To start the story, for those of you who don't know, we have 2 pet turtles. The turtles are about 2 years old. They belong to Maggie and Jada and they are named Rock and CeCe. They are very fun to watch and fairly easy to take care of, well, until recently. Here are Rock and CeCe swimming around in their tank with their #1 spectator.
Okay, so now you that you have met the turtles, I can explain the rest of the story. CeCe, the smaller of the turtles, has been sick since we came home from vacation. He was swimming around less and his eyes were swollen. He continued to get worse. Of course, I have a PhD in Google-ing, so I did what any good doc would do and Dr. Googled our turtles condition. I diagnosed him with an eye infection and put him in a separate "sick tank". I kept him warm, and dry. I administered drops in his eyes three times a day. I made sure he ate by pushing the food close to his mouth. After several weeks, he was getting no better. I had read that a vitamin A shot may be the only thing to help. Of course, this is available only by a vet. I finally found an Exotic Pet Veterinarian. It only took 7 phone calls. Yes, 7 different phone calls! They said they would work me in, but I may have to wait awhile. They also told me that it would be $60.00 for the pet to be examined, plus any treatments. I said sure, that's fine. Did I mention that this Exotic Vet was in Conyers.. over an hour away?!
We arrived at the vets.. finally... and unloaded CeCe.
We had to wait for the Vet to finish surgery on a cat before we could be seen. This turned into an hour wait. I was going stir crazy. We had already driven over an hour, and now had waited over an hour to be seen! Little Kennedy was getting bored too. She did really well though!
Finally they took us to the room. They weighed CeCe (who weighed .45 grams by the way.)
They took his vitals and asked lots of questions.
Then the vet began to examine him. She looked, and looked, looked.
After examining the turtle for a loooong time,she said it would need to continue to be in a seperate tank, and I would need to buy a heat lamp to keep him 82 degrees. She said it was dehydrated. She said I would need to wet and mush up his food and force feed it to him with a dropper. She also said he needed a vitamin A shot (which I knew). She then proceeded to tell me that they were OUT of vitamin A shots, and she was calling around to see if she could get some from another vets office. She also told me she could order it and I could bring him back the next day....
OKAY. STOP.
I could no longer handle it anymore.
This is where I draw the line.
Not only had I been taking care of this sick turtle for almost 4 weeks, but I had also driven all the way to Conyers with him. Now, she was telling me to come back the next day, and take even MORE of my time to forcefeed this turtle and keep him 82 degrees in a sick tank and keep him hydrated while I take care of our family of six!?
Fortunately, for the turtle AND for me.. the vet tech loves turtles and she offered to take him home with her and nurse him back to health. And the best part of the story?
It only cost me a half of tank of gas and $60! (Yes, the vet still charged me the $60)
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