Small Steps to Success!

[Altah]

Hey guys I thought you all would enjoy this as much as I did. As some of you know I rescued a 26+ year old female desert tortoise from a client about 3 months ago. She suffered from a massive abscess with some gnarly fungal infiltrates which despite multiple cytologies we cant get anything past it being a Penicillum. You can see in the radiographs the partial mineralization the abscess was going though, blocking everything but her nares from barely poking out. You can also see her gigantic urolith that we fully intend to remove.

Well anyways after 4 anesthetic procedures to debride and remove the bulk of the mass, my beautiful girl can finally bring her head out of her shell! This is the first time in over 3 months shes seen the light of day and her quality of life has improved immensely! An esophageal feeding tube was placed so I can continue with nutritional supplements, antibiotics and antifungals, but she is eating on her own which is more than I expected!

I fully anticipate that her recovery will continue and she will be strong enough to have he urolith removed!

 

[Yvonne G]

Wow...she's been through the wringer, huh? I am not able to interpret the head part of the X-Ray. And I'm very interested in that because I have a female desert tortoise with a chronic abscess in the nasal cavity too. So you're not sure yet if the abscess will come back? I had my tortoise's surgically removed the first time, but it keeps coming back.

 

[Jabuticaba]

That's one tough girl and she's so lucky to have you.

 

[gingerbee]

Wow!! What a tough girl you have!! I'm glad she's coming through so well!!!

 

[LeiiMaa]

This is amazing! What a beautiful tort!

 

[Jodie]

Wow. Good work! Thank you for sharing. So glad she found you

 

[Altah]

@Yvonne G: Have you had the mass sent out for cytology? A lot of the time abscesses will come back especially if not being treated with antibiotics after removal. Reptiles purulent tends to be a lot more granulated and thick then say a cat or dog, so even if a small amount is left in the cavity it can reform fairly quickly. I would gave a cytology done and make sure it actually is an abscess versus some kind of mass