Greece Days 5, 6 & 7!
Days at the Rescue Centre are very busy! Theres been lots of tanks and turtles to clean, each turtle's tank and themselves are cleaned every 3 days so they are on a rotation with lots of turtles to clean each day. There are 5 large tanks so normally 2 to do each day apart from when its Sotoris as his is the largest. Each day has been similar but we're always doing a different amount of things. On Sunday evening we all went for a meal together in Glyfada near the Rescue Centre which was really nice. We had finished early and spent the afternoon on the beach as well which was a nice treat!
We were also taught how to do some treatment for some of the injured turtles this week, both Adam and I have done treatment on Odessious' amputated flipper, We were also shown how to do Hope (Midnights) treatment on her head injury with honey as an antiseptic. If you notice in the photos the turtles have a soft nose like a dog! On their hard beaks they still have a very squidgy nose :)
On Monday evening it was my turn to be PM so I was in charge of checking temperature of tanks, locking up, preparing tube feed, staying at the RC etc. Adam helped me prepare the tube feed, we had to weigh the fish according to the schedules for each turtle and fillet them so there were no bones, then on Sunday morning I was on tube feed duty so used the blender along with various quantities of different vitamins depending on the turtle to make the feed. Adam stayed at the RC with me and everyone else came for the evening.We had a paint evening Monday evening which was good fun, we all drew different pictures (mine all included turtles) Adam drew a scene from Star wars :) We then all pitched in and painted a Scoot of a turtle shell Neils drew out, its not finished yet but Adams Scoot is the Pokemon ball and I painted the wave, orange swirls scoot and the fireworks. For dinner on Monday Adam and I had the left over pasta from a few nights before.
Today I was on AM so went round checking on the turtles and noting behaviours and temperatures. Dwanye wasn't being very responsive and we thought he was going to die but Mike took him into surgery and he made it out alive so hopefully he's going to be okay. I was in charge of the tube feeds so after preparing the feed, when the turtle was ready to be fed I had to put the feed in syringes and prepare a tube with Nujol, the tube is inserted to the turtles oesophagus and then the stomach which is to the right of the turtle so the tubes are bent slightly. Once the tube is in far enough we use the syringes to push the food into the tube and then after the final feed we clear the tube with dextrose which is a sugary liquid to flush all the feed into the stomach and the tube can be removed. When the turtles are being tube fed they are placed vertically in a tube feed box with a strap around their back so they can't fall back, and their mouths are opened using gauze to pull their beaks apart slightly. Today we were also given out introduction to the Shop where we will have one shift a week on public awareness, giving tours of the rescue centre and manning the shop to sell Archelon merchandise. This evening Adam and I returned to the apartment and I cooked dinner for the both of us. I made cheesy mash, ratatouille (kinda/our own take on it) and pan fried Halloumi which I called Posh Nosh as we served it on rectangular plates and ramekins.
We were also taught how to do some treatment for some of the injured turtles this week, both Adam and I have done treatment on Odessious' amputated flipper, We were also shown how to do Hope (Midnights) treatment on her head injury with honey as an antiseptic. If you notice in the photos the turtles have a soft nose like a dog! On their hard beaks they still have a very squidgy nose :)
On Monday evening it was my turn to be PM so I was in charge of checking temperature of tanks, locking up, preparing tube feed, staying at the RC etc. Adam helped me prepare the tube feed, we had to weigh the fish according to the schedules for each turtle and fillet them so there were no bones, then on Sunday morning I was on tube feed duty so used the blender along with various quantities of different vitamins depending on the turtle to make the feed. Adam stayed at the RC with me and everyone else came for the evening.We had a paint evening Monday evening which was good fun, we all drew different pictures (mine all included turtles) Adam drew a scene from Star wars :) We then all pitched in and painted a Scoot of a turtle shell Neils drew out, its not finished yet but Adams Scoot is the Pokemon ball and I painted the wave, orange swirls scoot and the fireworks. For dinner on Monday Adam and I had the left over pasta from a few nights before.
Today I was on AM so went round checking on the turtles and noting behaviours and temperatures. Dwanye wasn't being very responsive and we thought he was going to die but Mike took him into surgery and he made it out alive so hopefully he's going to be okay. I was in charge of the tube feeds so after preparing the feed, when the turtle was ready to be fed I had to put the feed in syringes and prepare a tube with Nujol, the tube is inserted to the turtles oesophagus and then the stomach which is to the right of the turtle so the tubes are bent slightly. Once the tube is in far enough we use the syringes to push the food into the tube and then after the final feed we clear the tube with dextrose which is a sugary liquid to flush all the feed into the stomach and the tube can be removed. When the turtles are being tube fed they are placed vertically in a tube feed box with a strap around their back so they can't fall back, and their mouths are opened using gauze to pull their beaks apart slightly. Today we were also given out introduction to the Shop where we will have one shift a week on public awareness, giving tours of the rescue centre and manning the shop to sell Archelon merchandise. This evening Adam and I returned to the apartment and I cooked dinner for the both of us. I made cheesy mash, ratatouille (kinda/our own take on it) and pan fried Halloumi which I called Posh Nosh as we served it on rectangular plates and ramekins.
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