Penelope, our lovely lumpy lady, came into my home this February. Keeping her hot and humid humid humid on cold days and at night will hopefully help her grow in a more healthy manner in the future. She loves her soaks and eats like a little piggy. She spends every warm day outside in the enclosure I built for her. She has gained a lot of weight already (much of that surely is water weight - she was so dry!)
I noticed while watching her eat that she has a growth in her mouth, right along her lower jaw. It does not look inflamed, but rather matches the color of her tongue. It is firm, and looks like a little sea cucumber. It's about the same size as her tongue, but it rolls aside just fine while she eats. My guess is clogged salivary gland or gland tumor... I asked the previous owner, and he said she already had it when they got her at about 3.5" large. I am wondering if any other tortoise keepers have seen something like this?
I've attached some pics, including a close-up - the growth is the pink tongue looking thing that sticks out further. The pink thing on top is her tongue.
Since the growth has been there for years, it seems it isn't an urgent problem, but I do feel it needs to be taken care of. I am going to have the vet check it out and most likely remove it at the end of the Summer (to allow for plenty of good grazing outside in the meantime, since she eats so well now, is gaining weight, and I know a surgery will likely set her back for a while).
She has obviously learned to live with it, but my worry would be if it grows bigger, it could hinder her food intake.
On a different note - she sometimes has small frothy bubbles around her eyes when she gets scared. Is that just a weird leopard thing? Leos have that weird little extra eyelid that moves in from the side, which my RTs and Margies don't have.
I noticed while watching her eat that she has a growth in her mouth, right along her lower jaw. It does not look inflamed, but rather matches the color of her tongue. It is firm, and looks like a little sea cucumber. It's about the same size as her tongue, but it rolls aside just fine while she eats. My guess is clogged salivary gland or gland tumor... I asked the previous owner, and he said she already had it when they got her at about 3.5" large. I am wondering if any other tortoise keepers have seen something like this?
I've attached some pics, including a close-up - the growth is the pink tongue looking thing that sticks out further. The pink thing on top is her tongue.
Since the growth has been there for years, it seems it isn't an urgent problem, but I do feel it needs to be taken care of. I am going to have the vet check it out and most likely remove it at the end of the Summer (to allow for plenty of good grazing outside in the meantime, since she eats so well now, is gaining weight, and I know a surgery will likely set her back for a while).
She has obviously learned to live with it, but my worry would be if it grows bigger, it could hinder her food intake.
On a different note - she sometimes has small frothy bubbles around her eyes when she gets scared. Is that just a weird leopard thing? Leos have that weird little extra eyelid that moves in from the side, which my RTs and Margies don't have.
I don't think it is caused by over-heating because I monitor the temps in her closed chamber very carefully, and she does get bubbles from her eyes outside, where at the moment it is 70 degrees air temp and about 85 degrees shell temp in the sun. The bubbles seem to happen when she is frightened, e.g. if I pick her up (to take her from indoors to outdoors). It also happens when she is eating, so maybe the growth is adding pressure somehow. There are no bubbles at all coming out of her nose, so I am not worried about respiratory infection or anything.
