Endangered sea turtle rescued by 9-year old in Pawley's Island

A call came in to the head of the SCUTE turtle team, Jeff McClary, on Sunday morning. A very small, live sea turtle was found washed up on Pawley’s Island but someone put it back into the water thinking that was the right thing to do. Knowing that if the turtle stranded on the beach it was sick or injured and once back in the water it may never be seen again, Jeff put out an all points bulletin to the SCUTE coordinators. The Schneider’s {Pawley’s and S. Litchfield} and Betsy Brabson {DeBordieu} sent out an email to the other Turtle Enthusiasts. In the late afternoon, the Graysons spotted something bobbing in the surf and Wilson Grayson, 9 years old, waded into the water to check it out. What he found was a very sick juvenile green sea turtle in need of medical attention. Jeff was notified, collected the turtle and headed South as Kelly Sloan of the SC Department of Natural Resources headed North to make the transfer in McClellanville. It was only a matter of time that the little green named Pawley after it’s stranding location, was admitted into the South Carolina Aquarium’s Sea Turtle Hospital.

Here is Dr. Boylan’s description of the turtle on the night of its arrival:
The animal is mildly anemic, moderately hypoglycemic, severely hypoproteinemic, and severely bradycardic (very low heart rate). We tapped about 180 cc of gas from the coelom (body cavity). Radiographs were clear of any fishing hooks or detectable foreign bodies. The animal reacted with pain responses to injections which correlates with a presumptive diagnosis of gas productive coelomic sepsis. An old puncture wound was found at the marginal scutes. The nearby inframarginal scutes showed some signs of internal pathology by palpation and examination. This is the likely source of the infection (puncture wound). Antibiotics, vitamins, x-rays, fluids with dextrose, ultrasounds, and in house bloodwork were conducted tonight. The prognosis is guarded given sepsis is very likely and acute in onset. The body condition and hydration status were relatively normal.

With each passing day, the chances of survival for little Pawley are better. It is now 4 days into treatment and Pawley is active and even ate a little fish on Wednesday and Thursday. In addition to continuing supportive care including fluids, vitamins and antibiotics, hospital staff is regularly bleeding coelomic air that is being produced by the internal bacterial infection. Be sure to check back to the hospital page to get regular updates on Pawley as well as the other patients in our care!

Thank you to everyone involved with this animal’s rescue, especially to Wilson Grayson and his family. Green sea turtles are listed as federally endangered under the Endangered Species Act and need our help. And remember, if you find a sick or injured sea turtle, contact the local police department or call the SC Department of Natural Resources hotline at 1-800-922-5431.

Kelly

New patient admitted into Sea Turtle Hospital

A call came in on Monday, August 24th from Arturo with the SC Department of Natural Resources - he was on his way to pick up a stranded turtle from North Myrtle Beach, SC. The estimated time of arrival was 7pm. It would be another late night at the Aquarium...

The turtle that stranded was an 80-pound loggerhead (still a juvenile) whose shell was covered in barnacles and hundreds of tube worms whose homes made of mud, were caked inches thick on the shell. Unlike most debilitated sea turtles that arrive at our facility, this one was actually moving around quite a bit. In addition to checking overall body condition and respirations, blood was taken for an in-house snapshot of the animal's health and to ship off for complete blood counts and chemistries. That in house blood analysis told us that "Scute", the new loggerhead, is very anemic and has a very low blood protein. The good news is that it actually has a decent blood glucose level which is why the turtle was more active than most in this state.

You can see the level of emaciation by the outline of bones and tendons in the neck area. The "sore" on top of the skull is from a rope that was entangled around the turtle's neck when it was found in the surf. This entanglement may be the root cause of the turtles poor condition. Supportive care was given to include fluid therapy with Vitamin B, an iron injection to combat anemia, IV hetastarch fluids to help the protein levels in the blood, and of course, antibiotic injections. Since it was 10:30pm when we finished treatment and we could not monitor the turtle overnight, Dr. Boylan and I decided to leave her in a very shallow pool of freshwater. This would allow her to breathe without having to swim to the surface.

Although Scute is extremely sick, we are hopeful that she will improve with continued supportive care. Keep up with Scute's progress (as well as the other patients in the Sea Turtle Hospital) on the main hospital webpage.

Thank you to all involved in the rescue of Scute. It takes all of us to save the lives of these animals!

P.S. For those of you who aren't aware of our naming system, we name the patients after where they strand whether it is a beach or waterway. Currently we are treating a Myrtle and a North Myrtle. To avoid giving the same names to turtles, we look for other names that have something to do with the area in which the turtle strands. SCUTE stands for South Carolina United Turtle Enthusiasts and is comprised of sea turtle volunteers from Georgetown to North Myrtle Beach. This stranding got the name Scute so we wouldn't have to name it North Myrtle Jr as well as to honor all of the SCUTE volunteers that support sea turtle conservation and the Sea Turtle Rescue Program.

Kelly