Dear Members and Friends:

Our Spring meeting will be held on Saturday, March 24th at the Belle Cooledge Library from 1:30 until 4 . The library is located on the corner of Fruitridge Road and South Land Park Drive. Linda Schooler, Pet Psychic, will make a return visit and give a short presentation about what she does and then she will be available for private readings at the back of the room as the meeting continues. For your interest, when Linda was at our Spring 2006 meeting, she told club member, Stu Kringer, that he would be going to San Francisco in the near future. Stuart had no plans to go but a few weeks later, a friend called and said he had tickets to the S.F. Giants game and off he went. Isn't that something? Another guest will be Lisa Burton, from Benicia, and she has kindly offered to give us a very informative sea turtle slide presentation with plenty of time for questions and answers. Let's have a good turnout for our guests. We'll have lots of time for post-hibernation talk as well. Bring your questions!!

Our Slumberama in January was well attended due to the nice weather. We had a lot to discuss about the cold weather and raccoons. Erin Andrew's mom, Judy, was visiting from Nevada and brought along her desert tortoise whose front leg had been bitten off by their Sulcata several months ago. The tortoise is doing fine but was not walking right, so Erin's dad, Jack, built a contraption for her to get around with which was attached to her plastron with a wheel where her leg would be. This enabled the tortoise to walk in a straight line. If anyone remembers, the original Just Jim was also missing a front leg but I didn't assist him in any way because he seemed to get around just fine. But it was the clunking of his shell on the ground that was rather eerie. Clunk, pause, Clunk, pause, Clunk, pause, Clunk, pause and then there was the clack clacking of him mounting anything that had a turtle shape, dead or alive.

SEE YOU AT THE MEETING!!

GRAVEL IMPACTION IN EIGHT HATCHLING CALIFORNIA DESERT TORTOISES
By Walter J. Rosskopf DVM

Several months ago, I was presented with a tragic case. A hatchling Gopherus agassizii (6 months old) died suddenly and several others in a group of eight were lethargic and not eating. As is standard procedure in a case like this, the dead hatchling was immediately autopsied to determine the cause of death. The hatchling appeared basically normal but was solidly impacted from stomach to rectum with coarse aquarium gravel! Needless to say, the little animal had not been able to pass this material and had died from inanition and shock.

The other hatchlings were immediately arranged on an X-ray plate with tape markings placed on each to help differentiate them. The resulting radiograph showed that all were loaded with gravel, altho none as bad as the one that had died. Each hatchling was given a mineral oil enema with an eyedropper and an oral dose of several drops of mineral oil. The owner was instructed to take them off gravel, put them on dirt and to give mineral oil daily. Over the next few days, they began to pass a large amount of gravel. Several radiographs over the next few weeks showed that all were passing the gravel and all the remaining hatchlings eventually improved in condition and recovered. The final radiograph taken one month later showed them to be free of gravel and in good condition.

DISCUSSION: It is common practice to house hatchlings on sand or gravel. The above case illustrates why this is not a good idea as ingestion of food includes too many gravel or sand particles. Ranchers have faced this problem for years in horses fed on sand with resulting "sand colic". Also, I have seen the eyes on many hatchlings ruined by contamination with sand with infection and blindness resulting. I recommend that all hatchlings be kept on dirt for this reason. The final Los Angeles County veterinary pathology report showed that the dead hatchling had indeed died of impaction with no other internal problems. Tortoise fanciers should be extremely careful in their housing of Gopherus agassizii hatchlings.

As I write this near the end of February, the icy nights continue after a brief warming trend. I am hoping that you have left your turtles outside to continue their hibernation instead of rushing them inside thinking it was too cold for them. It's always a mistake to do that (unless the turtle is obviously sick). The right thing to do is add extra coverings to their outdoor hibernation areas. Turtles know how to survive. I had an interesting letter from someone in New England saying that a red eared slider had come onto her property and decided to lay her eggs but dug the hole too deep, over 12", and she added that the mother must have been new at it. I wrote back and told her that the mother turtle was very experienced and by digging the nest extra deep, she was ensuring her babies survival knowing how cold it would be in the winter months. They were deep enough to hatch and hibernate safely until spring. Of course, they were not allowed to do that because after 100 days in the ground, the people dug up the eggs. They had hatched but not all survived the human interruption!!

Back to The Bunker, after the last newsletter, things worsened around here regarding the raccoon. The alarm was going off by my pillow every night and I was running downstairs to look out of the back door to see what was there. If the Driveway Patrol rang 3 times and then stopped, I knew it was a passing cat. However, if it kept on ringing, I knew that the raccoon had returned. He came back every single night and I was able to scare him off each time. Who wouldn't be scared at the sight of a wild woman in her nightgown in the middle of the night, in curlers with cold cream on her face running out of the door yelling 'GET OUT OF HERE' while brandishing a BB gun? (Is this the reason my neighbors have been avoiding me?)

After toying with the idea of getting a dog, I knew I'd just be adding to my problem. I was not getting any sleep with this alarm going off all of the time and I certainly had to investigate or face waking up to a yard full of mutilated turtles. I remembered seeing a motion sensor once, meant for people living alone, to let burglars know that there was a dog inside. I searched the Internet and found the product I wanted. REX PLUS, the electronic watchdog. I ordered it immediately and it was delivered quickly. I set it up outside. The Driveway Patrol went off a few nights in a row but I never saw the raccoon again. I am absolutely certain that the barking dog sent him packing, never to return. I am going to order another one to put near my pond which is in an unprotected area of the yard. I feel it's important to use the Driveway Patrol in conjunction with Rex Plus because the range is longer and you will know something is in the yard. I bought it from D&D Security Products.

The leopard tortoise eggs are still in the dresser drawer. I had to put them into the incubator for several days when I had company sleeping in that bedroom, and I don't think the move affected them in any way. I'll let you know in the next newsletter. The eggs look very white and beautiful. Meanwhile, Blondie and her boyfriends are so anxious to get out of the Greenhouse. Fat Betty is not yet awake so they will have to wait awhile longer. However, the trees are beginning to bloom and a new season is about to begin. I hope all of your turtles and tortoises had a healthy hibernation. Check their eyes and noses, give them a drink and keep your fingers crossed.