Scooter: Female Florida River Cooter : Day 2 12-06-2002
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The vet gave Scooter an x-ray to check for any internal damage, swallowed fish hooks, and/or eggs et al. The x-ray came back fine and Scooter appeared quite healthy on the inside. The vet also noted the damage on Scooters shell and pointed out the soft pinkish/whitish patches on her plastron. Unfortunately the vet shrugged off the damage as likely just being caused by the pavement she was found on. The vet stated that some rest and relaxation in a clean and soft environment would allow it to heal on it's own.

At this point we were thrilled to hear that Scooter would be fine and that all we needed to do was build her a decent environment and enjoy her company. We began by finding a large aquarium for sale in the newspaper. The aquarium we found had been homemade by some guys that enjoyed hunting and fishing. They had made the tank to store carp etc in while waiting for the next outdoor extravaganza, but no longer needed it.

Because the tank was homemade it didn't have the same long slender shape of standard fish aquariums. Rather than being long, thin, and high, this tank was wide all of the way around and deep. PERFECT for a turtle! The other benefit of the tanks non-standard shape is that most aquarium enthusiasts wouldn't want a tank like this since standard filtration and aquarium hoods/stands would not fit it correctly. These issues allowed us to obtain quite a large tank for Scooter at an exceptionally low cost.

We took a two hour drive to pick up the tank and upon returning home late in the evening began setting it up as quickly as we could. Scooter needed to get out of the bathtub!


Filling the Tank
Treating the Tank

Observation
If I had known then what I know now as I write this page, things would have already gone quite a bit differently, but alas, I didn't know and so this is how the story goes.

In the last 24 hours Scooter has gone from the drive-thru lane, to the bathtub, to the vet, and then into a tank of cloudy water. Building a basking area and getting the tank cleaned up would have to come quickly.

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