Dr. Veryl Walstrom, DVM 1946
Spike the Alligator Snapping Turtle
In the early days of his veterinarian practice V.A. Walstrom was known as a horse doctor. The horse population dwindled some in northern Nebraska along the Niobrara and Missouri Rivers. More machines started doing the farm and ranch work.
This brought more time for Doc's hobby. In the late 1970's he took up turtle racing. Many championships around the sandhill circuit and part of South Dakota came. Several of these events also had a trophy for the largest turtle brought to the event. Doc had several recruiters located in Minnesota, Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska and Missouri.
A fisherman from the Mississippi River near Hannibal, Missouri. called him one day with "the catch." An alligator Snapping turtle that weighed over 50 pounds. They could send it to the fish market in Kansas City if someone would pick it up. That's where I came in, being newly located in Marysville, Kansas, where I had come to help a friend and former classmate in need of mortuary help. I was able to cut my father's trip in half if I could go pick this big turtle up. When I arrived at the Kansas fish market the turtle was in a crate on ice with no top. Cooled down to a nonmoving temperature I loaded the turtle in my pickup destined for Marysville hoping to arrive before the ice melts.
The turtle looked prehistoric compared to the common snapper with a head 3 times the size and more shell protrusions. "Spike" had to be the name. He was a male that had been caught with a grappling hook and pulled out of the river in the spot where Mark Twain grew up. His head was injured and infected, I reported to my dad, "Give me a treatment. You are the vet." His immediate reply was, "You are close to Manhattan and it is about time you met my old professor Dr. E.J. Frick who is a world-renowned ichthyologist and helped start Sunset Zoo, he will know something about turtles."
To Manhattan I went to consult Dr. E.J. Frick. After Dr. Frick had inquired about my background, he exclaimed, "Yes, I recall your dad! My friend, in my time Terramycin, Lincomycin, and Penicillin have come about as good treatments, but the very best medicine is right there in your own funeral home establishment. FORMALDEHYDE, it is the best antiseptic there is. I have even injected it intravenously in horses that were plagued by an injury and had the genetic condition of hemophilia. It would help thicken the blood so that in surgery they would not bleed to death and it would kill off infection. I never lost a horse. Sprinkle some formaldehyde on your turtle's injury and throw some moss in the tank—it has some natural antibodies—your turtle will be healed in 10 days."
Yep, healed in ten days and made the turtle circuit and almost always won the big turtle trophy.
Chapter 2
My dad summered the turtle in northern Nebraska and I kept him in the warm Kansas basement of the mortuary in the winter. We knew he was about to go in hibernation when he would eat 90 crawdads in October. I would always keep a couple crawdads in his tank in the winter and when those were gone in about mid-March "Spike" was ready for more.
My wife and I took a 5th wedding anniversary white water rafting trip on the Salmon River in Idaho. We paddled about 100 miles in less than a week and when I got off the river, I called home to see if everything was ok. My mom answered the phone and was crying when she heard my voice. I asked what is wrong, is dad ok? Her sniffling voice said, "Spike, Spike got away. Someone came in the yard and had questions on a sick animal and dad got to explaining the treatment and he let the water over run to the top of the tank. The creek was only 50 feet away and now he has probably traveled down the Verdigre Creek and into the Niobrara River." I consoled my mom and told her it would be alright, not much lost.
The next week, I got my Turtox Biological supply book in the mail that often-had turtles and other aquatics for sale. There was a big ad: Wanted male alligator snapping turtle-500.00. --(that was in 1982 money and males are rare and hardly ever come out of the water). The next week my weekly Verdigre Newspaper had an ad I knew my mother had placed and I was embarrassed to read: Reward for "Spike" The alligator snapping turtle last seen on the Verdigre Creek probably heading north to the Niobrara River. --
-- I am sure "Spike" remained happy for many years making his way down the Niobrara River and on to the Missouri River. The big crawdad holes are there.
And besides-- Hays Kansas has a bigger alligator snapper at the Sternberg Museum
The secret of getting ahead is getting started—was that Mark Twain or some turtle that thought that?