Green (Chelonia mydas)

Stranding Location: Seabrook Island, SC
Arrival Date: 3/21/25
Age: Juvenile
Sex: Unknown
Weight: 3.83 kg (8.4 lbs)

Case History

This juvenile green sea turtle was found cold stunned and washed ashore in Seabrook Island. South Carolina Department of Natural Resources permitted volunteers responded and transported the sea turtle to the Aquarium for treatment.

Treatment

Upon arrival, Rose was alert and reactive when handled. This little green was cold to the touch and had an internal body temperature of 51 degrees Fahrenheit as well as a decreased heart rate.

Through a combination of microchip and visible identification markers, we were able to determine that this turtle had been previously encountered during a different cold stun event. After being rehabilitated and released from another facility, Rose unfortunately later found her/his way back into colder waters and was once again affected by the chilly temperatures. This time, the thermal impacts also damaged the carapace (top shell), and resulted in areas of missing keratin and exposed bone. We took radiographs to look not only at the bone involvement, but also at the condition of the lungs. Sea turtles suffering from cold stunning often present with pneumonia, and Rose’s breaths sounded raspy. We did see some bronchial patterns that may indicate pneumonia, but Rose was too active to sit still for a proper CT scan.

While it is a good sign that Rose is strong and in good body condition, we could not risk sedating her/him for imaging due to the poor blood values that resulted from the hypothermia. We will follow up with a CT scan once Rose is stable enough to be safely sedated. We treated Rose with fluids and vitamins and allowed Rose to rest overnight in a climate-controlled room. By setting the thermostat accordingly, we can make sure that Rose’s body temperature gradually and safely increases to the desired level. Once the body temperature is closer to 70 degrees Fahrenheit, Rose will be metabolizing better and we can start further treatments, like antibiotics.

Updates

March 24, 2025: Rose’s body temperature slowly warmed over the past couple of days and s/he became more active. Once Rose’s temperature was within a couple degrees of the tank water temperature, we were able to swim test this little green in a half-full tank. Thankfully, Rose looks strong and is able to safely stay in the water! We will begin slowly offering food items and administering antibiotics to begin to treat the shell damage. Fingers crossed for this green sea turtle!

April 15, 2025: In the past few weeks, Rose has been slowly acclimated to a more normal body temperature and has even begun to eat and defecate. All of these are important benchmarks, and since Rose was finally a little more stable, we sedated her/him and took a CT to get a better look at the damage to the carapace, as well as check the lungs for pneumonia. The CT showed some potential pneumonia in both lungs and gave us a better view of the lesions to the carapace. These lesions are larger than what is currently visible to the naked eye on the shell, so we expect more keratin to shed in the coming weeks. To help Rose recover, s/he is on injectable antibiotics in addition to oral antifungal medication. Hopefully, the combination of these treatments is effective, and Rose will eventually make a full recovery.

May 15, 2025: Rose continues to be a model patient and takes all of her/his oral medications very well! Rose is quite unique — s/he is very picky about what type of fish is on the menu. Rose has a strong preference for lake smelt, which is a very nutritious and calcium-rich fish, and does not want to eat the mackerel or salmon. Most of our patients have the opposite preference but like always, we cater to our individual patient particularities!

June 15, 2025: Rose has continued to be an interesting case. As we anticipated, some of Rose’s exposed pieces of dead bone began to come loose. Since this began a few weeks ago, we have been doing weekly treatments to remove these pieces. This is one of those cases where the wounds are going to look worse before they get better. As each bone piece is ready to come out, we are carefully evaluating, cleaning and photo documenting the area to track wound progression. With most of these bone pieces being over the vertebrae, we are constantly evaluating Rose’s nerve function which includes making detailed observations about her/his buoyancy, flipper mobility, appetite and defecations. This journey will be a long one and Rose’s treatments are constantly being adjusted. So far, we have not seen any negative changes in Rose’s behaviors and abilities! We are cautiously optimistic about Rose’s prognosis since her aliments involve such delicate areas of her body. Our goal with every patient is to provide treatment to ensure the best quality of life!

