# Flesh eating bacteria on baby sulcata!



## Nicole edwards (Dec 2, 2015)

I posted some photos a few days ago of my baby sulcata and everyone said it looked like he might have mouth rot and some said it looked like a more serious infection. Well my local vet treated him for mouth rot and it got better for a day or so and then he went down hill quick with a serious looking place on his face. Come to find out after taking his to a specialist in another town he had a flesh eating bacteria on his face. The cause was from a jaw misalignment a couple months ago and things got stuck in his jaw and caused this infection. I just thought this information might be helpful to others that may mis diagnose mouth rot for this. Another thing that threw up a red flag for me was how clean and non infected his mouth looked on the inside. I will attach some photos so everyone will be familiar with the looks of this bacteria. Rocky is now on two kinds of antibiotics, pain medication, and a cream on the area & he is improving very well!


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## ascott (Dec 2, 2015)

Nicole edwards said:


> I posted some photos a few days ago of my baby sulcata and everyone said it looked like he might have mouth rot and some said it looked like a more serious infection. Well my local vet treated him for mouth rot and it got better for a day or so and then he went down hill quick with a serious looking place on his face. Come to find out after taking his to a specialist in another town he had a flesh eating bacteria on his face. The cause was from a jaw misalignment a couple months ago and things got stuck in his jaw and caused this infection. I just thought this information might be helpful to others that may mis diagnose mouth rot for this. Another thing that threw up a red flag for me was how clean and non infected his mouth looked on the inside. I will attach some photos so everyone will be familiar with the looks of this bacteria. Rocky is now on two kinds of antibiotics, pain medication, and a cream on the area & he is improving very well!
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What you describe is still a general issue lumped together in the term mouth Rot....the term mouth Rot is a catch all basically that can cover bacterial, virus, injury...generally this can be tied back to some type of stress, stress of emotional, physical or environmental nature...so if a third and fourth vet were introduced to the scene, they would also likely call or label something a bit different than the others....but the phrase of mouth rot is just indicative of something going wrong and not a diagnosis itself....just saying. I hope the tort continues to get well....cutie for sure.


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## ascott (Dec 2, 2015)

ascott said:


> What you describe is still a general issue lumped together in the term Shell Rot....the term Shell Rot is a catch all basically that can cover bacterial, virus, injury...generally this can be tied back to some type of stress, stress of emotional, physical or environmental nature...so if a third and fourth vet were introduced to the scene, they would also likely call or label something a bit different than the others....but the phrase of mouth rot is just indicative of something going wrong and not a diagnosis itself....just saying. I hope the tort continues to get well....cutie for sure.




Hmmm, don't know why my computer insisted on referring to shell rot and not the one I was referring to...please insert Mouth Rot in every place here that Shell Rot shows....apology for my crazy auto assist computer....


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## TerrapinStation (Dec 2, 2015)

Poor guy. Hopefully it will all be uphill from here.

Best of luck.


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## Jodie (Dec 2, 2015)

Poor baby. Hoping for a full speedy recovery.


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## mike taylor (Dec 2, 2015)

Thanks for the information that's how we learn . Maybe a mod could tag this one for us .


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## Lyn W (Dec 2, 2015)

Thanks for the information and I hope your poor baby gets better soon.


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## sibi (Dec 2, 2015)

I'm so glad your baby has a great mom! Keep us posted of his recovery please.


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## Nicole edwards (Dec 2, 2015)

sibi said:


> I'm so glad your baby has a great mom! Keep us posted of his recovery please.



I sure will! I'm so glad it was caught before it did anymore damage!


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## Nicole edwards (Dec 2, 2015)

ascott said:


> What you describe is still a general issue lumped together in the term mouth Rot....the term mouth Rot is a catch all basically that can cover bacterial, virus, injury...generally this can be tied back to some type of stress, stress of emotional, physical or environmental nature...so if a third and fourth vet were introduced to the scene, they would also likely call or label something a bit different than the others....but the phrase of mouth rot is just indicative of something going wrong and not a diagnosis itself....just saying. I hope the tort continues to get well....cutie for sure.



Well what Rocky had required a todally different antibiotic and treatment than he would with mouth rot. The antibiotic for mouth rot wasn't helping and it was getting worse so without the other antibiotic it would have continued to cause him pain and the bacteria would still be in his face/jaw. So I just wanted to let everyone know just incase they every run into the same problem!


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## 4jean (Dec 2, 2015)

Thank you for sharing! Good luck to Rocky!


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## MPRC (Dec 3, 2015)

Poor baby, I am glad he is on the mend!


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## Nicole edwards (Feb 17, 2016)

Just a little update on Rocky. He has gained 100 grams in the past month and a half and is extremely healthy and happy now! Didn't think I was going to have a good ending but I had an awesome doctor treat him!


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## Mary Siarski (Feb 17, 2016)

So happy for you and Rocky. I'm sure he feels much better. He is very handsome!!


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## sibi (Feb 17, 2016)

ascott said:


> Hmmm, don't know why my computer insisted on referring to shell rot and not the one I was referring to...please insert Mouth Rot in every place here that Shell Rot shows....apology for my crazy auto assist computer....



Funny you say that. I never saw "shell rot." I read "mouth rot!" Strange


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## sibi (Feb 17, 2016)

sibi said:


> Funny you say that. I never saw "shell rot." I read "mouth rot!" Strange



Rocky looks great! You are a great mom!


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## sibi (Feb 17, 2016)

sibi said:


> Rocky looks great! You are a great mom!


So, let me get this straight. Rocky started out with a misalignment of the jaw that caused an infection like that? Or was there an actual bacteria that got started on his face/jaw? Is there a recommendation to keep torts mouth clean from left over foods?


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## Nicole edwards (Feb 17, 2016)

sibi said:


> So, let me get this straight. Rocky started out with a misalignment of the jaw that caused an infection like that? Or was there an actual bacteria that got started on his face/jaw? Is there a recommendation to keep torts mouth clean from left over foods?


From my understanding he had a jaw misalignment and it started a bacterial infection and it pretty much just took over and starting to eat flesh underneath his skin before I started to even notice. By the time he actually got to a vet (which I found 2 hours away) he had gotten to a pretty serious stage but after antibiotics and a few shots he started to show signs of progress in just a few days. But every time he eats I clean his mouth very good with a solution that the doctor gave me just to be safe. Don't ever want that to happen again. He was in so much pain


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## sibi (Feb 17, 2016)

Nicole edwards said:


> From my understanding he had a jaw misalignment and it started a bacterial infection and it pretty much just took over and starting to eat flesh underneath his skin before I started to even notice. By the time he actually got to a vet (which I found 2 hours away) he had gotten to a pretty serious stage but after antibiotics and a few shots he started to show signs of progress in just a few days. But every time he eats I clean his mouth very good with a solution that the doctor gave me just to be safe. Don't ever want that to happen again. He was in so much pain


What's the solution? The reason why I ask is because everytime I feed my torts, I take a clean face cloth and wipe their mouth. I sometimes wonder if that can just spread bacteria. And, I noticed lately that one of my tort's jaw isn't aligned on only one side. He has never had a problem with his mouth, but, one never knows if a bacteria can cause problems down the road.


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## Nicole edwards (Feb 18, 2016)

sibi said:


> What's the solution? The reason why I ask is because everytime I feed my torts, I take a clean face cloth and wipe their mouth. I sometimes wonder if that can just spread bacteria. And, I noticed lately that one of my tort's jaw isn't aligned on only one side. He has never had a problem with his mouth, but, one never knows if a bacteria can cause problems down the road.


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