HENRY
In February of 1997, for the first time in my life, I got a turtle named Henry. At that time, I didn't know much about caring for turtles. I thought it would be easy to take care of them. However it was NOT! Looking back, I think I gave Henry a hard time. During the cold season, he had to pass the time away without a heater or even a light in the tank. Now I understand how cold he was! I feel really sorry for him now ! Even when Henry sneezed, my husband and I said "Turtles sneeze, too!?" and we didn't care at all. Yes, at that time he had a cold! But since I was so ignorant about turtles, I did nothing to help him.
Then the summer came. That summer was the hottest on record and I didn't know why, but he was loosing his appetite little by little. At that time, I thought turtles were that type of animal. One day in August, I was surprised to see that the water in his tank had turned red. It looked like he had bled from his anus. I called a vet and took him with his stool sample to the clinic. The vet examined his stool and said that Henry had lots of parasites and that the parasites were attacking his bowels. The vet gave me medicine called "Flagyl" to kill the parasites. However, I couldn't make Henry drink it. So I had to drop it into his nose. I was not sure if he drank it or not, but he started eating the day after next! How relieved I was! To tell the truth, I couldn't concentrate on my job until then, worrying about him.
However his appetite was decreasing again little by little, until he ended up refusing to eat. He didn't even eat the fresh tuna he used to love. So I called another vet and took him to that vet in September. She examined his stool and took X-rays of Henry. She said that he still had parasites, and to make matters worse, he had gotten pneumonia. "What!? Turtles get pneumonia?", I thought. It was then that I learned about the fact that turtles have big lungs which occupy half the space inside the shell, so they can easily get pneumonia. Since he often sneezed in March, that meant that he had a cold! I didn't do anything for him at that time, which resulted in his getting pneumonia ! How horrible I was!! Anyway, he was hospitalized for about ten days then. The Vet said Henry needed antibiotics like "Baytrill". And she kept him warm at 28℃ (82.4F) in the air and water. Thanks to the vet, he started eating earthworms taken from her field. I was surprized again to learn that turtles eat earthworms and love them. .

These experiences made me change my mind: I promised myself that I would make Henry and Will happy. I bought books for turtle care, studied them and of course got information through the Net. Turtles are still mysterious to me and I'm still learning.
11/24/2001