It's been awhile, what in the world have I been up to??? Keep reading and see! During my first week of the 2021 field season, I had the honor of joining Lauren in Cape Cod sampling box turtles! After a grueling 17 hour drive out there, the week definitely lived up to my expectations. [...]
Hello! Welcome to the 2021 Turtle Team blog! If you're new here, my name is Kelcie Fredrickson and I am a rising third year veterinary student and the 2021 Turtle Team leader. This summer, like every summer, we are doing population based health assessments in Eastern and Ornate box turtles throughout Illinois and Tennessee. Turtle [...]
Hi everyone and welcome to the 2020 Box Turtle blog (a.k.a. The BEST blog)! My name is Kelcie Fredrickson and I am a rising second year veterinary student at the University of Illinois. The blog’s main focus will be on our health surveillance program which monitors box turtle population health and will feature my student [...]
What the heck is that thing? You may have seen it in your backyard, crawling on your tomato plants. It’s a hornworm! Hornworms are high in protein and fat and we fed one to one of our beardies this past week. There’s a video at the end that shows her eating it and loving it! [...]
Pictured above are the NINE rats from Miller Park Zoo. One male and eight females! This past week was full of exotic experiences. Let’s start with Ivana. Ivana is currently doing a prospective research study on rats. Summary: she wants to see if there’s a less invasive, but still accurate method to record [...]
What is that dinosaur? Its an alligator snapping turtle! Quite a unique species, huh? Ivana performing a blood draw from the dorsal tail vein of an alligator snapping turtle Let’s start with the highlights, shall we? On Thursday and Friday morning Bryce and Ivana had the opportunity to help with annual [...]
New! This week! And all future weeks! Introducing…..Eliana! Eliana is a rising second year veterinary student who recently joined Team Beardie with Bryce and me. Scroll to the bottoms for a GREAT picture of her. She is a delight, and helped me this week with my personal research project on pet rats. We did physical [...]
Blanding's Turtle Research I am excited to be spending my final summer break of veterinary school hiking through forest preserves looking for turtles. As part of Dr. Allender’s Wildlife Epidemiology Lab and along with Dr. Dana Lindemann, the first-year zoo resident at the University of Illinois College of Veterinary Medicine, I am completing a project [...]
