Tortoise pimple

Qwertyuiopgsggs

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My baby sulcata has had this weird pimple ever since I got him from a seller in AZ, he is the only tortoise I have.
This weird bump was extremely bard and when I got him it was transparent but gained a brown yellow color around it while the center remained yellow. He was in his enclosure today and when I came to give him his afternoon soak I found this so called pimpled popped and stuck in a piece of skin, there is no vets that take exotics where I live so Ive got no idea what it could possibly be.
This pimple is the only one, no signs of others elsewhere
 

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TammyJ

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You will soon get some valuable help. Please separate this tortoise from any other reptiles you have until you have more information. Wash hands after handling him, as you don't know yet what it is. Good luck !
 

Qwertyuiopgsggs

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You will soon get some valuable help. Please separate this tortoise from any other reptiles you have until you have more information. Wash hands after handling him, as you don't know yet what it is. Good luck !
Thank you, I sanitized my hands after handling her and she is my only pet.
I appreciate the help.
 

mastershake

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i was in the ER all week im sorry for not getting back to you sooner. this does in fact look to be a spot of the austwickia bacteria. are there any other symptoms at all? missing toenails, any swelling on the legs etc?
 

Qwertyuiopgsggs

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My baby sulcata has had this weird pimple ever since I got him from a seller in AZ, he is the only tortoise I have.
This weird bump was extremely bard and when I got him it was transparent but gained a brown yellow color around it while the center remained yellow. He was in his enclosure today and when I came to give him his afternoon soak I found this so called pimpled popped and stuck in a piece of skin, there is no vets that take exotics where I live so Ive got no idea what it could possibly be.
This pimple is the only one, no signs of others elsewhere
I think I should also note that the content inside was hard like a grain of corn, there was no sign of liquid or paste. Now the area has completely recovered, but I am not sure if it could return.
 

mastershake

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I think I should also note that the content inside was hard like a grain of corn, there was no sign of liquid or paste. Now the area has completely recovered, but I am not sure if it could return.
that is something you will see sometimes there is something hard inside the bump. very typical of certain cases of auswtickia.
 

Qwertyuiopgsggs

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i was in the ER all week im sorry for not getting back to you sooner. this does in fact look to be a spot of the austwickia bacteria. are there any other symptoms at all? missing toenails, any swelling on the legs etc?
No, not at all, all of his scales are in place, no signs of anything swelling or missing and I was expecting more bumps, but that was really the only one so far. The only difference that I noticed is that after the thing came off my baby is drinking much more often, before he only drank when I was soaking him, now every once in a while I see him inside his dish drinking. Another difference is that at night almost every day I wake up with poop somewhere in the enclosure that was not there during the night, that was not the base before thing popped. Once again I got him like this, so Im not sure if anything he does is not normal, but he’s active, he moves, digs, eat, bask etc. He seems like a normal baby. I will include another picture after that skin and grain came off, I kept him in warm water for well over an hour until it came off.
Thank you for the help, I appreciate it.
 

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Qwertyuiopgsggs

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that is something you will see sometimes there is something hard inside the bump. very typical of certain cases of auswticki
that is something you will see sometimes there is something hard inside the bump. very typical of certain cases of auswtickia.
I also think I should include that on the original picture the grain is hanging from a piece of skin, the spot where it was is that lighter spot near that yellow grain.
Im not sure if it matters at all, but she does have a split scute on the lower end of the carapace.
 

mastershake

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the original pic that yellow spot looks like very tell tale austwickia. ive seen over 200 cases in person now and that is for sure 100% suspicious of it. here are a couple of pics of the more typical bumps we see with these.tort bumps.png9ab183db-43ee-4aa9-a579-26caf1f94e93 (1).jpg
 

mastershake

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also the split scute makes no difference at all (i could not edit the previous post)
 

Qwertyuiopgsggs

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also the split scute makes no difference at all (i could not edit the previous post)
As that is the only spot, do you think it could return? Its been I think its been a week or so since that thing came off, so far no sign of anything new.
I also thought it could be some kind of fungus so I got a anti-fungal cream at Shaws, but I have not used it because it came off on its own.
Is there any chances of it curing this bacteria? And is it possible for it not to be it?
If it indeed is what kind of measures should I take?
 

TammyJ

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I am sorry also to say that it seems it may very well be the austwickia bacteria, for which there is no cure, and which is extremely contagious, so please keep him far away from your other reptiles and keep up with the strict hygeine and hand washing, no sharing of anything between your animals. Just to be safe! I really hope it's not the austwickia, but I had my awful experience with it too with a little sulcata. Mastershake is the expert on austwickia, and you should follow what is advised. Watch for other symptoms/bumps that may occur soon.
 

