A bit of a traumatic afternoon. Found a very lifeless Ernie in the tank this afternoon. We honestly thought he was dead after lifting him out but after a few minutes there was a twitch. It appears the little rascal managed to shift his big lump of bogwood and pin himself under it. I was worried he'd effectively drowned as he wouldn't have been able to surface for air and we've no idea how long he'd been under.
We put him out of the water under his basking lamp for warmth and air whilst we tried to get in touch with an exotic vet. It took an hour and a half, being passed from vet to vet and we thought we were going to have to travel to Tarporley, Wrexham or even Swindon to get help, not knowing if Ernie was going to make it.
During that time, he seemed unable to move, just his head a little and we wondered if he'd damaged his neck or something struggling to get free. I really thought we'd be going to the vets and coming home without him, it didn't look good.
After a desperate call to a local vet (after being told the places above were some of the nearest places there was an exotics vet) I was told we could have appointment straight away at a vets half an hour away where they have an exotics vet on the team. If I hadn't been so relieved I'd have been furious after the other local vets were of no help (surely they should have known there was a more local man?!)
We spent half an hour at the vets and came home with Ernie looking slightly better. This was him back in the tank, looking pretty normal. The vet couldn't find any obvious damage and thinks most likely just exhaustion and low blood sugar. The bill came to just £33 too (I was expecting a zero on it!) for what was really the human equivalent of a couple of paracetamol and an energy drink!
Now we watch and wait. I honestly think if we hadn't both happened to get home around 3 and sit at the dining table with a late lunch (near the tank) we'd have lost him. If Dave had been home at 6ish as usual and we hadn't spotted that he appeared to be stuck, another couple of hours I'm sure would have been too late so I'm so very glad we were home in time to (hopefully) save him. We've had him for 12 years now and he's always up to mischief in the tank, but has never got himself so completely trapped before. We'll be keeping a closer eye on things in future for sure!
Over the weekend, Ernie has not been himself - he's mostly slept and hasn't been hanging out in his usual favourite spots and isn't eating. He also seemed unable to swim / surface properly (something we're concerned about) so we've lowered the water level for now to make sure he's in easy reach of the surface. I'm still worried about him, but hoping he'll be ok. I expect it'll take a bit of time for him to fully recover and at least we do now have a local vet we can call on if things don't improve in another day or two. Fingers crossed!
(Photo time says 11:01am which is when I uploaded it! It was actually around 6:30pm when it was taken on Friday, but I took it on Dave's phone and had him send it to me, so I assume the time got lost in the process.)
Thanks all! He's doing ok I think... still not himself, still not eating but we do think he's improving, just very slowly. I'm pretty hopeful given a bit longer to recover, he'll be back to his usual ways! I'll update again at some point.
February 25th, 2020
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Thanks all! He's doing ok I think... still not himself, still not eating but we do think he's improving, just very slowly. I'm pretty hopeful given a bit longer to recover, he'll be back to his usual ways! I'll update again at some point.