New arrival

Today we got a new loggerhead from the power plant. This is Sparrow (Pirates anyone?) and as you can see Sparrow has a problem.

The problem is in the form of a rather large hook in the esophagus. What you see is the steel wire leader (with some of the sharp ends wrapped in duct tape to protect the turtle). The hook looks quite similar to the hook we removed from Miriam (click her name to see Miriam’s x-ray and hook) several month ago. That one proved to be a recreational shark hook and we’re guessing this is the same type. A potential surgery is scheduled for tomorrow to remove it. The turtle is otherwise healthy and fat and not really happy with us at the moment – which is how a loggerhead should be.

Elphie was released on Hutchinson Island in a private goodbye by Dr. Mettee. That sure was a cute little green and we are happy to have saved that flipper. Special thanks goes out to all the volunteers that did “turtle treadmill” therapy to help her get better.

L – O – L – A Lola!

So, she’s anemic and drastically underweight. Her x-rays show plenty of shell material in her gut and what appears to be a collapsed right lung. We’re not sure the shell material is moving so we are going to treat with some drugs specifically to help that. Fortunately she is strong enough to have supervised pool time during the day but is currently being dry docked at night. She ate a bit today (with some very strong encouragement from us; we placed squid in her mouth against her wishes, she did not spit it back out). Still keep those fingers crossed – she has got a long way to go before she is even close to being stabilized. Lola’s page

In other turtle news: Gloria and Jay did get released via a boat trip out to the sea weed last week. And we have several turtles that are looking good to go soon. Pending some final blood work, we may be sending Ephie and Hugo on their merry way in the next few weeks.

More updates

It’s time to talk about some of our other turtles here. Joy is steadily improving in the use of her jaw. She has been on a diet of lobster tails for a while now as a form of physical therapy. Today she got a whole lobster as a test – she did better than she has in the past but she still is not quite ready to be released. We need to feel confident that she could catch live lobsters on her own and she’s not quite there yet. She’s been here for a little over 6 months now and she’s going to be here a while longer.

Elphie is another turtle who is doing well. The infection in the bone seems to have been stopped. She is using the flipper quite well when she swims. We hope to confirm that the infection is completely gone with a bone scan. After that she will be cleared for release. Another fat and happy turtle to go!

This will be the last post for a week or so – vacation beckons. Check back in after the 17th… (unless I sneak one in before that, say, midweek or so).