Lump on radiated tortoise head. Is it abscess?

Cheryl Hills

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Stoneman

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That is for humans, tortoises are different. Many bacteria and other things can harm or effect people but do nothing to torts.

Trusting your gut instinct to help by giving matter of fact advice when you don't understand the condition is reckless and will possibly result in death. Please don't do that again. If the original poster followed your advice, the conditions would get much worse. All I did was point out that absesses can be serious conditions. I consulted "Essentials of Tortoise Medicine" so that I could a straight answer from a legitimate source. Surgery is necessary for treatment of this condition.
 

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Stoneman

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Not really true of superficial abscesses, first line therapy is always incision & drainage for an abscess...

Just because the treatment is removal of the pustular material does not mean that it is not a serious condition that can lead to death. Both statements are true, it requires surgery and is serious. Additionally, I would not really consider the area underneath the tympanic membrane to be "superficial." Whatever that is supposed to mean. It connects to the oropharynx via the auditory tube. There is a lot of important stuff around there. It is not like a blister on the skin, something that is above and away from organs and body systems.
 

Yvonne G

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I'm not a doctor (nor do I play one on TV), but from experience, I KNOW that a tympanic abscess in turtles and tortoises walls itself off and turns hard when left alone. I doubt it spreads throughout the animal's system to poison him. When I've lanced old abscesses, the material comes out in one big ball of hardened pus.

I was my understanding that the tympanic abscess is there due to an infection somewhere in the animal's body/system, not necessarily because of an infection at the ear site. So a round of antibiotics is in order when lancing an ear abscess, just to be sure you've killed off any infections in the animal.
 

Stoneman

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Yes, I would absolutely agree to give it antibiotics after the tissue is sealed. Whether the original infection site was the ear or elsewhere, it is a good precaution to make sure the body is clean of it. I am sure no matter how clean the surgery is, there will be microorganisms that enter, it happens in super clean E.R s all the time.
 
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