Overnight growth/ scales on Nictitating membrane in 1 eye

[AlyGator]

Have any of you seen this? I went to feed my 3 yo female sulcata today and she has some scale like growths on her nictitating membrane in one eye. I gave her a soak, didn’t notice any discharge, rinsed the eye with saline solution and started Neo-Poly-Dec ophthalmic ointment (she’s had 2 applications tonight. No other symptoms or drainage that I can tell and she’s eating normally. She’s a solo tort , but daily supervised visits with my vaccinated dog. She eats a varied, but controlled diet and no recent life changes that would stress her. Has anyone seen something like this?

 

[AlyGator]

Have any of you seen this? I went to feed my approx 3 yo female sulcata today (I homed her approx 8 months ago) and she has some scale like growths on her nictitating membrane in one eye. I gave her a soak, didn’t notice any discharge, rinsed the eye with saline solution and started Neo-Poly-Dec ophthalmic ointment that I had(she’s had 2 applications tonight. No other symptoms or drainage that I can tell and she’s eating normally. She’s a solo tort , but daily supervised visits with my vaccinated dog. She eats a varied, but controlled diet and no recent life changes though I had pneumonia for a week and couldn’t spend as much time with her, but my husband did. Has anyone seen something like this, injury or infection?

I thought about it and actually the temperature has been cool at night the last few days here in Tampa- she has an enclosed house with pig blanket at night. She also has the run of the property and could have poked the eye (hay, dirt, etc). Hoping to get her into a vet this weekend, but so worried 😟

 

[dd33]

It is something stuck under the eyelid?

 

[AlyGator]

It is something stuck under the eyelid?

No, the growth is stiffly attached to the membrane. When I soaked her in a warm bath I tried holding a warm sponge over the eye to see if it would loosen with no luck. She also seemed to be unaffected when I rubber ointment on the growth with a qtip. It seems too large for her to close the 3rd lid now and I wonder if it was growing for some time before being stuck in an exposed way. Hard to find anything online that looks like it though

 

[TammyJ]

Calling @Yvonne G

 

[TammyJ]

Calling @Yvonne G

Tammy, maybe you should call @Yvonne G a bit louder!

 

[Yvonne G]

Have you tried grabbing it with the tweezers? This tortoise needs the vet.

 

[AlyGator]

Have you tried grabbing it with the tweezers? This tortoise needs the vet.

I couldn’t move it with a tweezer, and no improvement with another soak today. I did find an exotic vet that will see her tomorrow near us in Tampa. Thank you, I will post an update after ♥️ she’s my first and only tort, but I was naive to the difficulty of finding a vet that would see her on short notice.

 

[TechnoCheese]

This is really interesting. I wonder what it is?
Wishing you luck tomorrow!

 

[TammyJ]

Waiting for an update after the vet visit! It almost looks like something got into the eye and skin is growing over it.