Nasal Abscess in Tortoise?

[t0rt0isegirl]

Hi everyone,

I think my Russian tortoise has a nasal abscess. Has anyone ever dealt with this before? Any recommendations when I take him to the vet?

I’ve taken him to three different exotic vets for a nasal blockage. At first they thought it could be a respiratory infection (even though I knew it wasn’t — he had no symptoms just a nasal blockage). They gave him antibiotics to no avail (first vet gave nasal drops, second was injections). The nasal blockage is still there and I fear it’s getting worse. When I was giving him a bath today I noticed a slight erosion of the tissue around his nare.

The last vet I took him to said she thinks he needs surgery where she’d put him under and try to remove the hard blockage. She did agree she didn’t think it was a respiratory infection. She said I should use surgery as a last resort since anesthesia with tortoises can be risky, and told me to wait to see if he starts getting worse health-wise. He’s not worse health-wise, but I’ve read that nasal abscesses don’t necessarily deteriorate health unless it bursts or erodes into nearby structures.

Im going to take him back to the third vet to get a surgery consult. I don’t see this getting better any other way, and my research on abscesses said it needs surgical remediation. Just wanted to throw this out there to see if anyone went through something similar. If so, did surgery help?

I’ve had my guy for over 20 years and have never had a problem with him. It would break my heart to see him deteriorate too, so if he needs surgery I’d rather it be while he’s healthy.

 

[mark1]

pretty sure that's caused by an active bacterial infection, an upper respiratory infection..... i'd think an important part of the solution are antibiotics.... there are some resistant bacteria out there , getting some bacterial infections involves a lot more than one round of one type of antibiotic..... a culture may help...... the kind of antibiotics matter..... a good guess as to the most likely bacteria is a type of mycoplasma, what antibiotic was given? the hard part is getting the right antibiotic to where the infection is......i would think a quick sedation to open up the nares/abscess would be all that's needed...

 

[t0rt0isegirl]

pretty sure that's caused by an active bacterial infection, an upper respiratory infection..... i'd think an important part of the solution are antibiotics.... there are some resistant bacteria out there , getting some bacterial infections involves a lot more than one round of one type of antibiotic..... a culture may help...... the kind of antibiotics matter..... a good guess as to the most likely bacteria is a type of mycoplasma, what antibiotic was given? the hard part is getting the right antibiotic to where the infection is......i would think a quick sedation to open up the nares/abscess would be all that's needed...

Hey Mark,
Thank you so much for the response! I took him in today and they did X-rays and ran the cultures you said. Hopefully that can tell us more about it. The x-rays were normal - no bone or anything infiltrating his nostrils.

Previously he was prescribed:
First vet - nose drops, Ciprofloxacin .3%
Second vet - Ceftazidime 20mg injection

Neither helped with whatever is in his nose. With mycoplasma, have you seen any cases where a tortoise develops it without being in contact with another reptile/tortoise? Shaggy is my only tortoise, and before his singular blocked nare, he hasn't been to a vet/outside his typical environment in over 15 years. Wondering if a mite could have done it...

If he does have a respiratory infection, I'll be surprised. He's still high energy, eating, no nasal discharge, no watery eyes, weight consistent. Just this thing in his nose... I waited around 3 months between each vet visit, so his blocked nare has been going on for ~9 months with no deterioration. That's why I was wondering if it could just be an abcess? Or maybe the antibiotics above were just keeping it at bay?