Coopers bad day..

[cemmons12]

Ok, so yesterday my wife and daughter took Cooper to grandmas house to play in his outdoor place that he has there. This was his 2nd time in there. He was in it for about 45 min, so dad (me) comes there after work to find Cooper flip'n out, running around like a mad Tortoise. He had turned his hide box over and since he was like running, I think he got wayyyy over heated! He was blowing bubbles out of his mouth and saliva was pouring out of his mouth. So dad picks him up and takes him inside, he sat down right on my chest like he has done since he was 2 months old and then he poopy'd runny on me as he was trying to cool down, I believe it was from the stress from being in there and he got sooo hot. Needless to say I was furious to say the least!!!! I yell'd and stuff as to how often the pool people were checking on our son/brother Cooper and was told it was just 10 minutes ago. If I believe the amount of time is up for debate. So after I got him cooled down I brought him home and we layed in the bed for 20 minutes so he would stay relaxed as I was sooo afraid the stress may kill him! The oddest thing is, which a lot of you already know from the thread about Cooper bumping my nose, is that he got right in my face as I had it flat on the bed and he would not take his nose off of my face. If I moved he would put his nose right back on my nose or lips or anywhere as long as he was touching my face somewhere. I think, which I am sure most will debate this, he finds some sort of comfort in the way in which he does this when something stress's him out. I was wondering how many of you have had torts get overheated and react with the saliva and heavy breathing and such. Needless to say, NOBODY TAKES COOPER ANYWHERE UNLESS I AM DEAD OR DIEING! This was a bad lesson to learn and almost had me in tears. Yeah yeah what a man huh? Well I don't care, he is my big boy!! And I love that tort! Have a great day all my forum friends!

 

[laramie]

Sorry to hear about Cooper's bad day

 

[Yvonne G]

Tortoises can die from that. I lost a couple of them to overheating. Its not a pretty sight and still makes me sick to remember it.

 

[cemmons12]

I can understand that Yvonne!!!! I was so sick I thought if I could just trade places with him till he feels better, but thank God he is fine today! He is my little fighter!

 

[Schlomo]

Glad you found him in time. It's amazing how much we can become attached to these little guys (and some not so little).

 

[african cake queen]

HI, I AM GLAD COOPER IS OKAY. THAT WOULD HAVE FREAKED ME OUT. I HAVE NEVER HAD THAT HAPPEN WITH MY PANCAKES AND HOPE IT NEVER DOES. LIKE I SAID GLAD HE IS OKAY. LINDY

 

[cemmons12]

Thanks everybody for the support and thoughts! I always know for a "pick me up", this is the place to come. You people on this forum are the best!

 

[froghaven5]

So glad Cooper is ok. When we've had our heat wave here I was afraid to let OP out for too long fearing he would overheat. It would be devestating if something happened to him.

 

[ascott]

OMG Chris, my stomach was turning as I read every word....I hope he recovers well....my old man Humphry use to be hosted by an old boss of mine, when the guy moved out of state Humphry came to live with me. Well, the first time I could put him out when the weather started to look nice out I went and grabbed a few posts and some fencing to put him up a little sunning space right at my front porch...so a few slams of the sledge hammer on the posts and attached the fence in the spot under the young elm tree in the cool dirt....perfect for a temp until I had him a bigger sunning spot for the warmer weather...so I went inside the house and was finishing up some laundry and after a bit I thought, Hey lets go peek at Humph and see if he is all sprawled out enjoying the weather....HOLY CRAP was what came out of my mouth....he was like a wind up toy "running" from side to side in the space and had this look of fear in his eyes, really...there was no mistaking the look....as I flew like an idiot out of the door I swooped him up (and I mean swoop, not the gentle menuever we usually do) turned on the hose and started cooling him off with the hose at his feet first then slowly the butt and then so on until he calmly laid still and let the water roll over him and the look of fear diminished and he looked straight up at me with his only good eye and I swear to this day he starred right into my sole and a calm came over me like never before....I did cry as I was so happy I was compelled to peek...what happened was the spot became sunny within a short period of time and the hide I did for him was not positioned right for the sudden shift of the afternoon sun....so he was completely exposed....my OCD will not let this type of thing happen again...

I think he puts his nose close to your nose/mouth as he can feel your breath...and if he can feel your breath he can then rest as he knows when you move as he can no longer feel your breath...he is a living thing and you saved him...others may laugh, frankly don't care but a soul is a soul no matter what form of creature and I believe that a bond is formed if it is from the heart....you have a beautiful friendship there, enjoy it.

Try to remember, that the folks that let him be out there I am sure in no way EVER meant him harm...and if they take the time to give him a ride to a place to graze and visit I bet they love em too....sometimes in the whirl of the moment we yell and are mad....I hope you let them off the hook for being the ones there in the moment of the whirl

 

[arby2774]

So glad that he is OK. Who is to say that he doesn't find comfort by touching you. Since we have no idea how to communicate thoughts to each other we can only use our best guess. My Roger was an adult when I got him and he prefers hands off. My baby Tanner stretches his neck out further when you rub him. Sometimes he closes his eyes like a cat. My guess is that Tanner likes it! If Cooper didn't like "snuggling" he wouldn't do it.

