Since when did our turkey become a slut?! -GC

So... the turkey has chlamydia.

We had been running the turkey for a few weeks and she was steadily improving.  We got her up to 9 mph (the end-goal is 11)!  She was doing really well.

Then she started not doing so well.  She seemed really scared and agitated for some reason.  We couldn't really think of why, except that 4 guinea fowl had moved in with her recently, but that shouldn't be too stressful.

One day we get the turkey on the treadmill and she starts running.  At this point, I suspected that I was allergic to the turkey, so I was keeping my distance.  At a very slow speed, less than 3 mph she lets out this impressive amount of diarrhea.  It's a nasty color, and nasty smelling.  Usually poo falls off the treadmill as the belt travels under the treadmill, but this stuck and went all the way around, meaning it caught on the flap that keeps the turkey on.  GC started to clean it up, and I went to go get air freshener.  Every time GC got it all wiped up, the turkey would do it again.  GC put her back in the coop with the guinea fowl and we mopped up the entire floor, and I turned on the treadmill to a low speed, then used one of those brushes you see zoo workers use to scrub elephants and hippos to scrub the treadmill and get the diarrhea out of the belt.  The smell traveled throughout the entire building, and people who work on the other side came by to see what smelled so bad.  We opened the windows and left early that day.  The sad part was, we were thinking of getting ice cream too, but we decided that if we ate anything we would barf.

A few days later, the vet comes out and takes samples from the birds and says that the turkey has chlamydia, we should quarantine all the animals, and that we should probably alert our healthcare professionals.  So I'm going to the doctor tomorrow to get tested for chlamydia.

I miss cockroaches.

well stop touching turkeys then -MW

I'm new.  I've been given a couple of temporary projects until everything gets sorted out.  One of them involves training a turkey to run on a treadmill.  We're trying to get her to run up to 11 miles per hour.

She's molting, so her feathers are everywhere.  The first day we got her to 4 mph.  We give her breaks when she's tired.  We wear scrubs and gloves, but sometimes she flaps around.

Over the weekend what I thought was nothing but a slight sunburn, or change of climate turns into this insane rash on my arms and legs that is dry, red, swollen, and itchy. I changed a lot of things at the same time, so it could be caused by one of the following things (in order of likelihood): turkey, sleeping on a dorm room floor, switching from body wash to soap, switching from lotion to baby oil, change of climate including more sunlight, heat, and humidity.  So I started using really mild body wash, using sunscreen as lotion all the time, but still sleeping on the floor and touching the turkey.  This rash does not go away.  I start sleeping on a couch but continue to touch the turkey and it doesn't go away.  By process of elimination I determine that I am allergic to turkeys.  Which is weird, because I've never been allergic to any animal before.

I see a dermatologist, who asks me "So... what are you doing with these turkeys?" I explain my research to her, and she tells me that yes, it does look like I have contact dermatitis, and it's probably because of the turkey.  She tells me to prevent re-exposure and use sunscreen.

Now I have to find a new project to work on.