HELP ! I’d this usual in a sulcata baby ?

[zeus6626]

Hey guys , my sulcata baby is missing some toe nails . I have read something about a disease starting with letter A , I just can’t find that thread . Is he suffering from it? Pls help

He is eating well , pooping well
I got him 3 weeks ago
I got him at 67g , he is 73g today.

 

[Josh]

Any idea how the nails came off? Is there a wound left for any of them? They all look healed from the picture. Strange nonetheless. Unsure about the disease you mentioned. Do you remember anything else about it

 

[zeus6626]

Any idea how the nails came off? Is there a wound left for any of them? They all look healed from the picture. Strange nonetheless. Unsure about the disease you mentioned. Do you remember anything else about it

Thanks @Josh , I have actually seen one of the nails in his enclosure , but no blood or wound though. Yes I found the name of the disease *Austwickia* . Is he suffering from this disease? Sadly I’m from India , there is only one exotic vet in the country which is 3000km away from me , and from the reviews I have seen that there are not very professional aswell .

 

[The_Four_Toed_Edward]

@zovick can probably advice you on Austwickia. Do you have any other tortoises? Any yellow bumps on the tortoise?

 

[zeus6626]

@zovick can probably advice you on Austwickia. Do you have any other tortoises? Any yellow bumps on the tortoise?

I have one more , but luckily I have not mixed them since I got them they have different enclosures, different everything . Looked for yellow lumps didn’t find any though.

 

[The_Four_Toed_Edward]

Yeah, that's good. You should keep them as separate as you can before this is confirmed. @turtlesteve is one of our experts on austwickia and his thread is a good read: https://tortoiseforum.org/threads/a...-information-what-to-do-if-you-see-it.206999/

 

[zeus6626]

Yeah, that's good. You should keep them as separate as you can before this is confirmed. @turtlesteve is one of our experts on austwickia and his thread is a good read: https://tortoiseforum.org/threads/a...-information-what-to-do-if-you-see-it.206999/

Thank you , luckily he doesn’t have any yellow lump’s anywhere

 

[dd33]

This looks very much like Austwickia. Peeling skin on the head, missing nails and leg scales, patchy looking skin.
This is highly likely to spread to your other tortoise. You need to handle them both with disposable gloves now. Anything that comes in contact with the tortoise should be cleaned with an ammonia based sanitizer, or possibly high strength peroxide (minimum 6%).

Was your other tortoise from the same vendor? Were these tortoises bred in India or were they imported? Tortoises with this disease are being exported from the US.

@turtlesteve has some experience with treating this disease. If it were me, I would euthanize it before it suffers the miserable death of the rest of its body parts decaying and falling off.

 

[zeus6626]

This looks very much like Austwickia. Peeling skin on the head, missing nails and leg scales, patchy looking skin.
This is highly likely to spread to your other tortoise. You need to handle them both with disposable gloves now. Anything that comes in contact with the tortoise should be cleaned with an ammonia based sanitizer, or possibly high strength peroxide (minimum 6%).

Was your other tortoise from the same vendor? Were these tortoises bred in India or were they imported? Tortoises with this disease are being exported from the US.

@turtlesteve has some experience with treating this disease. If it were me, I would euthanize it before it suffers the miserable death of the rest of its body parts decaying and falling off.

Ahhh mannnnn !😭😭😭 . Yes they are from the same breeder . I think they have been imported from Thailand.

It doesn’t have any blisters , can I give it a week time or is it risky ?

 

[dd33]

Ahhh mannnnn !😭😭😭 . Yes they are from the same breeder . I think they have been imported from Thailand.

It doesn’t have any blisters , can I give it a week time or is it risky ?

If they are from the same breeder and vendor they probably both have it. You should still keep them separate for now and be very careful about cross contamination.

You can wait as long as you want, or you can also experiment with the treatment protocol that Turtlesteve discussed in one of his threads. This is a particularly nasty disease with a miserable looking death. It is also very dangerous to any other reptiles you may have in your area if these tortoises go outside at all.

 

[wellington]

Ahhh mannnnn !😭😭😭 . Yes they are from the same breeder . I think they have been imported from Thailand.

It doesn’t have any blisters , can I give it a week time or is it risky ?

I would not jump to euthanizing it. There has been some that have lived with it. Just keep seperate and wash hands before handling anything from one to the other. Don't share anything between them.
Euthanizing should be last resort and that's if things get worse.
Hopefully turtleSteve knows about the treatment/care of those living with it. I believe another member has a thread on it but unfortunately that member is no longer with us.

 

[zeus6626]

I would not jump to euthanizing it. There has been some that have lived with it. Just keep seperate and wash hands before handling anything from one to the other. Don't share anything between them.
Euthanizing should be last resort and that's if things get worse.
Hopefully turtleSteve knows about the treatment/care of those living with it. I believe another member has a thread on it but unfortunately that member is no longer with us.

Thank you . I am deeply saddened and really want to try the best I can give him from my side

 

[wellington]

Click on the m magnifying glass upper right. A search box will pop up. Type in Austwickia. In the next place you can type a member. Type in mastershake. You will find a bunch of threads/posts on the disease. Search through those to learn more. You can do the same search again and type in member turtleSteve to see what threads/posts come under his name.
Learn all you can from those threads and posts to know what to do and what to look for.
Keep us posted to please.

