Hello all,
i have a female leopard tortoise, she must be about 9 inches measured along the bottom of her shell. as you may recall i solicited advice from the forum last year and wanted to give an update on her condition and pose a few more questions.
this post is more intended as documentation and hopefully some one in the future posed with a similar situation can benefit.
this tortoise was rescued from craigslist. when i got her she was fairly active but upon looking at her more closely after getting her home i found that 3 of her s chutes in the back were only being held on by a thread. i figured that they were doing more harm than good by holding moisture and harboring a place for bacteria to congregate so i decided to remove them. after removing them i took her to a local herp specialist and was given a regime of anti-biotics and chlorohexidine to use as a rinse.
all of the areas of the shell where the chutes were removed turned brown, and any bordering chute edge that was already lose and infected coincidently became more area for the bacteria to congregate thus infecting that chute. I i tried the chlorohexidine rinse under the edge of the infected chute, but that only succeeded in the death of the exposed bone under the chute. i left the chutes on as long as possible but when it became apparent that either the chute was dead ( became very flaky and brittle, chipping easily ) i removed it. basically what looked like a simple localized area turned out to be a huge mess.
i thought that all was well, and she looked like everything was getting a lot better. she spent the sumer grazing in our back yard. she was mostly active during the morning and evening time, preferring to take cover under a shrub during the mid day. she has never been a very personable tortoise.
when fall came and outside temps began to dip into the low 60's it was time to bring her inside. her enclosure is a "under the bed" tote with one side cut off. this enables her to have free roam of the house. her enclosure has a full UV spectrum light that is on an auto timer. she was fed timothy and orchard hay and has access to a dog style auto water-er. i soak her nearly every week. she does things though that concern me.
1) she dosnt like eating hay. she will walk the house trying to eat my daughters toys, but hardly eats the hay at all. when i offer her leafy greens she always eats those. ( possibly because her owners miss treated her and never offered her hay? he also has very bad pyrimidding )
2) she never goes to her light. if i put her under her light she will hang out there for a few hours sunning herself and then she will walk off to the darkest area of the house. my house is 72F at most times but the back bedroom where she goes most is an average of 55-65 degrees and that is her perfred area. if i let her she will go there and sleep for days. i have to physically take her to her light and put her under it. i originally had her on a "tort table" but she would walk the edges around and around until she wore the scales raw on her arms and feet. ( and yes, the temps were correct and she had multiple hides )
she has been with me all winter under these conditions and when i pick her up she is active and occasionally i see her roaming the house. today i was closely inspecting the area where her shell was infected before. her tail chute always questionable but i decided i really didnt want to remove that one because it didnt look that bad and it seamed to be sealed nicely. today though i noticed a foul odor coming from that area after her soak and it was a bit soft. i started examining it and noticed that it was very brittle so i decided it was time to remove it. once i got started it was apparent that this area wasn't as well protected as i thought and the entire leading edge of the bone under the chute was rotting. after removing the chute a large piece of bone came off right afterwards. the junction between the bone that was removed and the rest of the shell looks clean and healthy though.
1) should i try and remove the other exposed brown edged or leave the shell like it is with a large gap?
some things ive learned from this experiance
1) the edges of a chute chute are like a dike around a field. once the dike is broken, water and natural moisture brought throughout the shell by the vascular system of the tortoise will get under the chute and it almost guarantees that the outer chute will die at some point. a new living edge will form under and around the dead bone.
2) delay in treating any lifted chute edges will seal the fate of that chute and possibly jepordize others.
3) i question the use of chlorohexidine, and bacetracin. i was using the recommended dilution and a syringe and washing under the edges of all exposed shutes. i was also covering the exposed bone with an anti-biotic ointment. the only thing this suceeded in doing was killing any of the bone i applied it too.
4) do what you can but let nature take its course.
