Above you can see a turtle on the Maquet ventilator. To the right is the ventilator in the background. The tube is going into our ICU to breath for a turtle that is at 55F. This helps maintain the temperature of the turtle so it does not warm up too fast.
This turtle not only received the emergency meds Connie talked about but it was also was put on a ventilator because it was not breathing on its own.
The screen of the Maquet ventilator. Typically this machine would be delivering 12-20 breaths per minute for humans, our turtles need only 1-3.
I want to give a special thanks to Sean Shortall of Maquet Inc. and the Maquet Getinge Group they have lent us this ventilator for the past few years during the height of turtle season. This has been an extremely helpful tool. The company was introduced to us by Michelle Ceresia consulting pharmacist from the Mass College of Pharmacy in Boston. We used to have to have a staff member give breaths with an ambu bag sometimes for hours. With the ventilator that staff member can now be working on other critical turtles. Not only does it help save the life of the turtle on the ventilator but, who knows how many extra turtles lives have been saved due to the extra pair of hands.
After the turtle had been on the ventilator for a good while it started showing signs of agitation. So we removed the breathing tube and brought the turtle over to a small pool to see how it would swim.
During the initial swim the turtle looked a little vacant in the eyes and seemed to be on auto pilot. Over the next couple of days the turtle continued to swim like this. This concerned me but I was hopeful. You can see a photo of the initial swim below.
Although the turtle had a good swimming posture. It didn't react when you would try and pick it up out of the water or look at your hand when it was in the water next to its head.
Above, some intake photos to the left and photos from today on the right.
You can see above that Quasar is doing great! In the picture on the left the turtle is coming over to see if I have food. On the right Quasar dashes away after realizing no food... treatment time!
This turtle has become one of my favorites. Along with Tres-4 (#61)... I know I shouldn't have favorites!
Above is Tres-4 watching me from the turtles temporary home. All I have to do is turn around from my computer and there (s)he is!
-Adam
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