28 Sick Tortoises please help, Bumps under Neck

zovick

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What were you going to do with 28 sulcatas? I can't imagine how much food, land and poop cleanup that is needed for that many.

Let us know who you bought it from, I'm sure he knows what he is selling...
This is pure speculation, but it looks to me as though this buyer probably bought some albinos and some hets hoping to begin producing a lot of albinos down the road.

Like you, I am wondering if he actually understood how large these tortoises will get and how much space and food they will require in just a couple of years or so. The four I had ate me out of house and home after they reached adult size. Mine were kept in CO and CT, so had to be indoors for the winters and the food expenses for them were very high in those winter months.
 

Thundersnow

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What were you going to do with 28 sulcatas? I can't imagine how much food, land and poop cleanup that is needed for that many.

Let us know who you bought it from, I'm sure he knows what he is selling...
Several of us have asked the poster of this thread Montana Pearce who he/she bought the torts. from. For some reason no answer.
 

Gijoux

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When handling the tortoises, we always use gloves, and we individually rinse off each tortoise before putting them back into their enclosure.

I have a designated room where only the tortoises are kept, with regulated temperature and humidity.

We switch our shoes when entering the room (sandals) and have been taking very precaution to ensure they have a healthy environment.

I have always loved tortoises and I have raised my other 3 without problems so I didnt think that raising more would be a problem.

What can I do different?
THIS IS NOT YOUR FAULT!! THE SELLER HAS TRIED TO MAKE YOU BELIEVE YOU DID SOMETHING WRONG WHEN YOU HAVE NOT. IF THIS SELLER DIDN'T HAVE ANY IDEA AS TO WHAT IS HAPPENING TO YOUR BABIES S/HE WOULD BE MORE INTERESTED AND WOULD WANT TO KNOW MORE ABOUT IT. BLAMING IT 100% ON YOU LETS YOU KNOW S/HE KNOWS WHAT IS GOING ON AND SHOULDN'T BE SELLING THESE TORTOISES. I AM SO SORRY THIS IS HAPPENING TO YOU.
 

Jan A

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THIS IS NOT YOUR FAULT!! THE SELLER HAS TRIED TO MAKE YOU BELIEVE YOU DID SOMETHING WRONG WHEN YOU HAVE NOT. IF THIS SELLER DIDN'T HAVE ANY IDEA AS TO WHAT IS HAPPENING TO YOUR BABIES S/HE WOULD BE MORE INTERESTED AND WOULD WANT TO KNOW MORE ABOUT IT. BLAMING IT 100% ON YOU LETS YOU KNOW S/HE KNOWS WHAT IS GOING ON AND SHOULDN'T BE SELLING THESE TORTOISES. I AM SO SORRY THIS IS HAPPENING TO YOU.
It is truly mystifying why anyone buys 28 at a time. Maybe he hopes to be a breeder. But if 27 out of 28 that he purchased have what we don't want it to be, what looked to be a relatively calm summer just turned out to be "could be really ugly."

It has parallels to what's going on for humans, but I digress.

Hopefully, he read thru some threads to see what's at stake. I would be very upset if I was going to have to euthanize 27 torts. And if I were a breeder, I couldn't live with myself if I did nothing but sell my inventory, knowing they were ill or potentially ill.
 

method89

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THIS IS NOT YOUR FAULT!! THE SELLER HAS TRIED TO MAKE YOU BELIEVE YOU DID SOMETHING WRONG WHEN YOU HAVE NOT. IF THIS SELLER DIDN'T HAVE ANY IDEA AS TO WHAT IS HAPPENING TO YOUR BABIES S/HE WOULD BE MORE INTERESTED AND WOULD WANT TO KNOW MORE ABOUT IT. BLAMING IT 100% ON YOU LETS YOU KNOW S/HE KNOWS WHAT IS GOING ON AND SHOULDN'T BE SELLING THESE TORTOISES. I AM SO SORRY THIS IS HAPPENING TO YOU.
One day I will own one of @Gijoux 's leopards!
 

mastershake

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sorry for being late to reply i somehow was never notified i was tagged in this this most def looks like austwickia. i did not see a reply to where they were bought from. you can find all my lab info here in the yellow bumps forum this is HIGHLY HIGHLY contagious to ALL reptiles please do not let them roam outside and do not touch or handle any other reptile or tort / turtle you may have at ALL without proper bio methods. there is no cure for this iF this is austwickia it can be held at bay for a while but it has come back later in every one we have had, testing (many tested now sadly) with multiple various anti biotics nothing is 100% effective. if you do not want to post publicly where they came from please get with me via pm. this could be a huge issue starting up again this year.

seeing as you have ivory and normal ones i have some ideas of where they came from already especially with 28 being affected...... please do get with me via pm i will NOT disclose any of your info to anyone. you can see by my threads we have been working on this for nearly 2 years now personally and directly with our lab. this would be a great benefit to know.
 
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mastershake

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Thank you for letting me know,

They are doing a culture, should I go back and do a biopsy?
you also can not properly culture this. this has to be done by resection. you need an actual plug of skin that goes ALL the way through and there are proper methods for testing this a normal culture can and does come back false positive for other things that look similar.
 
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mastershake

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ill go as far as saying if you want to send one my way to be sure we can arrange for that as well. but i would require to know who the seller is at that point.

i changed my email here so if you send me a message i should get notified ill check in daily though just in case.
 

Randy Micheals

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My girlfriend Sierra took the sickest looking tortoise to the vet. The doctor is doing a culture on it per request.

Sierra says the experience was horrible. He was very rough with the tortoise, examined the tortoise without gloves, and then scraped off a piece of he scale and then was scraping at the wounds on the mouth.

