To Those Wondering:

The Georgia Sea Turtle Center has seen some interesting patients in its three years of existence.  We’re constantly treating cases such as boat strikes, shark bites, cold stunning, gastrointestinal issues, vision impairment, debilitated turtle syndrome, ingestion or entanglement of marine debris, ingestion of or entanglement in fishing gear, as well as the various “mystery turtles” that demand out-of-the-box thinking and much research on the part of our staff.

As of June 29th, 2010, we have ten patients in the hospital who arrived floating.  Of course, each turtle is unique in some way: species, symptoms, and so on.  We have to use our observational skills along with the scientific method to determine what we can do to help every animal in our care.  Diagnosis begins with an overall exam, cleaning off of any epibionts (animals living on the turtle), a blood draw and analysis, and x-rays.  The vet and rehab staff will compile a list of all symptoms a patient has.  Then, they will begin to treat those symptoms.  They are also required to piece together a story for the education staff, who need to know what happened in order to inform guests.

Some cases are obvious: a boat strike looks like a clean slicing wound, or a series of parallel prop wounds (equidistance from one another).

Some cases are not so apparent: a turtle who is floating who has no air its body cavity or gas in its GI tract.

The Georgia Sea Turtle Center’s current patients (as of June 28th, 2010) who arrived floating are Griffin, Al, Ghus, Bubbles, Erika, Carning, Caton, Ed, Frye, and Thalassia.  Yes, these ten sea turtles were stuck at the water’s surface, but that does not mean “floating” has one specific cause.  It’s really an observational diagnosis; there can be multiple maladies that lead to floating.

Here are some examples:

Griffin has suffered a brain injury similar to a human stroke.  He may not remember how to dive on a regular basis.  He regularly gets “dressed up for dinner” (technically breakfast) by wearing a neoprene suit on his carapace.  We weight the suit and draw his towards the bottom of his tank by use of food prompts.  He responds well to this physical therapy program.

Al was named for the algae on his shell and for his favorite food (algae).  Al was floating from gas build-up in his intestines.  We gave him Regulin and Cisapride, drugs for gut motility.  Honestly, working with turtles can be a real gas.

Ghus (short for “esophagus”) ate plenty of mono-filament (recyclable) fishing line that was partially passing through the gastrointestinal tract.  We removed the line during a day-long surgical procedure.  That has nothing to do with his or her floating condition.  It turns out that Ghus has a lung tear.

Bubbles had a fracture on the bottom shell (plastron) and was found because concerned citizens knew that a floating sea turtle is not healthy.

Erika has air trapped between tissue layers.  We’ve aspirated air from her body cavity many times, and the air keeps replacing itself!  We still do not understand why the air is trapped in such a way or why it continually comes back.  We are currently trying to determine possible infectious causes of her illness.

Carning had air trapped in its body cavity, around the vital organs.  We aspirated air, and that seemed to help.  Carning is now one of our more active turtles.

Caton. Oh, dear.  She’s an odd one.  She arrived with intestinal blockage (impaction) that was causing gas build-up in her gastrointestinal tract.  We gave her a drug called Cisapride, which was for gut motility.  In an extremely abbreviated story: she defecated and dove.  However, there is no short story in a hospital setting.  Caton is our first turtle to refuse release…twice!  We even removed her satellite tracking device.  So disappointing.  Maybe, she’ll “scute outta here” the next time we try to release her.

Ed is a female.  We performed laparoscopic surgery to find out why this juvenile green sea turtle was stuck at the water’s surface.  We found a hematoma (bruising between layers of tissue) causing the lung to curl, which may or may not have been why Ed was floating. Ed began diving on her own relatively soon after surgery.

Frye wears “goggles” and needs glasses.  Okay, “goggles” is a metaphor for the nictitating membrane that protects Frye’s eyes from salt sting.  The second statement refers to Frye’s vision impairment.  Frye spends the majority of his or her time at the top of the water, bobbing like a buoy.  We are trying to find a permanent captive home for our Soleil Moon Frye.

Thalassia eats where she lives and lives where she eats.  She was aptly named for her home and food: a type of sea grass.  Thalassia has what looks like old boat strike wounds that had healed in the wild.  The propeller injury may have interrupted the gastrointestinal tract, causing leafy blockage and gas build-up.  It also could be the reason Thalassia has trouble using her rear flippers to steer.

The Georgia Sea Turtle Center staff have treated other floater patients with torn lungs.  If we calculate that in, then floating can be caused by a lung tear, a brain injury, gastrointestinal issues, or air trapped in the body for some other reason besides a lung tear.

Questions commonly asked of our Education staff include:

1. Do sea turtles eat something in the wild to remedy their gas? (Great question!  We ourselves do not know.  Sounds likes a great research topic.)
2. Is gas common? (We don’t know.  We see only a small percentage of the entire sea turtle population.)
3. Are stroke-like events due to age? (Probably not.)
4. How do they get air in their bodies? (Sometimes a blunt force trauma like the hull of a boat or getting struck by another turtle can jostle the innards enough to subsequently pull a muscle away from the lung.  Other times, we simply don’t have an immediate answer.)
5. WHY IS FLOATING BAD FOR SEA TURTLES? They can not dive for food, nor can they avoid predators.  Other potential issues include: greater risk of boat strikes, or marine debris entanglement.

If you happen to see a sea turtle floating in the ocean, call 1-800-2-SAVE-ME (if you live in Georgia).  To find other states’ sea turtle stranding networks, follow this link to the seaturtle.org stranding network locator.