5) removal of the tail chute would have prevented the bone loss. being overly cautious cost her the tail bone area.
well, i hope that this information was useful in some way. i also attached pics for reference.
i have a female leopard tortoise, she must be about 9 inches measured along the bottom of her shell. as you may recall i solicited advice from the forum last year and wanted to give an update on her condition and pose a few more questions.
this post is more intended as documentation and hopefully some one in the future posed with a similar situation can benefit.
this tortoise was rescued from craigslist. when i got her she was fairly active but upon looking at her more closely after getting her home i found that 3 of her s chutes in the back were only being held on by a thread. i figured that they were doing more harm than good by holding moisture and harboring a place for bacteria to congregate so i decided to remove them. after removing them i took her to a local herp specialist and was given a regime of anti-biotics and chlorohexidine to use as a rinse.
all of the areas of the shell where the chutes were removed turned brown, and any bordering chute edge that was already lose and infected coincidently became more area for the bacteria to congregate thus infecting that chute. I i tried the chlorohexidine rinse under the edge of the infected chute, but that only succeeded in the death of the exposed bone under the chute. i left the chutes on as long as possible but when it became apparent that either the chute was dead ( became very flaky and brittle, chipping easily ) i removed it. basically what looked like a simple localized area turned out to be a huge mess.
i thought that all was well, and she looked like everything was getting a lot better. she spent the sumer grazing in our back yard. she was mostly active during the morning and evening time, preferring to take cover under a shrub during the mid day. she has never been a very personable tortoise.
when fall came and outside temps began to dip into the low 60's it was time to bring her inside. her enclosure is a "under the bed" tote with one side cut off. this enables her to have free roam of the house. her enclosure has a full UV spectrum light that is on an auto timer. she was fed timothy and orchard hay and has access to a dog style auto water-er. i soak her nearly every week. she does things though that concern me.
1) she dosnt like eating hay. she will walk the house trying to eat my daughters toys, but hardly eats the hay at all. when i offer her leafy greens she always eats those. ( possibly because her owners miss treated her and never offered her hay? he also has very bad pyrimidding )
2) she never goes to her light. if i put her under her light she will hang out there for a few hours sunning herself and then she will walk off to the darkest area of the house. my house is 72F at most times but the back bedroom where she goes most is an average of 55-65 degrees and that is her perfred area. if i let her she will go there and sleep for days. i have to physically take her to her light and put her under it. i originally had her on a "tort table" but she would walk the edges around and around until she wore the scales raw on her arms and feet. ( and yes, the temps were correct and she had multiple hides )
she has been with me all winter under these conditions and when i pick her up she is active and occasionally i see her roaming the house. today i was closely inspecting the area where her shell was infected before. her tail chute always questionable but i decided i really didnt want to remove that one because it didnt look that bad and it seamed to be sealed nicely. today though i noticed a foul odor coming from that area after her soak and it was a bit soft. i started examining it and noticed that it was very brittle so i decided it was time to remove it. once i got started it was apparent that this area wasn't as well protected as i thought and the entire leading edge of the bone under the chute was rotting. after removing the chute a large piece of bone came off right afterwards. the junction between the bone that was removed and the rest of the shell looks clean and healthy though.
1) should i try and remove the other exposed brown edged or leave the shell like it is with a large gap?
some things ive learned from this experiance
1) the edges of a chute chute are like a dike around a field. once the dike is broken, water and natural moisture brought throughout the shell by the vascular system of the tortoise will get under the chute and it almost guarantees that the outer chute will die at some point. a new living edge will form under and around the dead bone.
2) delay in treating any lifted chute edges will seal the fate of that chute and possibly jepordize others.
3) i question the use of chlorohexidine, and bacetracin. i was using the recommended dilution and a syringe and washing under the edges of all exposed shutes. i was also covering the exposed bone with an anti-biotic ointment. the only thing this suceeded in doing was killing any of the bone i applied it too.
4) do what you can but let nature take its course.
5) removal of the tail chute would have prevented the bone loss. being overly cautious cost her the tail bone area.
well, i hope that this information was useful in some way. i also attached pics for reference.
you can wet the greens and cut up the hay and sprinkle it on top and see if she developes a taste for it. 
