EMERGENCY (Bloody nasal discharge)

[Angel Carrion]

Hello. Some of you may remember the 3toed female I rescued about a month ago with health issues; overgrown beak & nails, burn from heat lamp, possible MBD, separating plastron scutes, etc.
I had her beak & nails trimmed immediately & have been attempting to heal her up. She's regained a good amount of pigmentation (she was pale and had almost no color) but still refuses to eat anything other than night crawlers (I've tried cutting up & mixing with good food, only giving good food, etc).
Today I was soaking her then applied extra virgin coconut oil to her shell to help the dryness and burn mark. She blew what I believe to be watered down blood from her nose a couple times. I have already made a vet appointment for her today at 2 because of this but can anyone give me info on this please? Could this be because of her plastron problems (whenever she closes up quickly I usually hear a 'crack!' noise) or the MBD?

 

[Angel Carrion]

In case someone needs quick info on emergency; SHE BLEW WHAT I BELIEVE TO BE WATERED DOWN BLOOD OUT OF HER NOSE. Not much, just a few drops.

 

[Angel Carrion]

 

[Angel Carrion]

 

[Angel Carrion]

I had made an appointment for Monday for a check up & trim again but when I saw the liquid I called and had them get me in today. Any thoughts/info much appreciated

 

[Angel Carrion]

 

[Angel Carrion]

 

[johnandjade]

sorry i can help , perhaps @yvonne could offer some advice, maby try send a pm? cute little tort, hoping for a good recovery!

 

[Angel Carrion]

Appreciated, thank you

 

[Yvonne G]

It might have been from the night crawler. They bleed too. I think you're stressing too much and looking for trouble where there is none. The turtle looks just fine to me. Her eyes are bright and alert. If anything, maybe she looks a bit too "indoors." Looks like she could use some hardening off from real sunshine and being outdoors for a bit everyday.

 

[Angel Carrion]

She stays outside in a pen with bushes and grass and hides. She hasn't had a night crawler in a little under a week because I was trying to get her to eat the cut up mix of parsley cantaloupe carrot and peas in the pod I made. I was about to offer a night crawler in failure when she did the liquid blowing

 

[Angel Carrion]

Dd you edit this to say (bloody nasal discharge)? Good by me, just curious

 

[wellington]

I agree with Yvonne. I would wait to see if it happens again. Is it after eating a nice juicy night crawler. She is looking great. Save your money for now and wait to see if it happens again, or if she starts to act different. I wouldn't even get her beak trimmed, it's not that bad, unless you are feeding her on a flat rock and it's still not getting naturally filed down. If you aren't, then start doing that and she should be able to keep it filed. I would also get her outside. Maybe her finding other bugs naturally, she will start eating them, which would also help her beak to roam and dig in some dirt/Stoney dirt.

 

[Angel Carrion]

She is outside and hasn't had a night crawler in almost a week

 

[Yvonne G]

Dd you edit this to say (bloody nasal discharge)? Good by me, just curious

Yes. When people put "help" or "emergency" or just one word like that (and many, many people do) that doesn't really say what the problem in the thread is about and many people just skim right past. With a bit of info in the subject line more people will look at the thread. Some may have the same problem or just be curious how to fix that problem, and some may actually have had the same trouble.

 

[Yvonne G]

She is outside and hasn't had a night crawler in almost a week

The tissue inside the nasal cavity is pretty fragile. Maybe she was poked by a little stick or something. Maybe she sneezed extra hard. Wait and see if it continues before you worry.

 

[Angel Carrion]

Okay thank you.
It wasn't very thick blood, kind of reminded me of watered down cranberry juice.

 

[Angel Carrion]

Okay so she did it again but this time a lot more came out. Took her to the vet and they did x-rays. The vet noticed the lack of even fullness in her lungs in the first x-ray posted here. He hypothesized this was caused by either an infection in the lung causing fluid build up (considering her skin is pinkish-red and she shows signs of possible sepsis that is, I'm assuming, stemming from her plastron or carapace being in bad shape and susceptible to infection), an inflammation in the lining of the lung caused by infection, a lesion, or some form of lump. Right now we are going with infection and have started a round of antibiotics that will have to be administered by injection considering how tightly she closes up and her refusal to allow anyone to hold her head. As it is, it took them 20+ minutes to giver her the first injection today. It's not Baytril, though I cannot remember the name of it right now. Dr. Atchel did tell me it was relatively new in the sense that it came out within the past five years, but he said he's had nothing but good experiences with it so I'm okay with this.
I am not keeping her outside anymore during the day like I was until she gets over this infection. Now the only time she will go outside is when I am out there supervising her excursions into the natural sunlight and if I have to leave, she will come back inside with me into her hospital rubbermaid. I will have to take her back to get the rest of the antibiotics injected on Friday, Monday, and Wednesday with a follow up exam and x-ray done on the following Friday. If the fullness/swelling doesn't lessen, then we will move on to the other possibilities.
If she ends up doing it again, I am going to try and catch some into a container and have it tested for bacteria/infection/what have you. It's not bubbles, it's drops of liquid that looks like watered down cranberry juice.
I apologize it took me so long to post this status update on Tucker. I was having a helluva time trying to figure out how to download these pictures out of my e-mail. Dr. Atchel was nice enough to e-mail them to me after I asked at the end of the visit. I like having as much on file as possible about my animals and tend to take the entire notebook and binder full of vet visit papers and bills and diagnoses and such with me to the vet pertaining to each animal.