An Update on "Huntington"



I was surprised to learn about the health problem of my favorite patient when I first started my internship with the South Carolina Aquarium Sea Turtle Rescue Program. She is a large loggerhead named Huntington and is recovering from an intestinal impaction caused by a dense mass of scallop shells, a natural prey item for loggerheads.



For those of you that remember when Huntington was admitted in May, she was positively buoyant (floating), thin, and lethargic. Loggerheads are known for their large heads and powerful jaws which they use to crush the hard shells of their prey. So how and why does one get harmed by shells? The answer remains a mystery.

Up until early August, Huntington couldn't dive below the surface of the water due to a large pocket of air trapped inside the intestines from the impaction. S/he floated with one side higher than the other due to the location of the impaction and the excess gas, which meant we had to keep her in only ~18 inches of water. If we filled her tank all the way up, she would have floated completely sideways!

Huntington passed the impaction thanks to various treatments including tube-feeding mineral and cod liver oils to lubricate the intestinal tract, as well as massage therapy, where we applied large vibrating massagers externally around the area of the impaction to stimulate movement. Because Huntington couldn't be fed during treatment for the impaction, regular fluids with dextrose were administered to keep her blood glucose at normal levels. These treatments occurred every 2-3 days for almost 6 weeks, quite a feat for a turtle that weighs 150 pounds!

Once the impaction passed, we were able to start feeding Huntington small amounts of food. This hungry loggerhead is now eating 4.5 pounds of food each day and is an amazing sight to see! She swims without any buoyancy problems, is very close to having a normal body weight and her blood work has greatly improved. She possesses a beautiful carapace beaming with its natural colors. This was an amazing recovery for me to watch and assist with, especially considering that this turtle likely would likely have died without our help. Watching these sick and injured sea turtles recover from illness or injury is the most rewarding part of my internship and I am looking forward to the day when Huntington is released back into the wild.



Romina Ramos
2013 Sea Turtle Rescue Program Intern

Eddie Suffers from Intestinal Coccidia Infection

Little Eddie, a green sea turtle rescued from Edisto's waters in late August, is feisty and enjoying a shallow tank of filtered water in our Sea Turtle Hospital. However, he is still fighting a tendency for his rear end to float. The video below was taken last week and shows that Eddie’s buoyancy issue has improved since admittance (see admittance blog with video here) but still remains problematic.

When Eddie was admitted, his inability to dive led us to suspect he had an intestinal impaction that was causing excess gas in his GI tract. We’ve been monitoring the progress of his GI tract for about 7 weeks now via a tube-fed contrast agent (see photo) and a regular series of x-rays. While he has passed most of the gas and has had fairly regular fecals, Eddie’s caudal end is still positively buoyant.


Eddie's mouth is gently held open while he is tube-fed a contrast agent.

Our veterinarian, Dr. Shane Boylan, orients Eddie on the cassette for an x-ray.

Luckily, a recent routine microscopic exam of Eddie’s poop revealed the presence of the coccidian parasite Caryospora cheloniae, which is specific to green sea turtles. This parasite is known to cause severe inflammation of the intestinal tract and may be at least partially responsible for the impaction-like symptoms we are seeing in this turtle. Eddie has now begun receiving an oral medication to treat this infection every other day and, luckily, he swallows his medication hidden in a bit of fish like a champ!

Eddie has tolerated his various treatments well, and we are hopeful he'll make a full recovery.

Eddie is a challenging case, but we are exploring all of our options to treat this turtle and are hopeful he will make a full recovery while overwintering in our hospital. Please wish Eddie well as he struggles to overcome his health issues!

Christi Hughes
Sea Turtle Biologist

Green Sea Turtle Admitted with Severe Intestinal Blockage

Imagine, if you will, a very large, darkly colored cork bobbing around in the coastal waters along a picturesque stretch of beach in South Carolina. This is essentially what a volunteer turtle patroller from the town of Edisto Beach saw when she first spotted Eddie, a juvenile green sea turtle who was admitted into our hospital on August 26th. Visibly bloated and full of excess intestinal gas, Eddie was alert and active but unable to dive below the surface. This buoyancy issue is a huge problem for an animal designed to eat seagrasses and algae that proliferate on the sea floor.

Eddie is a testament to the resiliency of sea turtles in the wild. During his physical exam, we noticed this juvenile green had been struck by a boat earlier this year but had healed quite well without medical intervention. With the exception of the flotation disorder, Eddie was in fairly good health when he was admitted into our hospital. However, there is a strong possibility that this turtle's current buoyancy problem is a complication resulting from this boat strike.

The light-colored line on Eddie's shell (indicated by blue arrow) is healing tissue in the deepest part of the propeller strike.

In 2009, we admitted a green sea turtle named Pawley who presented with essentially the same symptoms as Eddie. X-rays of both turtles showed large loops of gas distended intestines. Although Pawley received intensive treatment - including exploratory surgery - for nearly 3 weeks, he ended up passing due to a complete obstruction of the bowel. Impactions like these are a huge concern for sea turtles worldwide as plastics and other nondigestible materials become more prominent in our oceans. Sea turtles are simply unable to differentiate between food items and trash and, if they consume garbage like bottle caps or balloons, they may end up with an impaction that leads to death.



These plastics, intermixed with jellyfish that look very similar, are floating in a mat of Sargassum. Sargassum is a seaweed that provides food and shelter to a variety of marine animals, including juvenile sea turtles. This photo was taken near Georgetown Hole in 2011 by Nigel Bowers on one of the Aquarium's collecting trips.

Luckily for Eddie, a barium study (performed in-house) and a CT scan donated by the Charleston Veterinary Referral Center have ruled out a complete bowel obstruction. However, we are still unsure what has caused the impaction, as x-rays do not show any foreign objects (certain objects, like plastics, are not visible in x-rays).


Eddie was calm and cooperative during his CT scan thanks to a small dose of a mild sedative.

 

These are two of the many views we are able to obtain with a CT scan. These scans are much more useful than x-rays as a diagnostic tool as we can view cross-sectional images of different portions of the body. Also, CT scans reveal organs, bones, and soft tissues in greater clarity than x-rays.

Our current treatment regimen is focused on increasing the motility of the gut to encourage the impaction to pass naturally and, so far, Eddie has been passing fecals quite often! We have not found any foreign bodies in Eddie's fecals yet, and he still has a large amount of excess intestinal air that is causing him to bob around like a cork in his tank, but radiographs taken yesterday indicate he is improving. This is great news, as we'd like to avoid surgery to remove the impaction if at all possible.

Eddie receives an enema to encourage his body to pass the contents of his intestinal tract.

Although we are seeing encouraging signs during this initial phase of treatment, Eddie's prognosis is still guarded and surgery may become necessary. Come visit Eddie in our hospital and wish this spunky turtle well as he tries to recover from this severe intestinal obstruction!

Eddie is looking forward to meeting you!

Christi Hughes
Sea Turtle Biologist