galactic-corndog:

erikkillmongerdontpullout:

queenadwoa:

Do you know how fucking HARD this is!? Turtles die of old age, naturally, that’s why they live so long. They rarely get sick and don’t have illnesses such as cancer or even the common cold, naturally occurring. So, for there to be turtle specific herpes……..it’s not a good sign.

This is really sad

So I googled this and apparently these turtles carry the herpes virus latently- that is theyre infected but they don’t have symptoms or problems. Stress is what causes these viruses to pop back up and lots of things cause stress. Even the wrong microbial environment can fuck this up. Human activity puts a huge amount of stress on these animals and their environment and as a result their immune system cannot keep the virus in check. We’re exhausting these animals into disease.