New Thanks

Thanks to Keith Knittel, Cristina Toro, and Ulysses Jackson for their donations!

New Thanks

New meds

These are Ichigo's new meds. We thought doing injections everyday was hard enough but now we have to give these orally plus one more that we have to buy at the drug store. I am dreading it. After taking radiographs the vet said that her lungs were clear. But what the doctor explained while showing us the x-rays was that her intestines are backed up and she's very bloated so she thinks that because she's a rescue and didn't eat for sometime, then ate a bunch, that her intestines are not pushing everything out properly and she is very backed up and either she is sort of throwing up or just letting out lots of gas from her mouth. She only had one day since we've gotten her that she actually pooped proper poop and that was only a few days ago so she said there could still be lots of whatever she was eating a month ago before we even got her, still inside.
Sooooo, what you see above is Reglan, which is supposed to increase muscle contractions in the upper intestine, and Lactulose which is for constipation.

If anyone has any good and fun ideas for fund raising please post them because the visit today was very expensive.

New meds

Pray for Ichigo!

All of a sudden she has gotten worse and is having a hard time breathing and is foaming at the mouth. We have an appointment at the vet at 6pm tomorrow night. I hope she will make it till then. Please please pray for her!

Pray for Ichigo!

Thanks

Thanks to Yu Yamaguchi for her donation!

Thanks

The wrecking crew....

Memorial Day - Ichigo decides she should wreck part of the garden which is not mine..... I hope my neighbor doesn't notice till it grows back a little. (Everyone in the building shares the backyard)

The wrecking crew....

Arg...........

Just when I thought things were going smoothly, Ichigo is not eating as much anymore and is worrying me. Even cooked shrimp didn't work too well. Just took one or two of the 4 pieces I gave her. Maybe I will try not feeding anything for a few days.

Arg...........

Meatballs

Tried to make those "meatballs" with veggies today but I got the wrong kind of ground chicken, too coarse. I think Coleman will end up with the left overs. If I get a finer ground meat (very weird saying this as a vegan) I think it'll work and stick together better. I was thinking maybe a "dumpling" with the meat on the outside and veggie on the inside would work better if I can make them small enough to eat in one bite. Ichigo was trying to do everything she could to avoid eating any part of the meatballs today that had any vegetable matter. She pushed with her front legs/hands to make the vegetables go away........

Meatballs

We had been having trouble getting Ichigo to bask lately and I was starting to get worried but today I caught her basking when I opened the door to the bathroom. She quickly dove in the water and bonked her shell real hard.
I bought her some anarchis, an aquatic plant, in case she would eat that but so far no luck. She also didn't want the cuttlebone I bought her to get some calcium into her. She carefully put it in her mouth and spit it out.
Spoke to the vet again today on the phone and she suggested making little cooked meatballs with chopped up veggies to get her to eat greens. A very time consuming little creature she has turned out to be.

Weekend Update

Right now I am trying to transition her from a mostly meat diet to her turtle pellets and veggies. I am stuffing pieces of chicken and shrimp with pellets and greens to get her to eat them. She is very particular about not eating anything that floats right now so it has to sink. I decided not to use salmon or tuna anymore because it just gets crumbly and messy in the tub. She now looks up at me when I'm in the bathroom to see if I brought food instead of trying to hide.
Runny nose is better. Still a little snotty but it's clear and not white.

Weekend Update

Food=Poop

Ichigo is finally eating. Our friend Amanda brought some fish she cooked that had been inside some sushi and we tried that and it worked like magic. The down side to this is that she now poops lots of mucky stuff. We hadn't bothered to get a filter before since we were already cleaning the tub out every day to take showers. So today I had to go get a water filter. I haven't figured out if she likes the noise of falling water or if it annoys her.......
I also had to get one more round of antibiotics because her nose is still just a wee bit runny and because one of the last shots backfired and shot back out at ME instead of into Ichigo's arm.
We are now down $75 because of these two things so if anyone is reading this and hasn't yet donated and would like to we could use more help.
You can paypal us at goodies (at) littlecakes (dot) org
or send a check made out to Hanna Fushihara and send to
625 East 6th Street #1B
New York, NY 10009
Thanks for your consideration.

Food=Poop

Backyard Fun

Ichigo has been feeling better so I have been letting her soak up the sun in the backyard every day it is warm enough for 30 minutes or so. She hasn't been basking on her little sunny island in the tub the last 4 days or so, so she needs to dry off or her shell will rot eventually. I think she really enjoys being out in the real sun. I may have found someone in the Bronx that has a pond in his backyard who would like to adopt her. He has 4 other turtles and one just died so he wants another to take her place. I am going to call him this week and see if I can visit him and see his set up to see if it will work.

Backyard Fun

Ichigo's Shell

This is what Ichigo looks like out of the water. If you look closely you can see that she has a piece of shell missing from the side and also the top of her shell is dotted with many circular dents which I can only assume was done by a human. The top is also very scuffed up. I wonder how she was being kept before she was rescued..... I actually saw the woman who I think must have been the one that sold Ichigo to Ines who was the one who bought her out of bondage. She was sitting on Mott & Hester with another large turtle wrapped in green plastic netting, so tight it could not move one bit. I couldn't look for more than a second. I know I cannot save every animal in need and it hurts when I am reminded of it.

Ichigo's Shell

Our new foster

Ichigo came to us as a rescue from Chinatown. She is a large female, around 10 inches long. She came to us with pneumonia and possible septicemia. We had to use our bathtub for her habitat as she is aquatic. This is a picture of her when we first got her. We keep a red heat lamp on for her at night because she is sick and needs extra warmth. She is receiving .1ml of Naxcel antibiotics every day.
We first purchased two heat lamps, uvb light, two special light fixtures with ceramic bases, water heater, turtle dock, water conditioner, turtle pellets, and had one vet visit plus a round of antibiotics. Thanks to the following folks we were able to cover these purchases; John Halbreich, Jaiko Suzuki, Moriah Carlson, Ryan Compton, Brock Pennington, Siri Wilson, Evah Fan, Faye Lozowski & Dave Dvorchak, Elyse Allen, Emi Kariya, Diego Hadis, Keith McCulloch, Shayna Kipping, George W Myers, Pamela Stark, Paul Kim, Ines & Justice.

Our new foster