Thank you SinLA and Tom
White flesh
- Thread starter EppsDynasty
- Start date
The missing scales it seems are from her rubbing her eye. I watched her today rip of a scale on her leg. This morning is was a little loose, and her repeated rubbing with the left leg continued to loosen it. Finally it just came off, and exposed white flesh underneath. This very aggressive "rubbing" started with the mineral oil use, maybe a coincidence. Today after watching her you could see how the leg scale rubbed right on the top of her head. I did stop the mineral oil for now. Is this normal for the tortoise to "not like" the mineral oil and rub their scales off? And yes Yvonne I think I might of figured out the picture thing.
UPDATE: 10/25 So weight 636 grams today, last night pooped out what looks like couch stuffing. It is a ball of nylon "thread/string" the kind used for cheap furniture stuffing. Still very active and hungry.
Today 10/26 I tried Vaseline instead of Mineral oil to see if that irritated her and made her want to rub it off. It did, even the Vaseline made her rub, rub, rub. It does appear that there's something under the cap on her eye. I
Today 10/26 I tried Vaseline instead of Mineral oil to see if that irritated her and made her want to rub it off. It did, even the Vaseline made her rub, rub, rub. It does appear that there's something under the cap on her eye. I
I contacted Dr. Molnar and they told me unfortunately Dr would not be able to help due to being out of the country. They did give me a list of other Vet's, but none were "tortoise" Dr.'s. I continued my search and found
Rose Rakow DVM
We have an appointment for a "Debridement" procedure on 11/28............YippppppySuzanneZ
Well-Known Member
By that time things might have righted themselves. Debride, if you didn't look it up, is basically scrub off. Personally, I'd stop all oils. Maybe look up burn care in reptiles. New tort owner, just going on other animal experience.
By her behavior no more oils will be used. It seems this crack happened sometime ago, and was never supported. Her body naturally tried to heal the crack but without it being immobilized it never did heal. Everyday her "support" is changed twice and the crack cleaned and hydrogel applied. Our goal is to keep it immobile till the vet visit, have the scrub off happen, then keep it immobilized again. Hopefully this scrub off will encourage new growth, it being immobile will allow it to heal correctly. Who knows though what the vet says.
She just pooped out another ball of nylon thread......I should of kept all this foreign object poop and weighed and photographed it. Crazy how much non-food is in her.
She just pooped out another ball of nylon thread......I should of kept all this foreign object poop and weighed and photographed it. Crazy how much non-food is in her.
@Tom in case he knows of another or knows her
SuzanneZ
Well-Known Member
Tough tort.
Yvonne won't blame you for anything...She has me for a sister, she's used to outrageous behavior...lol I freakin LOVE LOVE the eggs.....
Actually, Maggie, I think he was very restrained in his behaviour. Only one egg ! He could have saved up several - or at least used a bad one !
Angie
Very sorry for not updating sooner, computer on the fritz
UPDATE: 10/26 669 grams. We started to give her a bigger area to walk around, free roaming in different areas of vegetation. Her being full of food and not walking like she naturally would couldn’t be good.
UPDATE: 10/27 693 grams. Again we let her roam freely while keeping an eye on her. She is enjoying lots of different natural plants, and figuring out what she doesn’t like. Because of only having the right eye her path is in big right hand circles. Very small amounts of Vaseline rubbed in with the cotton swab seem to not irritate as bad as the Mineral oil. The oil seemed to “fill up” the void, under the eye cap.
UPDATE: 10/28 669 grams. Again she had a little poop, it’s almost all soft digested material. Walking is her favorite thing to do now, eating the whole way.
UPDATE: 10/29 645 grams. The cap over the eye got caught on her leg finally. It didn’t rip off completely, bu it did present an issue. We had to use nail clippers to trim off the parts that could catch. She is a lot better now with rubbing her eye. It’s pretty clear that there is no eye. Bummer.....
10/30 & 10/31 634 grams. It is working...maybe. She is now having a bowel movement every day. Not big but small little pieces of soft digested material.
With my new computer issues i’ll have to post pics from phone separate.
UPDATE: 10/26 669 grams. We started to give her a bigger area to walk around, free roaming in different areas of vegetation. Her being full of food and not walking like she naturally would couldn’t be good.
UPDATE: 10/27 693 grams. Again we let her roam freely while keeping an eye on her. She is enjoying lots of different natural plants, and figuring out what she doesn’t like. Because of only having the right eye her path is in big right hand circles. Very small amounts of Vaseline rubbed in with the cotton swab seem to not irritate as bad as the Mineral oil. The oil seemed to “fill up” the void, under the eye cap.
