Turtle surgery
Update from Saving sea turtles. Today we focused on surgery to remove the fibropapillomas (paps) tumors making it difficult for many of the turtles to move. Right now we think that these paps are a direct result of pollution. The most likely cause is “urban runoff” or pollution like fertilizers, oil and gasoline from streets and lawns washing into our water ways.
I got to Gumbo Limbo early to prep turtles and set up for surgery. There are many obstacles today: first, there are so many turtles that the surgery site does not have enough room to house all these turtles after surgery. We will use classrooms as a post-op site. Second, the weather is chilly so we have to heat up large classrooms to 80 degrees. Because turtles are cold-blooded, it’s important to regulate the room temperature.
I started morning treatments with another "borrowed" tech- the Gumbo Limbo's Vet's brother- Travis. Together we treated all the non surgery turtles while everyone else set up the surgery area.
After treatments were done, we jumped in to help with surgeries. Disney vets and techs showed up with most supplies, a local ophthalmologist doctor and tech were there to assist with the delicate eye surgeries required to remove the fibropapillomas on some of the turtles’ eyes. This doctor and tech team also evaluated many non surgical cases to see if we could do more than we were currently doing. The Marine Life Center sent a tech down as well as another doctor/tech team from Georgia Sea Turtle Center. We had runners with carts that would bring down the next patient and swiftly take the first patient back to recovery. In recovery there were more staff and volunteers including a team from Pittsburgh Zoo and PPG Aquarium. All turtles were monitored with a Doppler to check heart rate. Once they began to wake up we removed the tube that maintains breathing during the surgery.
The surgeries were long. We were lucky that lasers were donated for these surgeries because lasers stop bleeding as you cut. This is very important in these highly vascular tumors. The goal was to remove all paps, but again, some turtles had so many that we couldn’t remove them all without worrying about too much skin loss. There are many turtles who will need additional surgeries in the future.
Members of the media came to observe and ask questions about the procedures. I was glad to see this coverage because it’s important for the public to be aware of what’s going on and how they can help. Right now it seems that if these turtles are affected by run off pollution the best thing people can do it reduce their impact on the oceans. Don’t littler, don’t dump chemicals down the storm drain, fix oil leaks in your car and reduce the use of harmful fertilizers and pesticides that wash into our water ways.
All in all we completed 29 surgeries! We stayed until almost midnight to make sure all the turtles were recovering well before we went home.
Stay tuned for another update.
Posted by Abbey Grobe, animal health
Read the next entry: Releasing a sea turtle
I'm so glad you were able to help some of the sea turtles. I hope there will be more good news and no more cold turtles.
Posted by: Alyssa | February 02, 2010 at 12:23 AM
Due to our carelessness with the environment, we have bent Mother Nature's order. Mother Nature made these turtles cold-blooded because usually the climate never gets below about 62 degrees. Our foolishness has brought us to the wrong destination, sick and cold turtles.
Posted by: Joe D. | February 07, 2010 at 02:39 PM