 

[mark1]

Hey guys , my sulcata baby is missing some toe nails . I have read something about a disease starting with letter A , I just can’t find that thread . Is he suffering from it? Pls help

He is eating well , pooping well
I got him 3 weeks ago
I got him at 67g , he is 73g today.

could be what you been told...... but any bacterial or fungal infection in the nail bed will cause this........ soak his feet in chlorhexidine everyday.....timeframe? try a 7-10 days....... 6-7yrs ago i got a turtle missing most of his toenails, she was also put on systemic antibiotics, she was much worse than yours appears....... some of her toenails never came back......

 

[The_Four_Toed_Edward]

This looks very much like Austwickia. Peeling skin on the head, missing nails and leg scales, patchy looking skin.
This is highly likely to spread to your other tortoise.

This is what I was thinking, just wanted to see what the experts think.

 

[zeus6626]

Click on the m magnifying glass upper right. A search box will pop up. Type in Austwickia. In the next place you can type a member. Type in mastershake. You will find a bunch of threads/posts on the disease. Search through those to learn more. You can do the same search again and type in member turtleSteve to see what threads/posts come under his name.
Learn all you can from those threads and posts to know what to do and what to look for.
Keep us posted to please.

Yep, that was what I was doing . I was fully learning from their experiences . Just waiting for @turtlesteve , if he could help me out with the antibiotics and the dosage and the types if I could process

 

[dd33]

This is the thread that Turtlesteve will refer you to:

https://tortoiseforum.org/threads/a...-information-what-to-do-if-you-see-it.206999/

 

[turtlesteve]

I do think this may be Austwickia, but I can't be 100% sure because I don’t see the yellow lesions. This loss of toenails is a typical symptom. It is also clear your tortoise is ill and not growing, because the scute boundaries have become deep grooves with no recent growth.

The thread dd33 linked you to has treatment details. You will need to give antibiotics for a long period of time - at least 1-2 months. If you use amoxicillin the dose is 100 mg/kg per day added to the tortoise's food. You can find amoxicillin in pills or possibly liquid drops. If pills you will have to crush them into powder and add the proper amount onto the food. For this you will need a high accuracy scale capable of weighing with 0.1 gram accuracy or better. It is very difficult to weigh and mix very small amounts of powder onto food each day. So here is an example of what you would actually do:

1. Starting with a 500 mg tablet of amoxicillin, crush it into powder, and mix with a similar amount of calcium powder (this makes it easier to weigh and mix later). You can use a small mortar that is normally used for crushing spices. Then, weigh the total amount of mixed powder.

2. Now that you know the total weight you can divide it into smaller portions. So for example if you weigh out 1/5 of the powder from step 3 it will have 100 mg of amoxicillin. Store the rest for later.

3. Figure out how much you need per day. So if the tortoise weighs 100 grams you would need 10 mg of amoxicillin per day, so the powder from step 2 (1/5 of the total pill) will last 10 days.

4. Prepare 10 days worth of food (pellets, greens, whatever). Wet the food and mix it with the amoxicillin + calcium powder mixture. Store the food in the refrigerator and feed the proper amount each day. After 10 days, take another 1/5 of the original powder weight to make the next 10 days worth of food.

I suspect that other penicillin group antibiotics will work, but amoxicillin is probably the best for giving orally. Others would have to be injected and having repeated injections on such a small tortoise would be traumatic. If the disease progresses to the point where the tortoise stops eating and becomes lethargic, I doubt you will be able to save it anyways.

Steve

 

[zeus6626]

This is the thread that Turtlesteve will refer you to:

https://tortoiseforum.org/threads/a...-information-what-to-do-if-you-see-it.206999/

Thank you so much @dd33 , you have helped me a lot . Thanks a ton

 

[zeus6626]

I do think this may be Austwickia, but I can't be 100% sure because I don’t see the yellow lesions. This loss of toenails is a typical symptom. It is also clear your tortoise is ill and not growing, because the scute boundaries have become deep grooves with no recent growth.

The thread dd33 linked you to has treatment details. You will need to give antibiotics for a long period of time - at least 1-2 months. If you use amoxicillin the dose is 100 mg/kg per day added to the tortoise's food. You can find amoxicillin in pills or possibly liquid drops. If pills you will have to crush them into powder and add the proper amount onto the food. For this you will need a high accuracy scale capable of weighing with 0.1 gram accuracy or better. It is very difficult to weigh and mix very small amounts of powder onto food each day. So here is an example of what you would actually do:

1. Starting with a 500 mg tablet of amoxicillin, crush it into powder, and mix with a similar amount of calcium powder (this makes it easier to weigh and mix later). You can use a small mortar that is normally used for crushing spices. Then, weigh the total amount of mixed powder.

2. Now that you know the total weight you can divide it into smaller portions. So for example if you weigh out 1/5 of the powder from step 3 it will have 100 mg of amoxicillin. Store the rest for later.

3. Figure out how much you need per day. So if the tortoise weighs 100 grams you would need 10 mg of amoxicillin per day, so the powder from step 2 (1/5 of the total pill) will last 10 days.

4. Prepare 10 days worth of food (pellets, greens, whatever). Wet the food and mix it with the amoxicillin + calcium powder mixture. Store the food in the refrigerator and feed the proper amount each day. After 10 days, take another 1/5 of the original powder weight to make the next 10 days worth of food.

I suspect that other penicillin group antibiotics will work, but amoxicillin is probably the best for giving orally. Others would have to be injected and having repeated injections on such a small tortoise would be traumatic. If the disease progresses to the point where the tortoise stops eating and becomes lethargic, I doubt you will be able to save it anyways.

Steve

Thank you so much @turtlesteve , for taking your time out and putting it clear for me . So as my tortoise is 73 g at the moment I would give him 7mg per day . It’s early in the morning here , so after an hour or two I’ll get the medicine and post it here as well 👍🏾