UPDATE: 10/28 669 grams. Again she had a little poop, it’s almost all soft digested material. Walking is her favorite thing to do now, eating the whole way.
UPDATE: 10/29 645 grams. The cap over the eye got caught on her leg finally. It didn’t rip off completely, bu it did present an issue. We had to use nail clippers to trim off the parts that could catch. She is a lot better now with rubbing her eye. It’s pretty clear that there is no eye. Bummer.....
10/30 & 10/31 634 grams. It is working...maybe. She is now having a bowel movement every day. Not big but small little pieces of soft digested material.
With my new computer issues i’ll have to post pics from phone separate.
Keep the skin around the eye softened with some sort of cream or oil. I like to use mineral oil.
Poor little Jo Jo -it's such a shame about her eye, but she must be such a resilient little thing that she will maybe learn to compensate in her walking. Is the poop she is producing mazuri, do you think, or still something from before you got her?
It's lovely to know she is eating so well. I think of her a lot.
Angie
The problem with the mineral oil was me, putting to much. Mineral oil or Vaseline and she’s ok with it, in the right amount. Is 3 x day enough?
UPDATE: 11/1 635 grams
11/2 641 grams. Her poop is Mazuri we’re pretty sure. Occasionally a fiber but other than that it’s the Mazuri. She is so strong, and pretty fast. We will not leave her at all. We sit with her or put her where we are working. The weather is about to change so outside time is critical. I’m looking on the site to figure out all the new stuff needed. We’re going to use a room to house Jo Jo as well as our 2 razor backs in and hermanns.
UPDATE: 11/1 635 grams
11/2 641 grams. Her poop is Mazuri we’re pretty sure. Occasionally a fiber but other than that it’s the Mazuri. She is so strong, and pretty fast. We will not leave her at all. We sit with her or put her where we are working. The weather is about to change so outside time is critical. I’m looking on the site to figure out all the new stuff needed. We’re going to use a room to house Jo Jo as well as our 2 razor backs in and hermanns.
Mineral oil is non absorptive, so you only need to reapply as it's rubbed off. The idea is to keep the area soft and not allow it to form a hard crust.
It must be so lovely for JoJo to feel more comfortable inside herself - no more horrible sharp things probably causing her pain - just a pleasantly filled stomach-and lots of space to walk in - and to check out any other
interesting food ! Does she seem to recognise you and your wife at all?
Angie
UPDATE: 11/3 602 grams. Yep that’s right she lost 39 grams. She pooped, pee and “urates,” yippee. Urates or uric acid is a “Big” part of a healthy tort. Well at least the secretion of uric acid is. It took 3 weeks to see signs of protein being metabolized.
UPDATE: 11/4 622 grams. Operation “Eye Oil” is in full swing. Keeping her eye cap oiled has become priority 1. Every 3-4 hrs. I check to make sure the cap isn’t drying out. She has slowed down on the Mazuri, instead favoring the stuff she’d eat naturally. She escaped today on her walk, well got out of our sight. She slipped under a hole in the chicken wire. Both my wife and I were beyond worried. Imagine this, we loose the tort with a cracked shell that we’re trying to help. Yea I would feel like an idiot for about the next 20 yrs. We did finally find her, munching on her favorite greens.
Question about the mineral oil…. So am I putting oil on the cap to prevent it from loosing it’s natural moisture? Since oil and water don’t mix. Do her face scales ever grow back?
UPDATE: 11/4 622 grams. Operation “Eye Oil” is in full swing. Keeping her eye cap oiled has become priority 1. Every 3-4 hrs. I check to make sure the cap isn’t drying out. She has slowed down on the Mazuri, instead favoring the stuff she’d eat naturally. She escaped today on her walk, well got out of our sight. She slipped under a hole in the chicken wire. Both my wife and I were beyond worried. Imagine this, we loose the tort with a cracked shell that we’re trying to help. Yea I would feel like an idiot for about the next 20 yrs. We did finally find her, munching on her favorite greens.
Question about the mineral oil…. So am I putting oil on the cap to prevent it from loosing it’s natural moisture? Since oil and water don’t mix. Do her face scales ever grow back?
The oil is a softening agent to keep the scab soft. Hopefully you'll eventually see an eyelid and eyeball, but barring that, eventually skin and scales will grow back.
Congratulations on the urates - it certainly proves that her system is functioning much better ! You said you have an appointment with a vet at the end of the month - is it far away? I was just wondering how JoJo will get on with the travel, and if you may need to accustom her to it before then, so she doesn't get agitated.
Angie