The doctor then prescribed an ointment for the tortoise. I got home from work and I look up this ointment and it is only supposed to be used for dogs and cats. Please, please someone tell me if this ointment is okay to use on the tortoises.

The doctor prescribed "Animax Ointment"

Is this ointment going to be beneficial?

Is this ointment safe for tortoises?

My girlfriend Sierra took the sickest looking tortoise to the vet. The doctor is doing a culture on it per request.

Sierra says the experience was horrible. He was very rough with the tortoise, examined the tortoise without gloves, and then scraped off a piece of he scale and then was scraping at the wounds on the mouth.

The doctor then prescribed an ointment for the tortoise. I got home from work and I look up this ointment and it is only supposed to be used for dogs and cats. Please, please someone tell me if this ointment is okay to use on the tortoises.

The doctor prescribed "Animax Ointment"

Is this ointment going to be beneficial?

Is this ointment safe for tortoises?
My heart goes out to you, and I feel your pain on this one, as my experience with non herp vets has been poor.

Regular vets often lack the specialized knowledge of care required to diagnose and treat tortoise species, as their training is "mammal centric" and reptiles are (here in Canada at least) covered under "exotic pets" which is a lumped together, rather short part of the vocational training. The ones I consulted seemed unwilling to admit they didnt know enough.

As @Tom has pointed out in the past, they can sometimes do more harm than good, while charging you a boatload. A good dedicated herp vet or my own well researched home care with guidance from this forum are my preferences personally. When my Greek was sick this forum is the only thing that helped me nurse him back, the vet(s) was 0 help.

Hoping you can find a way to bring your hatch back to good health ?
 

mastershake

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i want to mention that ointment will do nothing also if this is what i believe it to be. i just finished reading the whole thread i was driving home and just read the full three pages.
 

Thundersnow

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sorry for being late to reply i somehow was never notified i was tagged in this this most def looks like austwickia. i did not see a reply to where they were bought from. you can find all my lab info here in the yellow bumps forum this is HIGHLY HIGHLY contagious to ALL reptiles please do not let them roam outside and do not touch or handle any other reptile or tort / turtle you may have at ALL without proper bio methods. there is no cure for this iF this is austwickia it can be held at bay for a while but it has come back later in every one we have had, testing (many tested now sadly) with multiple various anti biotics nothing is 100% effective. if you do not want to post publicly where they came from please get with me via pm. this could be a huge issue starting up again this year.

seeing as you have ivory and normal ones i have some ideas of where they came from already especially with 28 being affected...... please do get with me via pm i will NOT disclose any of your info to anyone. you can see by my threads we have been working on this for nearly 2 years now personally and directly with our lab. this would be a great benefit to know.
Master
 

Thundersnow

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Mastershake I am possibly buying a 5-6 month old Sri Lanka or Burmese Star tort. From a Breeder in California in the fall. Now I’m very nervous about getting a tort that could have or been exposed to this disease not knowing where this is and how devastating a disease this is.
I have a 3 month old Indian Star Tortoise now who is the picture of health thank God and I am so very smitten with.I would just hate myself if I did anything to hurt(or worse) this little dollie
 

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mastershake

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keep any new animals FULLY quarantined for a LEAST 90 days. and in the meantime use proper biosecurity measures and you should be okay and not spread anything. its when people are not careful and dont listen and practice proper qt they have issues and can end up spreading it to their other animals. and to be sure you can even go as much as 6 months before any contact of anything is made. do not touch one then touch the other, do not share food plates or even food for that matter, do not share substrate etc etc. use an ammonia based hand soap to wash WELL after touching one before the other or better yet use gloves to handle the new one. if you are this careful any existing ones you have should be just fine in the end even if a new one is not.
 

Thundersnow

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keep any new animals FULLY quarantined for a LEAST 90 days. and in the meantime use proper biosecurity measures and you should be okay and not spread anything. its when people are not careful and dont listen and practice proper qt they have issues and can end up spreading it to their other animals. and to be sure you can even go as much as 6 months before any contact of anything is made. do not touch one then touch the other, do not share food plates or even food for that matter, do not share substrate etc etc. use an ammonia based hand soap to wash WELL after touching one before the other or better yet use gloves to handle the new one. if you are this careful any existing ones you have should be just fine in the end even if a new one is not.
Thank you so much for a quick response. I hope he/she doesn’t have it to begin with being it’s a deadly disease and the hefty $700 +shipping
 

mastershake

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its been "mostly" limited to sulcata we have seen it in an aldabra, redfoot and yellow foot now though. but it is unlikely you will see it in others UNLESS the breeder themselves is not careful and does not practice proper bio between their animals or buys new animals and add them into their groups without proper quarantine. but no one will know this except the breeder. best this i can say is buy from a reputable breeder and ask lots of questions to both the breeder and others who have also bought from them. sadly no more can someone just randomly pick someone to buy from. people never really should have anyway but now its that much more important to limit that to a very short list and to as much homework on them as possible.
 

Thundersnow

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its been "mostly" limited to sulcata we have seen it in an aldabra, redfoot and yellow foot now though. but it is unlikely you will see it in others UNLESS the breeder themselves is not careful and does not practice proper bio between their animals or buys new animals and add them into their groups without proper quarantine. but no one will know this except the breeder. best this i can say is buy from a reputable breeder and ask lots of questions to both the breeder and others who have also bought from them. sadly no more can someone just randomly pick someone to buy from. people never really should have anyway but now its that much more important to limit that to a very short list and to as much homework on them as possible.
Again many thanks for very good advice and even better information. I greatly appreciate it??
 

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