1/23/10

Another day in "PAP Land".

This was our last full day at the Gumbo Limbo Nature Preserve and it was another action packed one.


Above Cleon, Juan, and Anthony treat turtles.

We started first thing by treating a small green sea turtle with it's last dose of antibiotics and I checked its eyes to make sure it had no corneal lesions so that it would be ok for release. This turtle was down in the area that has been affectionately proclaimed "pap" land as all the turtles have papilloma tumors. This is the area I have been working in for the past few days.



This little guy had no stain uptake and was cleared for release.

After confirming this turtle had no corneal lesions it was slated to be released with three other turtles later in the day.



Thanks so much to Cody for shooting this video as he was releasing the turtles.


As we continued on through the day looking at different papilloma tumors, treating eye injuries, and determining if animals need to extend their treatment Dr. Milton was collecting tumor samples for her research into the progression of the tumors. While the turtles were waiting to be placed back into the water as they sat out with their eye treatment, samples of various tumors were taken. Her research sounds really interesting and hopefully it will help the turtles in the future.


Above you can see Dr. Milton and Heather collecting tumor samples.
As we finished our treatments I took a quick look off the back of the large tank and just appreciated the view.

Our team then went up to see if Connie and her group needed any help. They had just finished as well. They only had some turtles out finishing their eye treatments for the day (as seen below).


Once those treatments were finished we then started to try and get some more turtles eating. As with our turtles back in New England it can take some time and effort to get cold-stunned turtles to start eating again. We all concentrated our efforts on the tanks and got some turtles eating that were not and piqued the interest of other turtles which nibbled at but never ingested the food (which is a good sign!). Hopefully they will all be eating within the next few days.

We are heading back to Boston tomorrow. It has been quite an adventure!

-Adam

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