Thank your for taking the time to read this BLOG and for doing your part to help these beautiful endangered species.

Honestly,

Amanda Noble

Education Member

Have you been naughty or have you been nice? If you were naughty, you have 350 days to prepare for Santa’s next visit with the Sea Turtles!

The big guy in red flew in for a visit this past December, leaving his workshop behind just six days before Christmas! Many of Santa’s elves were spotted

helping sea turtles at the Center that very same day. All the good girls and boys (even the big ones!) had the chance to sit on Santa’s lap, have their photo taken and whisper what they’d like under the tree.

Even our old friend, Archelon, came dressed for the occasion! As an early gift, Santa gave each child a special sea turtle toy to remind them that sea turtles, wild and captive, need our love and care throughout the year.

Everyone, whether naughty or nice, enjoyed a performance of Scute’s Christmas Adventure-but there sure was something different about those holiday tunes sung throughout the show! To adorn their tree when they got home, all guests were invited to make a take-home craft.  This season’s turtle-inspired craft featured a felt turtle with a wreath upon its back. Adorned with ocean stickers, it looked like the most decorate spot in the ocean- the coral reef!  We hope that these ‘Turtle Wreefs’ and memories from Santa’s visit will deck your halls for many seasons to come.

Many thanks to the Mirasolas for their tremendous help with this event!

~Kelly Price, Education Specialist

Many of you are probably familiar with Griffin, an adult male loggerhead sea turtle who has been a patient here for the past 2 years (arrived on Nov. 16, 2007!). He has been a patient here longer than any other sea turtle and won the Patient of the Year award in 2008.

Griffin was originally stranded off Daytona Beach,FL and was taken to the Volusia County Marine Science Center. He was unable to dive and could not eat on his own. After several weeks, the staff at the Marine Science Center decided that they would like to transfer him here to see if ‘new eyes’ could help find the mystery problem. We received him, and after some initial x-rays, found that he had a lot of gas in his GI tract.  We also treated him for a bacterial infection. He finally began, and continues to, eat on his own but also continues to float and has difficulty diving.

Griffin was taken for multiple MRIs over the past 2 years in an effort to help determine the cause of his floating. The GSTC staff was unable to determine a specific cause from those results, however it appears that he suffered a vascular event, similar to a human stroke. For those of you who know about strokes in humans, often the person has to ‘re-learn’ everything from walking, to talking, to eating.  Well, this is the same situation Griffin appears to be in.

Griffin has been receiving physical therapy twice daily on his front flippers to assist in maintaining the muscle tone. The staff is also pushing him underwater when feeding to help encourage diving behavior.  However, none of these efforts seem to be improving Griffin’s condition.  If he can’t dive, hunt for food and eat on his own, he cannot be released into the wild.

The GSTC staff has made a few attempts to create a weight belt, much like SCUBA divers use, to assist in ‘re-training’ Griffin on how to dive.  There are many variables one needs to take into account when constructing a weight belt for a sea turtle, something that has never been done before so far as we know! It has to be well fitted, not constricting of flipper movement, or abrasive in any way to the turtle, etc.  Our attempts proved unsuccessful.  However, Dr. Norton was at a workshop and began a conversation with some engineers from Georgia Tech, Savannah Campus, who seemed very interested in Griffin’s situation and the challenge presented to them.

After a few months of work, the engineers finally had a creation to try out on Griffin…his first fitting!  So on Friday, November 13, 2009 they came to the GSTC and fitted Griffin with the weight belt they had designed.  Once secured on Griffin, he was placed back in his tank, with a few staff standing close by in the tank as well, to assist if/as need.  Unfortunately, all did not go as planned and Griffin had difficulty staying upright.  It appears the weight kept shifting and the neoprene straps we not secure enough once wet.

Don’t worry yet, this was only the first attempt!  The engineers removed Griffin’s custom weight belt and have a few ideas on how to modify it that may solve the problems we encountered on this first fitting.  So, stay tuned and we’ll update you as information becomes available!

Sincerely,
Stefanie Ouellette
Marine Field Programs Coordinator

I recently received an email from the mom of a 4th grader from Chattanooga, TN in regards to few things directly associated with the GSTC.  This email touched my heart and just knew I had share it with everyone.  Here is a clip of that email:

“We are big fans of the sea turtles and have enjoyed learning about them over the past year. My daughter’s 4th grade class did a 9-week unit on the environment ,and as part of that I helped with a sea turtle project for them. We learned all about sea turtles, made our own eggs and turtles from clay, and made some great posters and pictures about them. We adopted Griffin for the class, and they all loved the updates and pictures of him. At the end of the year, they did an exhibit on sea turtles and talked with all the parents about what they learned. As part of a recycling project, they also collected 3 big containers of crayons to donate to the Sea Turtle Center after they saw the crayon project on your blog.  I am enclosing a few pictures of their efforts so you can see how you’ve inspired a bunch of 4th graders in Chattanooga, TN to make a difference to the sea turtles.”

You can image how proud we were to hear about the different ways this class learning about and helping sea turtles. It’s great to have such amazing support from all over the country and from people of all ages!

THANK YOU TO THIS 4TH GRADE CLASS FROM CHATTANOOGA, TN AND THE FAMILY THAT SHARED THIS WONDERFUL STORY WITH US!

Sincerely,
Stefanie Ouellette
Marine Field Programs Coordinator

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.

Erika Kemler

Hospital Coordinator