July 15, 2025: Rose continues to be a unique medical case. As more of the dead bone from her/his carapace comes off, there are areas of exposed spinal cord. This could lead to extreme infection which could impact her/his mobility. In order to combat this, Rose is coming out for wound treatments once a week. We are thoroughly (and gently) cleaning the wounds, applying topical antibiotics and ointments and sealing the open areas off using bone wax. This treatment is proving effective so far, but we are constantly reevaluating her/his condition by taking monthly CT scans. As we mentioned last month, we are closely monitoring Rose’s behavior, mobility, defecations and appetite for any changes that could indicate infection. We are also combatting potential infection through oral antibiotic medications. Keep your flippers crossed for Rose because s/he has a long journey of healing ahead.

August 15, 2025: Rose has been keeping us on our toes! We continue to see no problems with swimming and resting behavior, interest in eating or defecating, which is a great sign. The reason we’ve been so busy with Rose recently is because the keratin on the carapace is sloughing (coming off) — a completely normal process as sea turtles grow. As the keratin sloughs, so does the bone wax that was placed over her/his wounds to protect the spine. So, every time the bone wax comes off with the keratin, we need to replace it! Additionally, we have moved Rose into a tank on the first floor of the Aquarium that has a UV light hanging overhead to strengthen her/his keratin growth. Stop by on your next visit to see Rose!

September 15, 2025: Rose received a follow-up CT this month and while s/he was sedated we were able to remove the last pieces of dead bone on her/his carapace. While Rose still has exposed spinal cord, we are impressed with the healing progress so far. Rose continues to have strong use of all four flippers and a great appetite. We are continuing wound treatments once a week to promote healing and prevent further infection. Additionally, we have sent a series of Rose’s CT images to be further analyzed and compared to an ongoing database by radiologists in Australia. We hope to learn more about her/his condition from this group!

October 15, 2025: The imaging results came back from Australia and they were able to better interpret and visualize how extensive the osteomyelitis is. Unfortunately, this osteomyelitis covers more areas of the carapace than we can visually see. After fully evaluating these results, our team got to work to come up with some more unique ways to treat Rose. First, we took a small biological samples from areas where we were seeing progression and sent those samples out for analysis. We found out these areas are sterile, meaning they do not have an active infection and bone loss may be due to a lack of proper blood flow. So, we’re going to try a few new things: cold laser therapy, a bone graft, wound vac and continued topical treatments! In addition, Rose will continue antibiotics until the spinal cord is closed off. As of now we are not seeing any deficits in her/his ability to swim, eat, stay comfortable, defecate or take breaths and we will continue to monitor this regularly. Rose still has a long road ahead of her/him and the prognosis is still extremely guarded. Stop by on your next visit to see Rose on the first floor of the Aquarium!

November 15, 2025: Rose has had a very busy month! In the past few weeks, we have been working closely with some of our friends at the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC) and their colleagues to try a new type of treatment to rebuild the area around Rose’s exposed spinal cord. This treatment is used in human trauma medicine and acts as a scaffold to help support the growth of healthy tissue over the open wound. The hard part about medical treatments with sea turtles is that topical treatments do not last for very long since the patients live in water! To combat this and give the product time to do its job, we covered the treatment areas with a product called bone cement. The bone cement adheres to the carapace to protect the products from the saltwater for several weeks. After about three weeks, we remove the bone cement, check the healing and repeat the process if necessary.

December 12, 2025: Rose’s bone cement stayed in place for about four and a half weeks! We removed the bone cement and took another CT scan to check how Rose’s wounds are healing. This image was also shared with our radiologist colleagues in Australia for more diagnostic evaluation. Most of the areas with exposed spinal cord had enough scar tissue covering them that we felt comfortable leaving the bone cement off for a few days to allow those areas to “breathe”.  A few days later, Rose came out for a follow up treatment where we gently debrided the wounds to promote healing and added more topical medication. After all of this was in place, bone cement was once again added to the carapace to extend the medication’s contact time. Rose received a little bit of pain management medication after the treatment and was ready to go back into her/his tank after some rest.