White spot on nose

NicoleDarling

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Oct 15, 2017
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Hi everyone. Today we woke up to our little Red Foot, Bowser, with a white spot on his nose. It was not there last night, so it must have developed sometime while we were asleep. I have attached pictures. I plan on takin him to a reptile vet in Yorba Linda, Ca named Dr. Greek tomorrow (we would today if it were not Sunday). We are concerned and would like to know if anyone has had a similar issue with their tort and if they could give us recommendations on what we can do today to help our little friend. IMG_8818.JPG IMG_0514.JPG IMG_8818.JPG
A little background:
Bowser is about 4 months old, and has been in our possession for about 1 week now.
He eats a lot of dandelion greens, carrot shreddings, and has had 2 servings of pineapple this week. He is soaked for about 15 minutes every day after eating. He lives in a tortoise table that we keep covered with foil to lock in the humidity. His temperature average this week has been about 92F, and humidity has been at about 75% (we're working on how to get it up to 80%). We spray down his enclosure about twice per day. We use a UVB lamp during the day, and a ceramic heat emitter at night. His substrate is the the Zoo Med Eco Earth coconut fiber. We have 2 Spider Plants, an African Violet. He has a hollowed out wooden hide. Despite the mystery white spots, Bowser is fairly active and is his usual curious self. His shell and the rest of his skin appear to be in great condition.

Any help at all would be greatly appreciated! We're new to this tortoise parent thing and just want our little guy to be healthy and happy :)
 

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MysticCaribou

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Looks to me almost like a scale came off. Is there something rough that he could be rubbing or pushing against? I don't know if that's what it is. There are people with far more tortoise knowledge and experience than I have. Looking at the bottom photo - it looks like you can see through to the back wall of what ever he's in that looks rough. And it doesn't look like he can get through that opening. That could be a problem as he might continue to try and hurt himself. You might want to cover that opening up so he doesn't try to get through.
 

NicoleDarling

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Looks to me almost like a scale came off. Is there something rough that he could be rubbing or pushing against? I don't know if that's what it is. There are people with far more tortoise knowledge and experience than I have. Looking at the bottom photo - it looks like you can see through to the back wall of what ever he's in that looks rough. And it doesn't look like he can get through that opening. That could be a problem as he might continue to try and hurt himself. You might want to cover that opening up so he doesn't try to get through.
Hi! Thanks for the response. Do you think it could be his hollowed wooden hide? The box he is in is just a temporary holding box I whipped up to hold him when I clean his table or need to have him out for a few minutes. He usually just pops his head out, which made it easier to snap those pictures. The surface is smooth and finished and is filled with the coconut substrate.
 

Redstrike

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It does look like a missing scale on the nose to me as well.

I also noticed the first and third pictures have white, fuzzy looking areas on the tortoises soft skin near his neck, armpit, and above his/her head where the skin is fused to the shell. Is this just the lighting or some weird camera trick? If not, it looks like fungal hyphae are growing on his/her skin.

Lastly, if your average temperature is 92 overall, I would lower it a bit. I like to provide an overall temperature of 82-84ºF with a basking location in the upper 90's. This provides the tortoise with more options and I think 92ºF throughout the entire enclosure is a bit too warm.
 

ZEROPILOT

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I agree.
The temps are too warm.
Does the white wipe off at all with a moistened paper towel, or does it look and feel like a depression as in a missing scale?
 

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