the growths on his tongue. She thought maybe they are papillomas and was going to reach out to some breeders to see if they had seen anything similar. I can't find much info for those online other than in sea turtles and the growths look totally different. He's bright and alert and active and sassy and doing all of his normal things. Just won't eat and has these weird yellow tongue growths. They aren't red and don't seem to be painful when you touch them.
For now I am soaking him and syringe feeding him and he's super cool about it. He's in a hospital tank with a ceramic heater, basking bulb, and undertank heater. Heat range is 75-90 from cool side to basking side.
I'll post a pic of his tongue. Curious if any of you have seen anything like it? The vet said she can sedate him and try to biopsy but he's so tiny and not eating on his own...I hate to put him under if I can help it. It's so hard because he's acting normally. Just not eating on his own. Today I put him outside in the sun and he cruised around with a rock in his mouth fo a good ten minutes...lol. Love this little dude.