February 7th the GSTC had a turtle rodeo where we weighed, drew blood and did medical workups to three of our large loggerhead sea turtles. The morning started off with Vida, who got a weight check, a bandage change for her plastron lesion, and tube fed some Panacur, which is a dewormer to remove parasites. Vida’s wound looked good, and she weighed in at 91pounds.
Griffin, our big boy, had a super quick check up and his weight was taken as well. We needed the whole team and some volunteers help to get him to the scale. He is by far the biggest turtle we have weighing an enormous 193.6 pounds. After his weight check he got his daily tube feeding of fish gruel and vitamins and was back in his tank.
Spitfire, one of our turtles from Florida, had quite a fun workup. He got blood work taken, weighed, and an abcess on his neck debrided by Dr. Norton. He came in at 118.8 pounds. As, Spitfire’s name implies he is quite fiesty, he doesn’t like to be handled and as you can imagine he doesn’t sit still to make it easy. Many times the staff will have to wrangle the turtles like you would at a rodeo.
Turtle rodeos are always a great time for both the staff and the visitors. It gives us a chance to get some important work done as well as gather information for future research. For the visitors to the center it is a great opportunity to see the procedures up close and personal as many of them take place right in the rehab pavillion!
Today, the Georgia Sea Turtle Center Outreach Team proudly participated in Georgia History Day at Oglethorpe Point Elementary School (OPES), on Saint Simons Island. This event was sponsored by the Coastal Georgia Historical Society. We joined a number of other exhibitors to share our knowledge with eager first and second graders. Programs began at 9:00am and students rotated though the exhibitors in 30 minute intervals. Nearly 200 students joined us today to learn historical facts about sea turtles. Like what, you may ask? Read on, my friends, read on!
So, just how long have sea turtles been around? Are you ready for this…250 million years! Shocked? So were these students! We are lucky enough to have a replica of the oldest known fossil of a sea turtle, Archelon, hanging above our gift shop here at the GSTC. Archelon lived approximately 74 million years ago and the original fossil was discovered in South Dakota. Makes sense when you think about it, that is where the ocean once was.
We actually brought a replica of Archleon’s skull with us for our program. Check out the looks of amazement on these student’s faces when we revealed it! We also had student volunteers help us demonstrate how long the Archelon skeleton was (please see below), 15 feet from beak to tail. Lastly, we discussed the unique adaptations that sea turtles have that helped them survive so long, such as a hard, streamlined carapace (top shell), camouflage and strong flippers to help them swim fast through the ocean.
We were truly honored to participate in this event and we both enjoyed all the questions and personal stories that were told! Thanks to each and every one of our participants and thanks to our friends who already made us thank you cards! We hope you “swim” over to the Georgia Sea Turtle Center real soon!
Can’t make it to Jekyll Island to visit the GSTC? Our Outreach Staff can come to you! For more information or to schedule an Outreach Program, please visit our website or call us at (912) 635-4076.
With the arrival of the New England turtles and Vida we thought we had a full house here at the center, but we had one little tank left open. It seemed as though it needed a turtle to fill it up and much to our pleasure we got one!
Charlotte, our third green sea turtle, stranded on Cumberland Island. With the help of the Department of Natural Resources (DNR) we got her to the center and started her exam. She seemed pretty fiesty and her blood work looked pretty good. We started to remove her barnacles and we found several old wounds that we suspect are from a boat propellor. We water tested her and she was swimming from the word go! However, she was floating with her posterior in the air.
Dr. Norton was the lucky staff member that was selected to name her and he named her after his sister Charlotte. A few days in some fresh water helped get her rehydrated and loosen the barnacles so we could remove the rest. We found that she had some shell lesions and her shell didn’t quite look right. We started her on antibiotics and a wound cleaning regime and she responded very well!
She is still floating like a little cork and isn’t using her rear flippers correctly, but she is now in regular salinity water, off her antibiotics, eating great (her favorite are green peppers..yum!) and continuing to be treated for her shell injuries.
