This morning I went out to clean up the old salad in the giant tortoise exhibit. Every time I give the tortoises a little attention, there seems to be a comment from a visitor who is surprised by the fact that I am rubbing their neck. Afterwards, I helped pick up the remaining salad trays from the building and cleaned the cricket tubs. After break I cleaned black worms. While I was filling up a land/water tub for a turtle I found that there were about 12 eggs that had been laid in the water. The eggs should have been laid in the sand, but sometimes for water turtles the eggs can still grow if they are pulled out of the water in time (it is possible that some of the eggs could be infertile as well). One egg was deformed but the others were generally the correct oval shape. I changed out the water in some water bowls and then it was time for lunch.
Afterwards, I cleaned the baby Alligator Snapping Turtle tanks and finished changing water bowls in the same room. I started changing the water bowls for the Pancake Tortoises when the other intern found that one of the Utila Island Iguanas was not doing well. It appeared to be gasping for breath and was not moving much. Our zoological manager called the vet to let him know we had a sick animal that needed to be looked at right away. I asked if I could go along to the hospital and our manager said that I could! Once we got to the animal hospital, the vet checked the iguana's throat to see if there was any obstruction. The vet said that there was nothing in the passageway so we ruled out the idea that maybe it was choking on something. The iguana did appear to have a distended abdomen, which the vet felt had eggs in it. While the vet was setting up the x-ray machine, the iguana stopped breathing. When a heart-rate machine was used, no heart beat was found. In a more solemn state than entering, my manager and I then left the hospital. We had barely gotten halfway back when we got a call from the vet to come back to the hospital, the iguana was actually still alive! (Evidently, there are many stories about reptiles who were pronounced dead that were found to be alive later!) The vet performed an ultrasound to make sure that there was no egg fluid in her body cavity. The iguana got a few shots and then x-rays were taken. The x-rays were really cool because you could see all the eggs that she was carrying! On the x-rays her lungs looked really clear, so we could definitely rule out any airway obstruction. The shots it had gotten earlier must have started working, because the iguana was taking good deep breaths again and was keeping its eyes open more. After taking a small blood sample for analysis and getting shots, we took the iguana back to the herpetarium. It was so exciting to be able to go to the hospital and observe the procedures! My manager was also proud of me that I took the initiative to ask if I could go and watch.
After break, the other intern and I worked on misting the galliwasps and changing their water bowls. While we were working, a drain overflowed, so we then had to take care of that before finishing. I cleaned some of our baby McCord's Box Turtle tanks and gathered trash from the building. Before leaving, I checked on our iguana and it was breathing well, had its eyes open, but still hadn't moved much. At least it was still alive!
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| Utila Island Iguana |
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