 

[Laura]

make sure he gets a good long soaking..
and change his visitation area to a shady spot.. he needs to be outside.. but not stressed and hot.

 

[wrmitchell22]

Glad to hear he is okay poor Cooper he had a rough day

 

[cemmons12]

Angela I sware that in another life or something we were friends or something, you read me like a book! And everytime you write to me I feel a calmness as if you are right here helping me thru a lousy time. I thank you so much for all your kind words, thoughts, and story's, it really makes a difference in my life. And I did let the 3 amigo's off the hook as I know that they never meant for anything bad to happen to my boy. What really upsets me as I have all but begged my wife to just read a little about the care of our Cooper, but she hates to read sooo much, which strikes me odd for a woman. So the best I can do is try and teach her what I have learned from all the good people on this great forum. Now I do believe she is starting to understand what I mean when I say "we have to limit any kind of stress on Cooper", so after this scare she see's the seriousness of my words. With my Lupus and the 2 bone tumors I am already at a stress level that leaves me exhausted 90% of the time, not to mention the daily stuff we all have to deal with so I may tend to fly off the handle to easy. Blah, boy I could ramble on for a novel! Lol! As far as my boy Cooper goes, he had slept from like 8pm last night to about noon today, or at least he was in his favorite hide. I was almost too scared to get him out because, well you know what I was thinking. On a normal day he will wake up around 3am and make enough noise to wake me up by digging and stuff. And when I leave for work at 5:30 he is almost always out to see me off. Then he will go back to his hide and sleep. So I removed his hide and picked him up and sure enough, he was just being a lazy boy. So we layed on the water bed for a couple hours and then I went out to go to the horse barn. So he is just fine other then whatever he remembers from his nasty day. I thank you for being there and being you!

---

So glad that he is OK. Who is to say that he doesn't find comfort by touching you. Since we have no idea how to communicate thoughts to each other we can only use our best guess. My Roger was an adult when I got him and he prefers hands off. My baby Tanner stretches his neck out further when you rub him. Sometimes he closes his eyes like a cat. My guess is that Tanner likes it! If Cooper didn't like "snuggling" he wouldn't do it.

Thanks for your kind words! And I do believe that as well, some may not like the hands on, but some do. My Cooper is one that loves it, as long as you don't act like he is an airplane. When the vet or anybody does that he will pee a river! Have a great night!

 

[ascott]

I am so happy that Cooper is "recooping" .... and I am so happy you gave the 3 amigos a get out of jail pass I think that when we fall in love with our shelled buddies we naturally expect everyone else around us to love em the same....to admire them, to gaze at them to ooo and aww over them...and so sometimes we forget that they are our passion, our pleasure, our friends....while my son will sit and listen to the silly stories I tell him about what the tortoise did that day, he will get this "check out" look in his eyes at a certain point (but because he is a good kid he patiently listens) which is my que that he loves me, and loves them, but anyways and wants to then talk about the passion in his life, all his awesome video games and begins to tell me the story of each of his characters in the games....well, I feel that "check out" look begin to well up in my eyes and then I laugh to myself and force myself to check back in and really try to retain all of the characters names LOL...

So, my tortoise are my passion and my pleasure and I have found a place here where there are others that are as sappy and into their tortoise as I am...and my gosh I could go on and on and on also...LOL. I value the kind and generous words you say as well. I completely live with the fact that if we are lucky in this life we will run into old souls that really impact our day....you have done that with me as well. Thank you for being you as well Chris

 

[Tom]

Boy do I sympathize with all of this. I had somebody do something REALLY stupid to my torts one time too. It wasn't an accident or something the torts did. It was pure stupidity from someone who should know better. I just haven't posted about it because there is no useful lesson in it. My lesson was, don't ever let that person have ANY contact with any of my animals ever again.

I'm glad I'm not the only one that feels that sort of a ""connection" with my torts. .. and that I'm not the only one whose friends and family don't "get it".

 

[ascott]

Tom, I am sorry for your bad experience, while details are not necessary, I certainly can feel your sadness and disgust with whatever happen...

I know that myself, and others here, enjoy all that you share with us all....good stuff

 

[cemmons12]

Boy do I sympathize with all of this. I had somebody do something REALLY stupid to my torts one time too. It wasn't an accident or something the torts did. It was pure stupidity from someone who should know better. I just haven't posted about it because there is no useful lesson in it. My lesson was, don't ever let that person have ANY contact with any of my animals ever again.

I'm glad I'm not the only one that feels that sort of a ""connection" with my torts. .. and that I'm not the only one whose friends and family don't "get it".

I too am sorry to hear that Tom. But always know you have friends here that know right where you are coming from! Because you know we "get it"!