Urgent Care :: Swollen Side of the mouth

[joem1481]

I have a baby RES hatchling. She is doing great execpt it looks like one side of her mouth is swollen. It looks like her left cheep by her mouth kind of. I can only see what seems to be like a white or light brown stuff by her mouth but not that much. The bump is not dis-colored but it looks bigger then the other side, kind of what it looks like when you get a tooth out and your one side if puffy and bigger then the other. Has anyone every seen this and what should i do?

[sonyj]

It sounds like an ear abscess to me. Is it a bump on the side of her head near or where the red stripe is? If it is an abscess this is extremely painful to your turtle, and she needs a visit to a herp vet.

Here's a link to a page that shows pics of what an ear abscess looks like (scroll down to the last half of the page). Take a look and let us know if that's what it appears to be.

Overview of Ear Abscesses

[joem1481]

i put the turtle in a sulfa dip for abot 30 minutes. Hopefully that will help. Is there anything you think i can do or that you tried? It is not that bad but it look like there is a little crust by the mouth

[steve]

If its an ear abscess, a vet needs to lance it. I don't think a sulfa dip would help for that - its mainly for fungal issues.

[marisa]

If it's an ear abcess, you need to take your turtle to a herp vet to have it lanced and cleaned. Because such abcesses are often indicative of a systemic infection, antibiotics are usually prescribed to knock the infection out of the system.

Do not delay. It won't go away by itself, and the pressure on the surrounding tissues is painful for your turtle.

Let us know the outcome.

[joem1481]

can this procedure be done with a hatchling turtle? My turtle is like 2 inches

[joem1481]

what kind of antibiotic can i use?

[marisa]

For an abcess, you need to take your turtle to a herp vet (there is a post on the top of this forum with links to herp vets if you don't know of one near you).

[joem1481]

i took the turtle to the vet they dug out this cheese like stuff from her face. He now has this opening on her face but i got this solution to keep it clean with so it should be ok now. Thanks for all yout help.

[marisa]

So glad you cared enough to take your turtle to the vet! The cheesy stuff was the pus. Follow the instructions for using the solution and keep your turtle's tank was clean. The opening will close up.

[joem1481]

yeah i have to clean it and use a tooth pick every day to pick out any of that puss that builds up until it fully heals