Hi everyone,
I'm a long-time reader of tortoise-forum, but have never posted. I've had my tortoise, Shaggy, for 20 years. He's never had any health issues, other than an eye infection about 15 years ago.
A few months ago, I noticed something in his nostril. He was not showing any symptoms of respiratory distress -- still eating, walking around, no mouth breathing and no nasal discharge or puffy eyes.
Still, I know how serious respiratory infections are, so I got him into the first reptile vet I could find. He gave him a vitamin C shot (sadly without asking me), cleared his nose out, and prescribed him nose drops, Ciprofloxacin .3%. I gave them to him religiously for the 7 days after. I waited one more week to see if his nose would clear up, and it didn't.
The second time, I brought him to a different reptile vet, giving her all of the information on what he'd been taking, and she ended up prescribing him a shot that I had to give him every few days as she said the last vet prescribed something for fungal, and she was going to prescribe something for bacterial infection. She also cleared his nose out with a scaler. He was prescribed Ceftazidime 20mg injection.
Both vets said he appeared to be in fine shape, heathly weight, not mouth breathing, no deformities in shell or beak.
Where I am now -- I let a month pass since his last injection to see if he just needed time to heal, and he still has this thing in his nose. I'm not sure if anyone here has experienced something similar, but I cannot find anything online. He is my only tortoise and has not had contact with other tortoises. I think the next step would be getting him an x-ray, which I would like to avoid unless necessary since he would have to be put under. My assumption now is maybe it's an abscess due to some substrate getting in his nose? Neither vet flushed out his nose, only tried to pick everything out inside. It is NOT skin/scale covering his nose, it looks pink and inflamed inside. Again, he's still eating fine, walks around, acts like his normal self. I've attached two photos, taken a few weeks apart.
Enclosure Details:
-He is in a large enclosure, roughly 4"x2.5"
-Water dish and changed daily
-Basking Spot ~95 degrees, 75W bulb
-Tank temp ~75 degress, Humidity ~50%
-UVB 10.0 bulb
-Orchid bark substrate
Husbandry:
-Soaked once a week
-Eats a variety of vegtables, mainly leafy greens
-Vitamin supplement powder added to food
-Beak/nails trimmed as needed
I'm a long-time reader of tortoise-forum, but have never posted. I've had my tortoise, Shaggy, for 20 years. He's never had any health issues, other than an eye infection about 15 years ago.
A few months ago, I noticed something in his nostril. He was not showing any symptoms of respiratory distress -- still eating, walking around, no mouth breathing and no nasal discharge or puffy eyes.
Still, I know how serious respiratory infections are, so I got him into the first reptile vet I could find. He gave him a vitamin C shot (sadly without asking me), cleared his nose out, and prescribed him nose drops, Ciprofloxacin .3%. I gave them to him religiously for the 7 days after. I waited one more week to see if his nose would clear up, and it didn't.
The second time, I brought him to a different reptile vet, giving her all of the information on what he'd been taking, and she ended up prescribing him a shot that I had to give him every few days as she said the last vet prescribed something for fungal, and she was going to prescribe something for bacterial infection. She also cleared his nose out with a scaler. He was prescribed Ceftazidime 20mg injection.
Both vets said he appeared to be in fine shape, heathly weight, not mouth breathing, no deformities in shell or beak.
Where I am now -- I let a month pass since his last injection to see if he just needed time to heal, and he still has this thing in his nose. I'm not sure if anyone here has experienced something similar, but I cannot find anything online. He is my only tortoise and has not had contact with other tortoises. I think the next step would be getting him an x-ray, which I would like to avoid unless necessary since he would have to be put under. My assumption now is maybe it's an abscess due to some substrate getting in his nose? Neither vet flushed out his nose, only tried to pick everything out inside. It is NOT skin/scale covering his nose, it looks pink and inflamed inside. Again, he's still eating fine, walks around, acts like his normal self. I've attached two photos, taken a few weeks apart.
Enclosure Details:
-He is in a large enclosure, roughly 4"x2.5"
-Water dish and changed daily
-Basking Spot ~95 degrees, 75W bulb
-Tank temp ~75 degress, Humidity ~50%
-UVB 10.0 bulb
-Orchid bark substrate
Husbandry:
-Soaked once a week
-Eats a variety of vegtables, mainly leafy greens
-Vitamin supplement powder added to food
-Beak/nails trimmed as needed
