New Year's soak a total bust

Ok, I was good to start out the New Year. I did my 15 minutes of soaking in the blue soaking pan. Here's actual photo evidence that my cloaka was underwater. But I weighed 3166 grams before I soaked, and I weighed 3166 grams after. So my tortoise mom will call Dr. Johnson to ask if he thinks it's still worth disturbing me every two weeks to soak when I'm just not taking in any water. Between you and me, I really hope he says no. Besides, it's clear my weight is stable. I'm just not taking in water to increase it.



It was 54 degrees inside my burrow today, but 81 degrees outside. They tried not to disturb me but I woke up and looked all around, wondering why they keep waking me up when I just want to stay in my nice, dark, cool burrow. So I'm back in my favorite corner of the burrow, hoping I don't have to get soaked in another two weeks. Dr. Johnson, please let me off the hook! Your friend, Grandma

Time flies when you're sleeping.... (yawn) by Grandma

It looks like I aced today's weigh-in that my tortoise mom and dad put me through every two weeks. Usually I have to be SOAKED too. Oh the humanity!!! But they started weighing me before and after soaking and noticed that it's just not effective, and might even be stressing me into losing more weight. For instance, two weeks ago, I weighed at 3161 grams fresh from the burrow, with my eyes still shut tight. Then after a 20-minute soak, I weighed 3168 -- only 7 grams! I could be hiding that in my lady turtleneck or in my, ahem, bikini area. Anyway, it's likely no actual water is hitting my bladder because my cloaka is shut just as tight as my eyelids.

So my tortoise mom and dad reviewed my weight history and decided that this soaking business isn't helping and might even be stressing me by disturbing me so much. When I soaked back in November, I couldn't hold my head out of the water as I was so sleepy so they vowed to use less water next time, and also to weigh me before soaking to see how much water I was actually taking in. Anyway I weighed 3180 grams after soaking on November 18. But then I weighed 3161 grams when they checked me two weeks later. So maybe soaking makes me LOSE water instead of taking it in? Whatever it is, I'm just so glad I got to skip soaking today.

So now I'm back in my burrow, tucked way in the back where I've been digging in. The burrow is staying a steady 51-55 degrees even though the outside temperature dropped to 31 degrees a few times. And I'm staying dry despite getting 1.5 inches of rain this week, but the burrow is well insulated with dirt and the opening is sealed with wood and foam to keep cold air and water from getting in.

All in all, it's good to be a tortoise right now. In this burrow, I'm definitely more snug than a bug in a rug.

TLC

I've been getting lots of TLC since my visit to the vet. It's been a tough go but I'm perking up again after many rough days. Amazingly I'm gaining weight despite taking only a few bites of food since well before Christmas. But I'm still getting tube feedings (got new stitches again too), and now I get "soaked" as my blood tests showed dehydration. Dr. Johnson was concerned about my white count too so I'm on antibiotics again, just in case. So maybe my weight has come back because I'm more hydrated now?

I haven't been able to get my shell wet all these months because the resin patch would dissolve. But now that the patch is off, I am free to soak as needed. I have my very own roasting pan from the 99 cent store too.

Hey, no jokes about tortoise soup -- shudder. At first I didn't like soaking at all, maybe because I didn't feel well. But I finally decided to enjoy the whole experience. Ok, here's something new: did you know that I can "drink" from both ends? It's true. One of the amazing thing about tortoises is we can also take in water from the cloaka, which is the all-purpose opening under the tail. The water has a more direct route to the kidneys that way, isn't that cool? What a great way to design desert animals who don't get to drink regularly in the wild.

Dr. Johnson also said to not use any type of ointment on my skin or eyes (not even the opthalmic stuff) as it will make my scales fall off. Since scales provide protection, that's not a good thing. But I'm really glad to not be so dehydrated anymore. Maybe the scales will grow back around my eyes again soon? I wonder what made them disappear in the first place? I only had ointment on one eye and only one time so that's not the reason. Also Dr. Johnson was concerned because I started sleeping under the infrared light at night. Getting extra heat is how we tortoises rev up our immune systems, so that was a sign of physical distress too. But now I'm feeling a lot better. I think it's time to crawl in my little box, get some shut-eye and dream of grazing in the back yard...... Zzzzzzz.