:: Life on Planet Dan-E ::

:: Monday, July 24, 2006 ::

:: Turtle Health Update ::

Thanks for all of you who sent well wishes to Big Mike. As it turns out, he was suffering from pneumonia (who knew?) and the prescribed method of care is daily injections of reptile antibiotics.

Actually, back up a little. The visit to the vet was a little surreal since I've never been to a vet before. I've had hamsters when I was a kid but my parents didn't think they were worth vet visits and they eventually died. Preferring to avoid that as an adult, I had the vet give Mike the full checkup: visual exam, an X-ray, a floating test, and a prescription of antibiotics. Seriously. X-rays. It was kinda cool, actually. They took it from three angles and what it showed was that he had pneumonia on his left side (as well as the fact that he swallowed a few rocks - little pig), confirmed when they put him in a tank and saw that he was listing to one side.

Once they diagnosed his illness, they prescribed ten shots of antibiotics to cure him. Did I mention that I'm the one that has to administer the shots? One of the lab assistants showed me how and where to properly inject him. As it turns out, I have stick him every day in the human equivalent of the bicep area of his legs and was specifically told to "rotate the legs each day."

I'm sure most of you know basic turtle anatomy in that their head, legs, and tails all retract into their shells. So trying to inject him in the inner part of his leg can be difficult since he tends to retract when he gets picked up. Every now and then though, he's in a feisty mood and the starts squirming around in the fingers trying to get loose. So when he's squirming in my hand, I have make sure to grab one of his legs, keep it pulled out (The Girlfriend is worried that I'm gonna yank his leg clean off when I do this, the wuss), and inject this medicine.

When I inject his front legs, he gets very snappy and I have to keep a piece of cardboard next to his head so he doesn't accidentally bite the syringe. When I inject his back legs, he just writhes the moment the needle goes in and, I'll be honest, I feel like shit afterwards since I can only imagine just how much it hurts (it's gonna hurt you more than it hurts me, Mikey). At least it seems to be working, since he's already back to his feisty self and his appetite seems to be back, somewhat.

What did all this medical care cost? $175. One Hundred and Seventy-Five Dollars. At the time I handed over my credit card without a second thought but on the way home, I have to admit, it hit me and I started wondering to myself "what did I just do?" It didn't really last long, I mean, it's my turtle for God's sake. But anyway, thanks again for the well wishes. I'll post pictures soon.

:: Miscellaneous Ramblings by Dan-E at 1:55 AM [+] :: | 0 comments
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