Eyes and Slides

Frankie continues to play on his slide - that is about ten days worth of amusement. I would say that he missed the slide when I removed it for the hurricane. He was happy to see it again after the weather calmed down. I am still looking to get him a ball to play with.

Big Turtle has an eye infection - her left. Her right eye is clean. Usually if one is infected so is the other; at least this is true for Big Turtle. Odd. I've been putting Terramycin on her eye (which I got from Bean Farm) and have kept her hydrated. I've also given her some vitamin A in a beta carotene form pill. I don't want to resort to Baytril.

I picked up a set of Specula (An instrument designed to hold a reptile's mouth open for medical inspection and force feeding) from Bean Farm. I've been forcing enough turtle mouths open that I figure I deserve some help. Big Turtle is particularly difficult as she will pull in and refuse to come out, period. She also turns her head, when I manage to get it, so that I am not holding her properly just below the mandible.

I did not post about our surviving Hurricane Katrina - luckily we missed her by a few miles and she did her major damage in Birmingham to the west of the city and we are in the east. Still, we were without any electricity for days. We had a generator that ran the reptile room air conditioner but no lights. Our phones all went dead after four days, trees got trimmed in the back yard, but we have a roof over our head which is more than many people can say.

We reached out to see if we could help anyone with turtles or Phelsuma, but had no takers. Greg put us on the list to take in displaced zoo keepers; so far no calls.