Howlite

Loggerhead (Caretta caretta)

Stranding Location: Joint Base Charleston, North Charleston, South Carolina
Arrival Date: 7/12/2021
Age: Juvenile
Weight: 16.9 kg (37 lbs)

Case History

Howlite was caught on hook-and-line in the Cooper River on Joint Base Charleston. When the fisherman saw that she had swallowed the hook, they used a dip net to pull Howlite out of the water and promptly contacted South Carolina Department of Natural Resources (SCDNR). SCDNR technician, Cami Duquet, responded to the call and transported Howlite to the Sea Turtle Care Center™ for hook removal.

Treatment

Cami immediately noticed an older boat strike on her carapace and notified admitting staff before she transported her to the Sea Turtle Care Center. Howlite had already been through a lot for such a young sea turtle! At admit, Howlite was very alert and active. The boat strike was packed with pluff mud, making it hard to assess how severe the damage to her shell was. Admitting Care Center™ staff got a weight and took an x-ray to determine the location of the hook. Luckily, the hook was located high enough in the esophagus that they were hopeful it would not require surgery to be removed. After the x-ray, staff flushed all of the pluff mud out of the propeller wounds to better assess the damage caused by the boat strike. There were two deep wounds across the top of the carapace, and the lower portion of the shell behind the third strike was missing. Once the shell was cleaned up, she was sedated for CT to better access the boat strike injury and to remove the fishing hook. Luckily for Howlite, after several attempts to remove the hook non-surgically, Dr. Shane was able to remove the circle hook with minimal trauma to her esophagus. While under sedation, the CT scan was conducted, fluids with vitamins were administered and antibiotics were given. Howlite was quiet but alert and was left to rest comfortably in a padded foam bin for the rest of the evening.

Update

July 15, 2021: Howlite was moved into a shallow water tank the following morning after admit. The CT scan indicated that the boat strike did injure Howlite’s spine and, while she currently has minimal use of those rear flippers, she has deep pain response. Thankfully, she is defecating normally. We will continue to assess the wounds as they heal and the swelling reduces. We are working on a treatment plan with the goal of helping her regain normal flipper use again so that she may be considered a release candidate.

September 15, 2021: Howlite was recently moved up into our exercise tank in Zucker Family Sea Turtle Recovery on the first floor. We wanted to better evaluate his ability to use his rear flipper and control his buoyancy at a deeper tank depth. So far, we have seen improvements in his ability to stay flat on the bottom, and he has no issues diving to forage for food. As long as he’ll tolerate it, we are also doing physical therapy with him to see if that helps improve his ability to have full use of his rear flippers while he’s in the tank.

October 15, 2021: Howlite has continued to show subtle improvement in their ability to use their rear flippers. Staff has observed them resting flat on the bottom, able to dive normally to forage for food and have not seen significant buoyancy issues in the exercise tank. The next step is try Howlite in our deepest tank to see how they are able to swim and maintain buoyancy.

January 15, 2022: Howlite has become a guest favorite in Zucker Family Sea Turtle Recovery™. Howlite is cruising around our deepest tank with ease and is very active. We will be pulling them for a weight and exam later this month. Come check out Howlite next time you visit the Aquarium!

February 15, 2022: This past month, Howlite gotten a new “room” assignment: tank 6! No need to fret, you can still see this feisty turtle up in Zucker Family Sea Turtle Recovery≈. They are settling well into their new tank. Prior to the move, staff noticed that Howlite had been a little more caudally buoyant over the last few weeks and decided to get another CT scan to see if there were any changes since the last scan. Diagnostic imaging showed that there were some changes to the spine. Scans also showed that Howlite had a lot of fecal material in the GI tract. Staff is continuing to monitor Howlite’s fecal output and are keeping a close eye out for any behavioral changes.

March 15, 2022: Howlite has hit a bump in their recovery and their prognosis is guarded. Their buoyancy disorder has become more prominent, and they are pooping less. We did have to give Howlite a few enemas to help move things along, and we have seen some improvement in that area. We have given them a new piece of enrichment to help them “level out” and hopefully be a bit more comfortable. Sometimes treatments take a while to take effect. As of now, we are just waiting to see how they do before we pursue a new avenue of treatment.

April 15, 2022: Over the last month, Howlite has received a CT scan to see if there are any more changes to their carapace (top shell) and spine as they continue to heal from their boat strike injury. Diagnostic imaging shows that there is likely compression on the spinal cord which is contributing to a slow down in both digestion and rear flipper movement. Howlite’s diet has been slightly lowered, and they are on a weekly feeding schedule instead of being fed daily. This has helped improve the frequency of their defecations and some resolution in buoyancy. At this point, we are looking at options, such as a weight belt, to aid in their ability to rest on the bottom of the tank. Howlite will likely be unreleasable, so we are reevaluating their long-term treatment plan moving forward.

May 15, 2022: With the reduced feeding schedule, we have seen an improvement with the amount of defecations that Howlite has been having. They received some food enrichment this past week: a blue crab! You could say Howlite loved it… they gobbled it up before it even made it to the bottom of the tank! We are still working on the best “weight belt” option for Howlite. There will be more to come on this in the near future!

June 15, 2022: We made some big decisions for Howlite’s care this past month. Howlite is non-releasable due to their bubble butt syndrome. We have begun target training Howlite to prepare them for a home at another aquarium in the future. Howlite caught on to the target training quickly, and now they eat their full diet daily during their training session. Even with the switch from the reduced feeding schedule back to a normal daily schedule, Howlite is defecating regularly — we are always monitoring for changes in this. Howlite has also been fitted for a weighted wetsuit vest in order to make them neutrally buoyant to correct their orientation while swimming. The wetsuit is in the final stages of construction. After some fine tuning, it’ll hopefully be in use by our next update!

July 15, 2022: Howlite’s wetsuit weight jacket is complete! A couple of weeks ago, we did the final fitting and tested out varying amounts of weight in Howlite’s jacket. After much finetuning, we found the perfect amount of weight to make Howlite neutrally buoyant. Howlite can now swim in a normal orientation in the water column, rest on the bottom of the tank and swim normally to the surface to take a breath. We can only imagine how much more comfortable Howlite is now that they are in a normal body orientation. We have found that Howlite is defecating more regularly, is acting more alert and active when awake and even seems to be sleeping better! Making this wetsuit weight jacket for Howlite was truly a team effort, and we cannot thank those involved enough for helping make Howlite’s quality of life even better.