DonnaM

Jessica (earthquake refugee who will one day go home) has been living in the snake neck pond this summer. Today Jessica was observed to have a lump on her mouth. It was a bit like a giant pimple! I suspect she got a toe jabbed into her lip during feeding and it's infected. There is no redness or signs of any issue other then the localised pustule. She's currently tucked up in dry dock with a dose of chlorsig antibiotic ointment on the area.

Braveheart update...No swelling, no bleeding, no vomitting, have stopped the antibiotics and he's eating anything in sight! :bounce: One happy turtle

It would be a pleasure to have you visit. Thank-you so much! I'd love to see the stories! PM me for address details if you like.

Braveheart is still hanging in there. No real progress for a diagnosis. His neck is still swollen and there is still small amounts of blood at times when he is eating or having his antibiotics. The following pics are from last week when he was still bleeding significantly from the Fine Needle Aspiration. These were 12 and 13 days post the FNA. Fortunately he wasn't bleeding all the time! His extreme Metabolic Bone Disease has no doubt led to a problem with his bleeding. He possibly has a goiter causing the swelling...another probable issue from his diabolical past life. The FNA ruled out cancer and showed some kind of inflammatory process That's food next to the syringe. He struggles to get food down due to the swelling around his throat.

Yes, unfortunately the people that promised me a Web site for turtle rescue by November....haven't made any progress....... :nilly:

Todays rescue turtle. He was found running down the street in St Martins. He's only a wee fella! I've had 3 more in this week! :facepalm:

Thanks team! Stickied...wow! Anyway, Braveheart had x.rays at the vet which showed no foreign body, just significant tissue swelling. A Fine Needle Aspiration...well 4 jabs in the throat actually....revealed watery blood. BUT, his mouth filled up with blood and then clots as she must have gone through the oesophagus with the needle. Not nice He was put in water and spat out blood clots...then ate it...then spat it out...just like he does with his food. FNA showed "Blood with filaments- may be artifact-" (whatever that means) and so the pathologist will check out the other smears next Tuesday. Vets at a loss and is looking things up to see if she can work out whats going on. I'm going away for a week on Sunday.....hope we can sort something out before then! Bravehearts blood smears in the back-ground X.ray area after Pauline had x.rayed him. She's still wearing the lead collar!

Braveheart arrived Dec 29th...found by a demolition crew wandering in a garden. His skin colouring indicates he's probably over 10 years or so, but he is a very small 'meat-pie' turtle with a soft shell. He's made good progress and has a great personality! This week he's started vomiting his food and his neck/throat area appears swollen. Off to the vet tomorrow. It's as though he gets the food stuck in his throat and then spits it up again...almost looks like it did before he swallowed it. Even when up on the basking area he keeps swallowing and has the odd drop of water dribbling from his mouth.

:thup: Really enjoyed it! Nice photo of you Alan!

Niiiiiice!!!!!! :love: ....

Well if you do head off on the big adventure, you are welcome back here anytime! I'll try and keep the turtles from clunking too loudly for you :lol:

Her plastron is still very concave, but doesn't seem to be as bad as when she first arrived Her shell still has a lot of shedding to do, but there are small patches of green showing. Many healed micro-ulcers are evident under the shedding scutes. Must admit after her being blind for 3 months and not able to feed herself for about that long as well I really wondered if she would make it! But there's no turning back for her now! (However she won't be spending winter outside just yet!)

Pisces has had her first taste of life in a pond. Its 1 mtre deep, so the photos of her on bottom of pond are not that clear..... Checking out the bubbles from the filter outlet....a favourite past-time of many turtles!

Pisces Update! She is quite unrecognisable from the first photos. Some of the scutes have started to shed and reveal the coloured scutes underneath. She has a great appetite and attitude but is still a bit shy about having her photo taken! Pisces making the most of her tankmate by using her to get closer to the lights.

Awesome setup!

I'll provide sausages and bread :bounce: Hope to see you there!

They fooled us! Put it on in the main news hour and not at end like they said it would be.... I only just caught it as rushed home in tea break. On video....if I got the tape in on time....so you can catch it (very short) when you're here Yes Squirt, WAY too small for one female...but especially small for 2! They are already going to visit me and sort out the possibility of a pond in their garden as have 2 females.

No its a GOOD NEWS segment! :thup:

Donna and Turtle Rescue in Chch will be on TV1 news tonight!!! At the end of the TV1 news will be a segment about a turtle that has been found by its owners 11mths after going missing. TV1 phoned me and came here and did some filming for the piece. Then they took me to meet the family and to check over the turtle. Lovely family and 2 very big female turtles. Turtle is currently here in an antibiotic bath and the family will collect it in a few days. So keep an eye out for me (and maybe Milo the dog) and a turtle or 10 tonight at end of TV1 news (Sorry the catch-up visit was cut short by a TV crew Karzncats :facepalm: ) Random!

The girls pond area. My 23 yr old male (Rocky) has 15 females in this pond at the moment :love: Milo has a very stressful life.... :sml1: Yum! Fish for tea! (Herring) Miss Turtle always rushes out to greet people.

Boys pond area. I still need to get a fence sorted between these two ponds. Its a nice sunny spot to eat breakfast or lunch The latest bout of earthquakes means needing to try and reduce the 14 large tanks I was running in the house. So I've set up temporary ponds on the drive....don't think I'll get the car parked IN the garage for a year or two at this rate! Only 7 tanks inside at the moment and 2 empty ones in the conservatory ready to be filled when more refugee turtles arrive. Oh, plus there's a 5 ft turtle and 5ft fish tank running in the garage. :roll:

Some pics of my pond area Always upgrading...here's the new/old gate going in to expand the basking area for two ponds. Snakenecks pond

Milo checks out the sickbay! Dry Docking and catching some healing UV rays...and a bit of shade!

My ponds Females love living outside and wandering around looking for a spot to lay eggs by the ponds. The eggs don't hatch, just turn into compost.

Some updates. Sadly another male that didnt make it. He came out of hibernation in a bad way and was euthanazed. Fundraising stall at the local primary school. The turtles were very popular. :thup: Don't know how many people started to talk...then stop and go..."Oh thats you! You're the turtle lady from the newspaper." or "I saw you on TV on the SPCA earthquake programme...you made me cry!" :tears: Friends have created "Turtle Sanctuary" and take on my "overflow" female turtles when I have too many here. Its a beuatiful 10 x 15m pond made from dam liner with an island in the middle. There's curently about 30 turtles out there and 58 turtles here!!! :facepalm: Tybar (Friends Border Collie) made the most of the turtles all being contained in a shelter while we did post winter checks and weights etc. He loved splashing around and checking out the island!