Update on our sea turtle

I have been keeping an eye on our sea turtle, Erika, who was rescued last summer by our wonderful Summer Science Institute teachers and transported to the Georgia Sea Turtle Center. She has her own page under the current patients link. I had issues viewing the page using Internet Explorer, but the good folks there suggested using Firefox which worked perfectly. In case you are using IE as well, Stefanie sent along the following update:

Here is Erika's current information from the webpage:

Erika is an adult female loggerhead sea turtle who was found floating on the inshore side of Seahorse Key near the University of Florida’s Marine lab dock on July 10, 2009. Erika was named after our former Hospital Coordinator, Erika Kemler. A group of teachers found her while out kayaking and brought her to shore. After being evaluated we determined that she was floating due to a large amount of air in her body cavity presumed to be secondary to a lung tear. This is a very common problem in sea turtles and one of the most common causes of buoyancy abnormalities. It is thought that these tears occur as a result of blunt force trauma such as a boat strike. We have been removing the air from Erika’s body cavity on a regular basis, sometimes up to 45,000 ml with a needle and syringe. In most cases these tears will heal in a much shorter time period than has been the case with Erika. Unfortunately, when she first arrived, Erika was very depressed and not eating on her own. She was a challenge to tube feed due to her size and often regurgitated. Finally, after months of tube feeding, she began eating on her own and is now a healthy 215 pounds! We have actually had to cut back on her diet due to her being slightly over weight. Her attitude and activity level have improved dramatically. We are giving her some time to see if she will be able to heal the tear on her own. Last Friday (November 13) we aspirated 12,000 ml of air from both sides of her body cavity and she became lower in the water column and seems to be remaining low. This may indicate that the leak has at least slowed down some and possibly some healing has taken place. We will continue to draw air out more aggressively if it continues to help her buoyancy problem. If she continues to float, we may have to take more drastic measures such as surgically repairing the lung via a laparoscope. Cross your fingers.

I can also tell you that currently Erika is still floating and we have stopped aspirating air, as it didn't seem to be helping. We conducted an open MRI ~ 1 month ago (brain scan and back end) but it was inconclusive. We are also currently looking to schedule a laparoscopy in ~1 month, to see if there is a tear in the lung and if so, try to fix it.

Let's keep pulling for her. Hopefully she will mend soon and be able to be released.