This is the list my mentor sent to me (some of which I knew I needed, some I didn’t) of things I’d need for turtle rehab. I’ll be adding what I still need from it to my wish list soon (which is a lot of it, actually).
- totes of various sizes (opaque preferred), a few with locking lids
- stock tanks (40 gallon and 100 gallon Tuffstuff, 100 gallon or larger Rubbermaid)
- old towels of all sizes
- old sheets and pillow cases of all sizes
- dental and wax carving tools
- long, wooden-handled cotton-swabs
- syringes (.5cc, 1cc, 3cc, 5cc, 6cc, 10cc, 20cc) – detachable except for smallest size
- needles (27 gauge, 25 gauge, 21 gauge, 20 gauge, 18 gauge sizes)
- plastic plant saucers (Agway)
- turtle food (Reptomin/ZooMed/Mazuri)
- plant sprayer or indoor hose
- utility sink if possible (like those are easy to just install!…I’ll be cleaning stuff in the kitchen for a while, methinks)
- hand pump for emptying water tanks
- peat moss
- buckets (5 gallon and 2 gallon)
- watering can with sprinkler (Dorothy Biddle…whoever that is…)
- digital thermometer
- spray bottles for bleach
- bleach
- clamp lights
- bulbs (heat & UV)
- Betadine
- topical lidocaine
- lots of sterile saline
- sterile disposable gloves
- sterile 10cc bottles
- vet wrap tape
- super glue (Duro)
- gram scale
- long tweezers
- foil tape (3M)
- Ringer’s lactate solution (fixes dehydration, must get from a vet)
- Baytril (antibiotic, must get from a vet)
- Ceftazidime (antibiotic, must get from a vet)
- Silver sulfadiazine cream (antibiotic, must get from a vet)
You can see that this is quite the extensive list, and this is partly why I decided to set up a GoFundMe in addition to my PayPal Money Pool, and to send the links to those or my Amazon wish list to anybody who asks what I want for my birthday, which happens to be later this month.
I’m honestly a little worried about how much stuff this is, but my mentor Pam has assured me that I won’t get overwhelmed my first year because not many people will know I’m a rehabber once I’m certified. The CT DEEP, in their infinite efficiency, only updates the rehabber list once a year in the winter after January annual reports are submitted by current rehabbers, not after the annual certification test is administered and results are released in March. This will give me until next turtle season to figure out what I actually need the most, have it in hand, and have enough experience working under my mentor to be able to handle a higher case load on my own. So, I guess the DEEP’s disorganization works out in my favor for once.
Turtle Haven 