Thursday, July 31, 2008

More progress

Here is Ichigo in her tangle of plastic plants and chewed up lettuce. This week she has surprised me by eating pellets and cuttlebone, both of which float on the surface. She also has been consistently ripping up the lettuce that I have in a veggie clip although I'm not sure how much of it she actually ingests. She is shedding scutes and overall, is still making progress. She still isn't basking in the tub so I make sure she gets a good 45 minutes or so outside in the late morning so she fully dries out and gets her UV light. I keep saying I have to or I am "walking the turtles" which is pretty funny.

Right now my main concern with Pan-kun is that his small tank tends to heat up too much during the day so I am letting a bottle of cold water float in his tank during the afternoon to cool it down. Also, it looks like his shell is going to start to shed any second but I'm not sure if the little parts flaking off are from normal shedding or previous shell rot. I am putting Silver Sulfadine on the parts that look "off" just in case it is fungal.
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Tuesday, July 29, 2008

"Turtle Club" photos

I sold vegan cookies and cupcakes at the NADA County Affair this past weekend. It was fun until a family coincidentally came through carrying two baby hatchling sliders that they had just bought in Chinatown that they actually didn't really want. (What is wrong with people!!) I was wracking my brain trying to figure out if I could handle fostering two more or where they could take them besides the city shelter which I was pretty sure would be too far away for it to be "convenient" enough for them. I called my friend who I thought might take them but there was no answer to the phone. They eventually disappeared and I am haunted by not knowing what will happen to the two cuties. I cried in the cab home and again when I got home. The awful thing is that my friend who I had tried to call would have taken them....... heartbreak.




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Tuesday, July 22, 2008

Lettuce!

Oh my gawd, Ichigo ate lettuce. I am speechless and utterly overjoyed.
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Monday, July 21, 2008

Overweight

So I was so busy worrying about Ichigo not eating and pooping properly that it looks like I over fed her! She has a bit of bulge coming out where her back legs come out of her shell.
Now on a diet......... ack!

I will have to be careful about over feeding Pan-kun. He will eat and eat and eat. Right now just making sure he has veggies most of the day to keep him busy but not a lot of calories and protein.
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Friday, July 18, 2008

We are regulars at the vet....

Sorry I haven't posted in a week. The dog I am dog sitting got Giardia and we had to get everyone in the house to the vet for check-ups and dewormer just in case they contracted it from her. Everyone at the vet's office kept laughing because they have seen me WAY too may times in the past few months with numerous different individuals. The tally including the dog that is staying with us - 2 dogs, 3 cats, 2 turtles.

Dave was nice enough to humor me and make Ichigo an elaborate, temporary basking dock but after a few days it was obvious that it freaked her out too much and that she was never ever going to use it so we went back to our old set up with rocks. I realize wood is not water tight but we were going to use a sealer if it looked like she liked it.Oh well. We took it out, cleaned and dried it and put a cat bed on it to see if one of the cats would use it but no takers. Dave is kind of bummed that no one likes it.

Pan-kun is hilarious as always. I wish we could give him a larger tank but he is just going to have to be okay with his tub for now, until we move. Luckily it is warm enough right now for him to go without a heater because it would really take up too much room in there.
I finally found a commercial turtle food that Ichigo will eat. It's called "Turtle Yummies". It's basically the same thing as the turtle pudding I have been making but it comes in small servings that you don't have to refrigerate till you open a packet. It doesn't provide as much leafy greens as the homemade kind but I am relieved to find this so that I don't have to make it ALL the time.
Here is a picture of the Yummies vs. the Homemade food.

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Thursday, July 10, 2008

Pan-kun's vet visit

Pan-kun went to the vet this morning. He got a dewormer just in case and some Silvadene cream for two cuts on the underside of his shell. The vet said he is a little underweight so I can feed him a good amount everyday.

I was a bit worried about the fact that compared to Pan-kun, Ichigo doesn't poop as often but Dr. Luk said that as long as she is pooping every other day or every few days and not just once a week, that at this point she is happy with her progress. We also realized that she never got dewormed because she was initially being treated for Pneumonia so I'll take her back in a week or so just for that.

Someone asked me to post about how big Pan-kun is. His shell is about 4" long and he weighs .68 pounds.
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Wednesday, July 9, 2008

Welcome Pan-kun

So here is the new little bugger. Don't worry, this round plastic thing is not the tub he is living in, it's just for moving him, carrying him, when I need to clean his "tank" etc.
He's going to see the vet in the morning. I am mostly curious to find out if he is underweight at all and how much to feed him and if there is anything special she recommends for getting his shell back on track as it is really deformed. (You can see the severe curve in the previous picture)
He really will eat anything and everything and begs and begs while I am sitting on the toilet. It's hard to avoid looking at him in that cramped space.

Ichigo had a nice big poo last night so I am confident she is doing better. We will be able to raise the water level in her tub tomorrow finally so she will be able to swim. I think this weekend I'll ask Dave if we can work on both of the turtle's basking areas to improve and add more swimming area to both habitats.
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Monday, July 7, 2008

Uh oh, I found a turtle on the sidewalk.

While out walking Coleman this morning, I saw something along the sidewalk in some weeds moving. I thought it would be a baby bird but it turned out to be another Red Ear Slider turtle. Crazy. It was by a community garden so I walked over to the man on the other side of the fence and asked if the turtle lived in their pond and he said no. So I picked him up and brought him home. I got him a temporary plastic tub and I fed him and got him settled in. He is very "friendly" and will even let me hand feed him so I assume his former owners dumped him at the garden and he got out, looking for some food. He has a voracious appetite.
When Dave gets home from work, we'll figure out what to do etc, although he has already expressed interest in keep him. Good thing we are moving to the country soon because our bathroom is getting VERY crowded.
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Sunday, July 6, 2008

Too much energy

Ichigo's feeding tube was taken out on Thursday and she has been eating well. We have to keep her water levels low till the incision in her throat heals but Ichigo has been doing her best to swim and climb in the tub and I can hear her clomping around a lot. I can't wait till I can give her a bigger enclosure so she can really get her exercise and her excess energy out.
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Wednesday, July 2, 2008

The Tube is Coming Out

Ichigo gets her tube taken out tomorrow!
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