Juvenile Sulcata urates **GRAPHIC IMAGES

[Chardney]

I got a 3 month old sulcata from a breeder who I’m close to (also have 1yr old from her as well.)
I was concerned because my baby tort did not seem to be growing despite normal humidity and heat. I supplemented with calcium and she got more than enough sun exposure but it never seemed like she was thriving. I hand fed daily and she had a very good appetite, also passed normal BM and urates. After radiographs determined that she had rather large “stones” she was hospitalized and given oral medications daily to help. After months of treatments and no improvement with passing urates, my vet recommended surgery. Once inside he found a rather large abdominal abscess growing inside of her. *see pictures attached*
Does anyone have any experience with something like this with raising baby sulcatas?

 

[Chubbs the tegu]

Wow! That poor baby. Hows he doing? Ive never seen anything like that

 

[iAmCentrochelys sulcata]

Wow! That poor baby. Hows he doing? Ive never seen anything like that

Same! I have never looked At such a thing, I wonder what causes a tortoise to have that problem? Has the problem been solved @Chardney how was it caused?

 

[Chardney]

It was surgically removed. Unfortunately my baby didn’t make it. I was told that it could've been anything from genetic predisposition to problems incubating. She did have urates present and they all appeared to be normal.
I happen to work as a technician at the hospital so I was present the whole time to make sure her anesthesia went well. She fought until the very end but due to the aggressive nature of the abscess I had to euthanize.

 

[Chubbs the tegu]

So sorry for your loss

 

[Yvonne G]

@Kapidolo Farms - Will: Does this sound like what Dr. Weaver found in that male radiated?

 

[Chardney]

I have radiographs if needed for comparison

 

[Tom]

Most people start sulcatas babies much too dry, incorrectly assuming they are a "desert" species. They aren't, and this dry routine does all sorts of damage. I never see urates in any of my babies until the are much older and larger and I'm not soaking them so often anymore. This is a clue that the baby was started too dry and kept too dry.

This may or may not have had anything to do with the access. I've not seen anything like that before.

Do you know what incubation media the breeder uses? I'd be curious about that. And does the breeder go straight form the incubator into an enclosure, or is there a brooder box step in between. Some breeders mistakenly leave the newly hatched babies in the incubator while they absorb their yolk sac. I wonder if that had something to do with it.

 

[Kapidolo Farms]

My guess (GUESS) is that as the yolk was brought into the abdominal cavity some irritant came along with it and the tortoises body tried to wall it off.

 

[Yvonne G]

My guess (GUESS) is that as the yolk was brought into the abdominal cavity some irritant came along with it and the tortoises body tried to wall it off.

That sounds reasonable. It sort of looks like 'yolk' in the center of the mass.

 

[janevicki]

So sorry for your loss.? It is never easy. So glad we have experienced breeders and owners to help figure why she died. But nevertheless it still hurts when they pass on. Take care and love on the one you presently have.

 

[KronksMom]

When you have some kind of irritant in your own body, that's exactly the way you respond. Eventually, your body would try to force the fully encapsulated invader out. Obviously, this was just too much of an infection for this little one to handle. And, since it was inside of the yolk, and the baby needed to wall that off to protect himself from that infective agent, he or she didn't get all of the nutrients from the yolk sac either, explaining why he didn't grow. All of that is just based off of my understanding of human medicine and assuming it translates to tortoises, though.
Sometimes understanding more helps. Hopefully. I'm so sorry for your loss.