Qwertyuiopgsggs

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I am sorry also to say that it seems it may very well be the austwickia bacteria, for which there is no cure, and which is extremely contagious, so please keep him far away from your other reptiles and keep up with the strict hygeine and hand washing, no sharing of anything between your animals. Just to be safe! I really hope it's not the austwickia, but I had my awful experience with it too with a little sulcata. Mastershake is the expert on austwickia, and you should follow what is advised. Watch for other symptoms/bumps that may occur soon.
Thank you, I appreciate the help.
 

mastershake

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As that is the only spot, do you think it could return? Its been I think its been a week or so since that thing came off, so far no sign of anything new.
I also thought it could be some kind of fungus so I got a anti-fungal cream at Shaws, but I have not used it because it came off on its own.
Is there any chances of it curing this bacteria? And is it possible for it not to be it?
If it indeed is what kind of measures should I take?
it can def still be austwickia even with just the one spot, sometimes they have it and you dont see it at all on the outside and its found during necropsy. it can invade everything inside, bones, muscles, organs etc basically anything. the issue is IF this is aw it will remain contagious even without the bump. and in every case we have seen it did return on the outside sometimes taking a week sometimes 4 months. there is no cure for it sadly. some things will slow it down some but they do not kill it off. to even have a chance with aw it would take a combo of injectable meds that would prob kill the organs anyway. they have tested and retested and so far there is nothing 100% effective. anything is possible but unless they test the area which would require a deep tissue resection basically all the way through and now without the bump there it may be even harder.

its possible it could be something else but it def does look like the spots that tend to be more invasive that we see. the white ish blister like ones are also positive for aw but dont seem to be quite as "invasive" for some reason. when i see a lesion that looks like this one the very first thing i recc testing for is now austwickia. i have 100's of pictures of it and dozens of necropsies all have shown very similar findings. if you decide to try to hang on keep them 100% isolated from ALL OTHER reptiles including wild life i.e. no outdoors. i recc wearing gloves and do not touch anything after handling them. regular hand washing is not enough with aw. you can try an ammonia based soap like ajax dish soap but i do still recc gloves. and use an ammonia based cleaner to clean areas they have come in contact with. if they do take a turn for the worse and (again i really hate to even say this) if they pass you are welcome to contact me asap and if you would like to send them here i can have the lab necropsy them. do remember not all labs can test for it so if the vet says they are sending it to lab x make sure to verify they can test for this and a swab or a scrape will NOT be enough to get a proper result with aw.

did you happen to mention where you got them from? if you did i missed that. that alone could tell us. some resellers and breeders are now known to have had this in their groups of animals.
 

Qwertyuiopgsggs

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it can def still be austwickia even with just the one spot, sometimes they have it and you dont see it at all on the outside and its found during necropsy. it can invade everything inside, bones, muscles, organs etc basically anything. the issue is IF this is aw it will remain contagious even without the bump. and in every case we have seen it did return on the outside sometimes taking a week sometimes 4 months. there is no cure for it sadly. some things will slow it down some but they do not kill it off. to even have a chance with aw it would take a combo of injectable meds that would prob kill the organs anyway. they have tested and retested and so far there is nothing 100% effective. anything is possible but unless they test the area which would require a deep tissue resection basically all the way through and now without the bump there it may be even harder.

its possible it could be something else but it def does look like the spots that tend to be more invasive that we see. the white ish blister like ones are also positive for aw but dont seem to be quite as "invasive" for some reason. when i see a lesion that looks like this one the very first thing i recc testing for is now austwickia. i have 100's of pictures of it and dozens of necropsies all have shown very similar findings. if you decide to try to hang on keep them 100% isolated from ALL OTHER reptiles including wild life i.e. no outdoors. i recc wearing gloves and do not touch anything after handling them. regular hand washing is not enough with aw. you can try an ammonia based soap like ajax dish soap but i do still recc gloves. and use an ammonia based cleaner to clean areas they have come in contact with. if they do take a turn for the worse and (again i really hate to even say this) if they pass you are welcome to contact me asap and if you would like to send them here i can have the lab necropsy them. do remember not all labs can test for it so if the vet says they are sending it to lab x make sure to verify they can test for this and a swab or a scrape will NOT be enough to get a proper result with aw.

did you happen to mention where you got them from? if you did i missed that. that alone could tell us. some resellers and breeders are now known to have had this in their groups of animals.
My tortoise unfortunately passed this Sunday, I am absolutely devastated, incredibly sad. I decided that I will be giving him a proper burial, but I appreciate the offer for necropsy. I already informed the seller and they did give me a refund, I found out about him by a friend, people call him Fred Volt, he is from AZ and mostly breed leopard tortoises. I could privately send you his phone number. I plan on getting another baby sulcata, what are the measures that I need to take to prepare my enclosure for the next resident. You can find a post with it on my profile, my guess will be to safely dispose the substrate and clean the enclosure with some kind of anti bacterial, is that right?
 

mastershake

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im so sorry to hear that. but if austwickia is at all suspect please do not bury them they can spread it to the ground and to other animals. same goes if aw is suspect there really is no prepping it for the next one the best thing to do is dispose of it. you can try to clean it but i have seen many try only to have the next one also end up getting it a few weeks to months later. it is HIGHLY recc to unfortunately start over totally. i know that sucks to hear and u wish there would be any other way i could suggest. but if you want to be safe that is the best way. if you must try cleaning it the only thing that might work is ammonia. nothing else is effective.
 

TammyJ

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I share your sadness and wish you all the best in the future.
 

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