Turtle bite and pulmonolgy.

For Xander's third birthday he wanted one thing. A turtle. After enough persuasion we gave in and his grandparents decided that would be his birthday gift from them. Isaac already had a love for fish and had at least half a dozen aquariums of various shapes and sizes out in our garage. He decided we'd start with his 30 gallon and see how it went. We brought Cleopatra home, a young, female red ear slider from our local pet store. Cleopatra above.

She hung on the bottom of the tank, refused to eat and was generally pathetic looking. We thought maybe she was lonely so we went back to the pet store and purchased our male red ear slider Marc Anthony. This did the trick and Cleopatra immediately began eating and loving life. After that it didn't take long for Isaac to take his love for fish and transfer it to the turtles.

If you know my husband you'll know whenever he decides he loves something he goes big. He bumped the 30 gallon to a 55 gallon and finally to 120 gallon. That's when he brought home Tank our baby Mississippi mud turtle. Another pet store wasn't sure what to do with him so they gave him to Isaac for free. Isaac felt like doing some shelter rescues so then came Dax (the white cheeked mud turtle) and Hollywood (the yellow belly slider turtle).

Here's tank (the baby Mississippi Mud).A short time later Isaac brought home a little girl African side neck turtle which we named Moya. The same day he brought home a Caspian turtle that had been unloved in the pet store for over a year and a half. His cage had been small and water extremely shallow. He stayed with us until he tried committed turtlecide by leaping from the turtle tank. This wasn't ultimately what killed him but his injured tail made him a target and the other turtles chased him and stressed him. Before we were aware this was occurring he had a heart attack and died :(.
Above is the Caspian turtle and below is Leviathan our African side neck male. Note why he's called a side neck.
Above is Moya, the female sideneck.

This gave us an opening in the tank and we found a shelter turtle who had been there for almost two years. He was an African side neck and we named him Leviathan. Now all this led up to today. One thing you have to know about turtles is they are omnivorous. They will eat literally anything you throw at them. For this reason the tank is high enough the kids can not reach into it without immense effort. Not only that but they have been told over and over again to leave the turtles alone or they will bite you and it will hurt.

Landon apparently did not get this message even though he has told every kid that has ever come over don't stick your hand in the turtle tank because they will bite you. Being a five year old boy curiosity overcame him and he opened and pushed the big, heavy step ladder over to the turtle tank and stuck his hand in. I was trying to make sure Ronan's asthma diary looked correct when I hear screaming. I jump up and see a turtle dangling from Landon's hand. His fingers are curled under so my biggest worry was it had his finger. I run over and see it has the bottom of his hand. I pinched the turtles jaw and she lets go and runs behind the quilt rack.
She hisses at me due to being scared out of her mind so I have Isaac get her and the crisis is over. Landon had a turtle bite and a lesson learned the hard way. I asked him what he learned today and his words were "When you wonder if the turtle will really bite your finger off listen to mommy and don't find out."
After that I had to run Ronan to physical therapy and then to Dr. Sheets (his pulmonologist). Physical therapy was the same as every week. Dr. Sheets upped his Pulmicort dose to twice a day and put him on Singular for all his allergy flare ups plus it also helps with asthma. Dr. Sheets says there are very rare side effects of depression and night terrors that would manifest in the first 2-3 weeks. So any change in his demeanor or night terrors and he'll switch him to something else. I'm really hoping Ronan isn't the rare case especially night terros because I would feel horrible for giving it to him.

Isaac and I looked at a couple of vans today. We are in desperate need of a second vehicle. The new van would be mine and he would keep his dearly loved SUV. Well from turtle bites to appointments I'm ready to finish school work, get the house done for the home therapy visit tomorrow and hopefully get to bed before midnight. Off I go.