Vets find surprise while trying to save endangered turtle hit by boat
Turns out Pennywise the sea turtle was carrying eggs
A group of conservationists has reason to celebrate after rescuing an endangered sea turtle and finding out they may have saved even more turtles in the process.
On May 19, conservationists from Inwater Research Group found a floating loggerhead sea turtle off Florida's Atlantic coast with significant blunt force trauma to her shell.
The conservationists took the turtle to veterinarians at Loggerhead Marinelife Center in Juno Beach, Florida, where they began treating the reptile.
Loggerhead Marine Centre is a non-profit conservation organization.
The vets suspected the turtle — which they named Pennywise — was hit by a boat.
Unfortunately, they hit a snag.
To assess the extent of Pennywise's injuries, they wanted to put her into a computed tomography (CT) scanner, which uses X-rays to help health-care workers take photos of the inside of her body.
WATCH — Female sea turtles are outnumbering males in Florida
But at 137 kilograms (302 pounds), Pennywise was too big for their machine.
The veterinary team took her to a nearby hospital to see if she could fit inside a CT machine meant for humans, but she was too big for that as well.
Next, they took her to a horse hospital to use its CT machine and — thankfully — Pennywise fit.
The imaging showed some damage to bones that surround the spinal cord. The vets put the turtle on special antibiotics to help her heal.
'Luckily, right now, her neurologic exam shows that all those nerves are intact. And that is a great sign for her,' Heather Barron, the chief science officer and veterinarian at Loggerhead, told The Associated Press.
But the results from the CT scan weren't all bad.
Turns out Pennywise is carrying eggs.
'We hope we'll be able to get her back out there into the wild as soon as possible so that she can lay those eggs,' Barron said.
The centre will continue to monitor Pennywise to make sure her injuries don't get worse, Barron said, and as soon as her wounds are healed enough, they'll put her back into the wild.
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