Urgent Care :: Bone Exposed on Shell PLEASE HELP!

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Post Posted: Wed Jul 18, 2018 9:40 am   Bone Exposed on Shell PLEASE HELP!

Hi everyone,

Squirt and I have been having issues since 2/8 of this year. He is a 7 year old male YBS. He weighs 2lbs roughly and is around 7inches long.

On 2/8 I took Squirt to the local exotic vet because I noticed his beak was looking overgrown. While there, they shaved it down and found out he had mouth rot. They put him on Baytril injections every three days for 30 days.

On 3/8 we went back to the vet for a checkup. His mouth rot was better but his skin on his back legs and tail was shedding quite a lot and he cut his foot on the box on the way to the vet. So, the vet gave me silver sulfadiazine cream 1% to put on the raw shedding areas and his cut foot.

On 3/20 we went back to the vet (this time a different exotic dr in the same clinic) and his skin was peeling even more and he lost a few of his front and back nails. So, the vet put him on Fortaz every 3 days for 21 days and silver sulfadiazine cream 1% for his legs. I changed his water 50% every other day and was dry docking him for about 4 to 5 hours a day.

On 4/10 we went back for a checkup and he wasn't doing any better so the vet put him on ANOTHER round of Fortaz (every 3 days for 21 days) and gave me chlorhexadine 1:40 dilution to put on his legs. I did 75% water changes everyday and dry docked him for about 12 hours a day.

On 5/1 we went back to the vet and he was finally looking better and we stopped the medicine.

On 6/28 I noticed that it looked like he had some whitish gunk under a few of his scutes. So I used a toothbrush to see if I could remove some of the gunk. Well a large white scute shaped gunk came out from under one of his scutes. It was smooth and wet. So on 6/29 I took him back to the vet. They did an x-ray to see if he had MBD and they concluded he does not. They said they thought he had a bone infection and they put him back on Fortaz every three days for the next six weeks and told me to clean his shell with the chlorehexadine. I've been dry docking him since then and putting him in water for about an hour a day to eat and poop.

On 7/16 (Monday), his parts of his shell where the scutes came off were exposed down to the bone. I took him to the vet and they tried to draw blood but were only able to get enough to do a blood smear. The vet prescriped him Akimacin injections every two days for 14 days and told me to continue doing the Fortaz every three days. I'm worried that being on both antibiotics are going to be hard on his kidneys. I'm not sure that they really know what type of bacteria he has or if he even has a bacteria. After doing some research I think he has vitamin and calcium deficiency. Through all of this, he has been eating regularly and is still very active. I have no idea what's wrong with him and don't want to give him all these antibiotics if they aren't going to help him.

Please please please give me any advice on what you think I should do. I've called them and asked for the results of the blood smear culture and they said they would call me back with the results. There are no other exotic vets in my area and I'm not sure how I should go about continuing treatment.

The two full body pictures of him are from February and March. The close ups of his shell are from Monday. They white cream stuff is sulfadiazine cream.

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Angcolb
 
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Post Posted: Thu Jul 19, 2018 12:45 am   Re: Bone Exposed on Shell PLEASE HELP!

Hard to see what's going on with all the cream, but you're applying to much (IMHO). I've only had to deal with small cases of exposed bone, where it would eventually come off and expose flesh underneath. It will bleed but form scar tissue to repair the damage. An exotics vet before has told me that they would debride the area, though I don't know if thats acceptable on a large area.

A blood tests should indicate calcium levels. Any rehabbers nearby? I would seek a second opinion from them as they may frequently deal with shell trauma.
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steve
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