This week, Brina and Katy extracted DNA from an oral/cloacal swab and whole blood sample we took from a turtle during turtle team in May. It was tested for Ranavirus using qPCR, and sadly Ranavirus was detected in both samples. This could indicate an outbreak, so turtle team headed back out to the outbreak site [...]
.... but there is a T and that stands for TURTLE SQUAD. In all seriousness, though, we as veterinary students on this project would not be able to do what we do without the incredible team we get to work with every single day. This group of turtle-y cool people work incredibly hard while also [...]
Ivana, Katie V, Dr. Haynes, and Kennymac holding Lake Erie water snakes they hand captured as part of the annual Lake Erie Watersnake (Nerodia sipedon insularum )surveillance study Kennymac taking a picture of a superficial skin lesion on a neonate water snake I scrambled down the rocks, my water logged hiking [...]
A slow(er) week mainly spent in the lab for Team Snake here at WEL... We started off the week packing and organizing supplies for our Lake Erie fieldwork, which starts next week! Over 1000 swabs and Eppendorf tubes, 200 syringes and blood tubes, two centrifuges, four boxes of slides, over 2000 pairs of gloves, 300 [...]
Earlier this week, Turtle Team went camping! We traveled to Stephen A. Forbes State Park in Southern IL to catch Eastern Box Turtles. We caught 51 box turtles in two days, thanks to John Rucker and his turtle dogs. Watch our vlog to see how a day in the field works!
Hello, fellow turtle lovers! I (Kirsten) am doing a takeover this week because I was Sam-less last week! She went home to New Jersey for her sister's graduation. The highlight of this last week was the Blanding's Turtle Recovery Program celebrating World Turtle Day by releasing 91 head-starts into the wild! This program was started [...]
Hello again! I promise I haven't forgotten about you guys; it's been difficult to update my blog with all my adventures the past couple weeks since I haven't had access to internet! So much happened during Week 1, I hardly know where to start! The first week was filled with fun, new experiences, friendly visits [...]
This week we spend a day surveying ponds for Silvery Salamander larvae. In February, the adult all female species emerge from underground and head to the ponds to lay eggs. In the late spring and early summer, we look for the larvae. We catch the larvae, sample them, measure them, and release!
Hello WEL followers! Dragon team started out the week with a DNA emergency! As part of Dr. Keller's (our fearless leader and mother of dragons; pictured on the right) Nanniziopsis guerri research project, which is a cutaneous mycoses in bearded dragons, we had to extract DNA from samples veterinarians had collected from around the nation, [...]
Our first week together in the field! You can be as prepared as you want for field season, but there are some things that you just cannot plan for. We learned that the hard way on day one! Standing in the middle of a swale that was three feet deep after finding two turtles with [...]
