Green (Chelonia mydas)
Stranding Location: Hilton Head Island, SC
Arrival Date: 1/7/25
Age: Juvenile
Sex: Unknown
Weight: 2.92 kg (6.43 lbs)
Case History
Poppy was found floating near the docks at Cross Island Boat Landing, and was safely transported to the Aquarium by South Carolina Department of Natural Resources (SCDNR) permitted volunteers and staff. This juvenile green is our first sea turtle patient of the year!
Treatment
Poppy arrived at the Aquarium quiet but alert, and with an internal body temperature of 52 degrees Fahrenheit. When sea turtles like Poppy are cold stunned, it is extremely important to slowly warm them back up. When the internal body temperature is that low, it prevents many medications from being processed correctly. Because of this, we gave Poppy vitamins and fluids with some dextrose (sugar) to help her/him start to feel better, but we’ll wait a few days before administering any antibiotics. Often, cold stunned sea turtles come in with associated ailments or injuries as well, and in Poppy’s case, s/he has ulcers on both eyes. We’re able to treat this with prescription eyedrops.
In addition, Poppy also has a condition called fibropapillomatosis (FP). FP is very contagious amongst sea turtles and is a herpes virus that presents externally as cauliflower-like tumors. Poppy has a few small “paps” on each inguinal region (just above the rear flippers). Because FP is so contagious, Poppy is now under quarantine. This means that when one of us works with Poppy, we are then unable to work with the other non-FP sea turtles.
To allow Poppy to warm up slowly, we lowered the thermostat in our surgical suite and dry-docked Poppy there overnight.
Updates
January 10, 2025: In the following days, we were able to slowly bring Poppy’s temperature up to an acceptable level, and Poppy was started on antibiotics and calcium injections. In addition, we cooled a tank to a temperature close to Poppy’s internal body temperature. Once we added her/him to this shallow water, Poppy was calmly swimming and had no problems diving or resting on the bottom. To make sure we are preventing the spread of FP, Poppy’s tank is surrounded by shower curtains to prevent water from splashing into other tanks, and we have a separate set of husbandry supplies set aside for FP sea turtles. The very next day after moving back into water, Poppy ate for the first time! This little green sea turtle likely has a long journey ahead, so keep your flippers crossed for Poppy!
February 15, 2025: Once Poppy settled into a tank and acclimated to a more stable temperature, we took a CT to assess lung health. While the CT looked within normal limits, Poppy was exhibiting an unusual twitching behavior. We ran additional blood tests while s/he was out of the water, and we prescribed additional vitamin injections to help. We have seen a vast improvement in this area over the last couple of weeks, and have even started to increase the water level in her/his tank.
March 15, 2025: Poppy has made great strides the past month and even graduated to a full tank of water! Thankfully, Poppy is not a picky eater and eats everything we offer — including vitamins! Poppy continues to gain weight, which is very important because s/he arrived underweight. Luckily, we have not seen any more of the twitching behavior from Poppy — the vitamin injections did the trick!
April 15, 2025: Poppy has been upgraded to a bigger tank! We moved Poppy to a different tank downstairs for several reasons, but the main reason is that the new tank has ozone! Ozone is an additional form of filtration that helps keep our water extra clean. Not all of our tanks have the capacity to have ozone, so we like to reserve those tanks for sea turtles with severe injuries, such as open wounds. While Poppy does not fall into that category, we have decided that her/his tumors need to be removed. That being said, Poppy will need an ozonated tank post-surgery to keep those surgical sites extra clean. This surgery is scheduled to be in a couple of weeks, so stay tuned for next month’s update to see how Poppy’s surgery went!