Not this again!

We've all worked so hard all summer so I could be a "real tortoise" again, and just slide naturally into hibernation. My blood tests were better than ever after a year of hand-feeding from my Tortoise Mom and Dad, and even my wonderful tortoise sitters (Thanks, Terry, Meghan and Brenda!!!). But I did have trouble with my right eye getting all "squinty" and easily irritated all summer.

Then on September 8, the sky opened up and I thought I was in Heaven because I love, love, love to drink rainwater. Especially now, because it's easier for me to drink water pouring down on my head than to try to suck it up in puddles (myocitis muscle loss). But it rained SIX INCHES and I was too cold to move to higher ground so they had to rescue me. I spent the night in a box in the warm and dry garage while the yard drained. Tortellini weathered the storm in the winter burrow because our favorite big one flooded a little. Seriously, I've never seen rain like this in all my life! Six inches all in one morning! For a while there, I thought I could be a sea turtle!

When the yard drained, I got to go back out and hunker down under my favorite ruellia bush. I even flushed my bladder and left a golf ball sized bladder stone. Yes! But the ground stayed so damp, and my immune system is really sensitive, so I ended up getting sick. My skin and eyelids and even the inside of my mouth turned very pink. Back to visit Dr. Johnson and to start two weeks of antibiotics. When I got better, he got very worried about my eyes so then it was back to visit Dr. Reed, my tortoise eye vet (opthomologist).

See what good hands I'm in? I'm also a very good patient and sit perfectly still while Dr. Reed examines my eyes with special lights and even pushes on them to check the pressure. She says that more muscle or fat loss is causing my eyes to sink in and that keeps my eyelids from working right. So now I get moisturizing eye drops after my anti-inflammatory eye drops. If I don't, my eyelids get stuck and won't open at all. Scary! Who turned out the lights?

Anyway, my multiple special needs are delaying hibernation so I won't get sick, or worse (hey it's hard to shudder in a shell), so here I am, back in the guest bathtub. I didn't mind sleeping in a box indoors at night ever since I got sick in September. But moving to the bathtub with special lights to maintain my core temperature - AGAIN! - just feels so disappointing. But the reality is I can't come and go as I please, like Tortellini, who, by the way, has been hunkered down in the big burrow for 10 days now. I wish I was in there with her, but I have to accept my special needs. I got a steroid injection on Saturday and it has to wear off for 30 days before I can even think of hibernating. Even then, my temperature and eye medications will have to be monitored constantly.

So I'll only get a semi-, pretend, sorta hibernation. Maybe. I'm disappointed but trying to be grateful for such good care too. I'd really like to celebrate my 50th birthday in June. And I know I wouldn't have a chance without all the good care from my Tortoise Mom and Dad. Especially my Tortoise Dad who has been doing all the bending and lifting, and is a real magician when it comes to cleaning my eyes. He doesn't have my Tortoise Mom's voice, but I really like when he talks to me too. I'm really lucky and I know it. (Grateful sigh.)

Turning a blind eye

Sorry I've been gone so long. I've been doing my best, honest!! But it's taking a lot of energy to deal with extreme heat this year and some worsening health problems. I really work hard just to eat enough, with lots of help from my Tortoise Mom and Dad. He rounds me up and she hand feeds shredded food. But still....

Then my favorite Tortoise Sitter stayed with me last month and noticed my worsening/different struggles. So before my trip to see Dr. Johnson at Exotic Animal Hospital for my latest check-up, my Tortoise Dad made a video of me eating. Oh it's not pretty as I bite the air a lot. A lot. Anyway until that visit, everyone thought the problem was my weak bite from jaw muscles that have atrophied. And we thought that was from my original struggle with the bladder stone, but that's not it either. It's something else. Old age? Kidney failure?

Anyway, here's the big surprise, er, well, shock to everyone but me: I can't see out of my left eye. Dr. Johnson thinks I have glaucoma, and I definitely have a cataract. My pupil doesn't constrict and I simply can't see. So that explains why I bite at the air a lot. I line up for a bite when I can smell food, but when I go in for a mouthful, I end up with air or a twig instead. Very frustrating and exhausting.





Then just as we were reeling from that news, Dr. Johnson called with results from my blood tests that say I'm anemic. Why? That's the million dollar question. But we do know that I need to eat more protein so my Tortoise Mom ordered Mazuri Tortoise Diet for me. I haven't tried it yet, but we're hoping it's as good as they say. Zoos use it, so it must be good. Anyway that's next on my plate.

Meanwhile my Tortoise Mom is feeding me on the right side of my head, and talking to me more so I'm not startled by movements that I can't see way ahead of time. The irony is that my Tortoise Mom has the same eye problems. What are the chances?? And, did you know tortoises can get all the same diseases as people? Whoa, I thought all I had to do was keep my shell in good shape, my bladder flushed, and I'd be healthy for several more decades.

The good news - yes, there is some - is that we've had a lot of rain this week. Finally!! It's been 114-117 degrees for so long that it's just too hard to come out and eat as slowly as I do now. But the rain was so refreshing that I even slept out of the burrow one night, just hoping for another drink of fresh rainwater. Pure joy!!! Life is hard, but always worth the extra effort to keep on keeping on. Stay tuned for my report on the new Mazuri diet. If I like it, there might even be recipes!!