Blood on egg?

[Katherine]

Good evening tortoise lovers I am a nervous mommy tonight : ((( One of my female sulcatas laid a clutch this evening and several eggs (17/34, 21/34 and 31/34) had small blood splatters on them. I have NEVER seen this before. It is her third clutch in under two months; so maybe she is over exerting herself? I plan to call the vet in the am and see if this is cause for concern but was just wondering if anyone else has ever dealt with this. Thanks!

 

[Tim/Robin]

Occasionally, they can experience some amount of tearing at the cloaca while depositing eggs. Check her cloaca and see if you can see any irritation. I would keep an eye on her, and see if you see any further bleeding. The tear could also be internal and not be visible. I would not be overly concerned since it is such a small amount of blood, but certainly warrants watching her a bit more closely the next few days.

 

[Katherine]

Occasionally, they can experience some amount of tearing at the cloaca while depositing eggs. Check her cloaca and see if you can see any irritation. I would keep an eye on her, and see if you see any further bleeding. The tear could also be internal and not be visible. I would not be overly concerned since it is such a small amount of blood, but certainly warrants watching her a bit more closely the next few days.

Thanks for your response. No visible irritation but I definitely irritated HER trying to check back there! Apparently she is modest; who know. My vet gave me very similar advice so just going to keep an extra close eye on here and make sure to give her sparkling clean bathing/soaking areas (a mission for an 80lb outside tortoise) to help avoid any infection. I feel really badly for my sweet sweet girl and appreciate the reassurance; thanks again.

 

[Tim/Robin]

That is good news. I am sure she will be just fine. Best of luck with the her and the clutch of eggs!

 

[cdmay]

Sometimes you see a few flecks of blood on eggs from young females or on unusually large eggs. Think about it...you can see why.
If there is just a few drops don't worry about it but as was mentioned, keep an eye on the cloaca. If there were a lot of blood that would be a different matter.

 

[Katherine]

Sometimes you see a few flecks of blood on eggs from young females or on unusually large eggs. Think about it...you can see why.
If there is just a few drops don't worry about it but as was mentioned, keep an eye on the cloaca. If there were a lot of blood that would be a different matter.

Thank you. This particular female is about 14 and has been laying regular clutches for the past 5 years; her eggs are always uniform and consistent in size and I have never noticed any blood before. Despite it being a minuscule amount I will definitely be keeping a close eye on her and will continue to follow up with the veterinarian. I am hypothesizing that her ovipositor is stressed from laying approx 90 eggs in less than 2 months : ( I imagine that wouldn't be very fun for her lady parts : (

 

[cdmay]

I am hypothesizing that her ovipositor is stressed from laying approx 90 eggs in less than 2 months :

Foo, just reading that makes my cloaca bleed.

 

[ALDABRAMAN]

We get a little blood on ours from time to time, nothing excessive.