Hello My name is Rhea and I Have a Russian/ Horsefield tortoise by the name of Athena. To start off this story, I got another Russian tortoise and failed to quarantine them which was in October. Really cold winters in Minnesota as well. By December my other tortoise Athena had a massive aural ear abscess forming. I took her to the vet and they recommended surgery. The spunkiest girl, she woke up from surgery in 2 hours, alert and eating by the next day. Prior to surgery the vets could not get her vitals because she's so alert and not about it. This was also one of the coldest days for surgery. Post surgery we got her on a injectable antibiotic as well as Doxycycline. As well as tramadol etc. her wounds healed within two days and she was back to her old self. Fast forward to a follow up appointment they recommended nebulizer twice a day. Which I let them know I could only do it once a day. I believe this follow up was in January or February. I would cover her in a box and she would have her treatments daily for about 15 minutes. In March her bump returned and so I got her in again. Again sedation was a challenge and they noticed when performing surgery her ear was black. Which was not the case before. They tried to scoop as much of it out but she was waking up quickly. They ended up decided to stitch her ear open and prescribe and antibiotic with saline mixed in to directly squirt into her ear along with doxycycline. I did not do the saline/ antibiotic for too long about three days before her ear closed up again. As well as something felt off about doing this when a wound needs to be dry and heal. Now we are in June and her ear abscess has appeared again. Prior to this forming we did have another cold spell in Minnesota. Around this time I asked them to give me a water measurement to reconstitute the antibiotic of doxycycline which they said I should wait. As well at that same time, I encountered Athena and my other tortoise meet up and touch noses. I'm usually pretty good about separating them when they run around but got distracted doing dishes. In June here we are. This time more aggressive. Athena had been with me since 2020 with no problems and has been housed with 5 tortoises at one time for a couple of months. She has never had issues. Her shell is perfect her weight and diet it good. Her lights are perfect. I only changed her substrate recently because Coco coir is so dusty and it seemed to bother her sinuses which also could have been the cause of the first flare up. Post surgeries she's been in towels etc as recommended. Another factor is she was tested and she does in fact have mycoplasma. Which can be managed. And was being managed ok with Reptivitamin without d3 and doxycycline. But like I mentioned i ended up running out of it. I was encouraged by Joshua Tree Reptile Haven to write a post. As they feel that someone might know more about Aural Ear Abscess. Thank you for your time guys. 
