Otitis?

[Guillaume86]

Yesterday i notice something weird on m'y tortoise head. I do not know what to think is it an otitis?what should i do?

 

[Tom]

If it were one side, I say it was probably an abcess. SInce it is symmetrical and on both sides, my best guess is MBD. I could be wrong.

DId you raise these from babies, or did you get them in this condition?

 

[Guillaume86]

MBD? What do you mean?
I bought this sulcata 3 week ago and it didn't have this before. I just notice that another have the same thing just on one side but smaller.

 

[TriciaStringer]

So just to see if I understand, you didn’t buy them from the same person or at the same. Did you put them together right after buying the newest one? I ask because I saw a similar post and one tortoise died after getting tiny yellow bumps and the other one did, I think a week later, after getting the same bumps. It was suspected to have been something contagious from the new hatchling. You really need to quarantine any new tortoises to be sure they are healthy.

I may have misunderstood the info you shared and I hope it isn’t something that serious. Do you have a good tortoise vet near you?

 

[Guillaume86]

Tortoises come from the same seller. One of the two arrived one week later.
in fact, we bought our first sulcata in june the 20. we wanted a small group so in august we took two others. unfortunatly one was sick and never ate alone so the seller sent me another one week later. those two present the problem not the first arrived in june
They share thé same enclosure.
I have a friend who is à good herp vet but he is living far away.i sent him photos. he says to do antibiotics for 14 days and cut off abces after 3 days of treatment.

sorry it's a little difficult for me to explain clearly. my English isn't good.

 

[Yvonne G]

You need to have a vet inspect the inside of the tortoise's mouth. There might be a sliver of food piercing the skin and causing an infection.

 

[Guillaume86]

I saw a vet today. tortoises have an oral infection with pus in the mouth. today it was difficult for them to squeeze jaws during meals. i have to give them an antibiotic treatment.baytril 5 %, one injection a day during 2 weeks.
i feed them with fresh weeds , grass and some letuce. i change the water and clean the bowl each day.
i don't understand how can they got that infection. i hope they will be fine.

 

[Tom]

These tortoises have not been housed or cared for correctly. Most people keep them too cool, too dry, and don't do enough to keep them properly hydrated as babies. I suspect this is the reason you are seeing this issue. Correcting these issues will probably go a long in helping correct these problems.

Here is the correct care info. Most of what you find out there is old, out-dated and wrong. The care info for this species has been wrong for decades and repeated all over the world.
https://tortoiseforum.org/threads/beginner-mistakes.45180/
https://tortoiseforum.org/threads/how-to-raise-a-healthy-sulcata-or-leopard-version-2-0.79895/
https://tortoiseforum.org/threads/for-those-who-have-a-young-sulcata.76744/

 

[TriciaStringer]

I saw a vet today. tortoises have an oral infection with pus in the mouth. today it was difficult for them to squeeze jaws during meals. i have to give them an antibiotic treatment.baytril 5 %, one injection a day during 2 weeks.
i feed them with fresh weeds , grass and some letuce. i change the water and clean the bowl each day.
i don't understand how can they got that infection. i hope they will be fine.

I hope they recover fully. Glad it was diagnosed.

 

[Guillaume86]

Thank you. i hope too.

 

[Yvonne G]

Thank you for sharing this with us. Just today I read about someone with the same problem here in the states. I'm glad you took your tortoise to the vet, and hopefully the antibiotics will do the trick for you.

 

[vladimir]

Good luck! Let us know how he does

 

[Guillaume86]

Good luck! Let us know how he does

Yes of course.i will update asap.
Today i started the treatment.i didn't find baytril so my vet gave me marbocyl.
It's easy for me because i work with differents vets. I'm vet assistant so i can get treatment rapidly and i don't spend a lot of money for that.
The two tortoises eat until the infection so i think it's not too late.i cross the fingers.

 

[Guillaume86]

Hi, today is the fourth day of treatment.

I don't see any improvement for the time being. The absces are always inflated.
The tortoise seems suffer from the infection.It's difficult for her to close its jaws.

the positive point is that she eats.I feed her by hand 2 times a day with small pieces of grass and komodo pellets. I'm pretty sure that she eats when I'm not here. yesterday she had pellets all around the mouth when I came from work.

 

[Guillaume86]

Hi, I update the thread with good news.
After 10 days of treatment, the tortoise seems to be healed. abces have disappeared and she eats normally.
his weight has increased by 8 grs the last few days .
I'm very happy for her.

 

[Yvonne G]

Oh that's great news!

 

[TriciaStringer]

Love to hear this news!

 

[Guillaume86]

after 18 days of antibiotic treatment, my tortoise is fine.
I will stop the injections tomorrow.
i continue to soak her two times a day during one week or more.
so all is good, she enjoys her new enclosure.