Be sure to come by and see our newest little patient!
Do you love our sea turtles as much as we do? Then you should come to the Georgia Sea Turtle Center to send one of our patients a special Valentine wish! This month’s craft at the center is Recycled Sea Turtle Valentines. You can make a Valentine for Griffin, Vida, Dylan, Spitfire, Charlotte, or for any one of our New England turtles (Tweety, Tinkerbell, Wile E. Coyote, Kermit, Scuttle, Cruella de Vil, or Grover). Each Valentine heart is made from recycled sea turtle journals donated by visitors like you! After you’ve dropped your Valentine in the mailbox, it will be posted on your selected turtle to represent the scutes (modified scales) on its carapace. Be sure to stop by to check out your special message to our turtles!
Happy Valentine’s Day!
~Amy Hupp, Maura Larson, and Emily Goczalk, Education Interns
L to R: Haley, Caitlyn, Madison, Joe, Gauge and Madelyn spend their day learning about sea turtles and making valentines for their favorite turtle.
The video above is the laparoscopic camera inside of Vida, a loggerhead sea turtle (read on for more information about her procedure and recovery!). You are able to see her ovaries, the yellowish material at the beginning of the video, her lung which is the bubbly-looking pink stuff, her liver which is darker red near the bottom of the video. Watch until the end and you will see her heart beating along the left side of the video! Cool, a sea turtles heart!
The Georgia Sea Turtle Center veterinarian, Dr. Norton, preformed laparoscopy and endoscopy on two loggerhead sea turtles. These procedures use a small camera at the end of a scope inserted inside the animal through an instrument called a trocar. The trocar allows the veterinarian to utilize instruments such as a biopsy forceps in order to take samples of any organs or comprimised areas inside the animal. Both procedures went very well and the turtles are recovering nicely.
Vida’s procedure was first, starting at 8:00AM the morning of January 25th. The doctor injected the patient with anesthetic drugs and when she was sleepy enough he inserted a trach tube into her trachea and administered a gas anesthesia to keep her sleeping for the procedure. Laparoscopy requires the animal to be tilted on her side so that her organs fall away from the point of entry of the scope. Once inside, Dr. Norton had a good view of all major organs – kidney, liver, lungs, and we were even able to see the heart beating! Vida is a young female, as we were able to see her ovaries. Her procedure went very well and nothing was observed out of the normal so she was recovered from anesthesia and placed back into water later that day. She is doing great now, eating very well and active in her tank. Hopefully she will remain in good health and will be released this spring.
Griffin is another of our loggerhead sea turtle patients. His endoscopy procedure (endoscopes are long, flexible scopes with a small camera on the end and instrument channels built in) was after Vida had recovered. Dr. Norton placed the endoscope down his trachea (through the trach tube) and was able to see down to where the trachea splits into two bronchi. His suspisions were confirmed as a large amount of mucus was found in the trachea, indicating he has pneumonia. Dr. Norton also took the endoscope and passed it down Griffin’s throat and into his stomach, everything looked good up to that point. Upon moving the camera in the GI tract a little further, it became apparent that the duodenum (the first part of the small intestine) had an ulcer-like appearance. Where you should see nice healthy pinkish tissue, the area looked yellow with several blood spots. Biopsy samples were taken by passing a long biopsy instrument through the scope and into the area in question. The small forceps grabs a small portion of the tissue and tears it out, leaving very small trauma. After the biopsies were taken, the veterinarian decided to check out the other end. He took a different scope and passed it through Griffin’s cloaca. We now know Griffin is for sure a male (we suspected as much with his large, thick tail) because we were able to see his reproductive parts. Everything else on this end appeared as it should. Griffin was recovered from the procedure and is doing well. He has just recently started to show interest in eating on his own again, although hasn’t eaten anything yet. We have cut back on his tube feedings to once a day hoping to encourage him to eat on his own. He continues to get stronger and more alert each day. He is on antibiotics, gut motility drugs, iron, ulcer medication and pancreatic enzymatic powder to help with digestion.
