By The Sea Lecture Series

Join us after hours for a lecture series featuring local scientists, conservationists, and photographers with brews!

Unwrap The Waves

Loggerhead Marinelife Center's Unwrap the Wave Initiative allows for students and community members to get into the "spirit" of conservation by collecting their candy wrappers from Halloween and recycling them.

Rocky

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About Rocky

Species:

Loggerhead sea turtle (Caretta, caretta)

Rocky is a 238-pound female loggerhead sea turtle that presented on Dec 30th, as a “floater.” She had evidence of prior trauma, probably a boat strike, to her carapace (top shell). While this wound had healed well, it was suspected that the trauma had resulted in pneumocoelom, a condition in which the lung suffers a tear, allowing air to escape into the body cavity. After stabilization and treatment of secondary infections, she was taken to Jupiter Medical Center for a CT (computed tomography) scan.

The scan showed that there was indeed a large amount of air in the coelom and that her lungs were being compressed by all this free air to about 1/4 of their normal capacity. Coelomocentesis, using a long needle to drain the air from the body cavity, alone was ineffective in resolving the pneumocoelom, suggesting a large and persistent tear in the lung wall. Therefore, a blood patch pleurodesis was performed, which involved taking blood from her vein and putting it into the coelom to help seal the lung defect.

This procedure is novel and has just been submitted for publication in conjunction with 3 cases from 3 other facilities. She responded well to this treatment and immediately demonstrated neutral buoyancy that was maintained for a few weeks. Follow-up imaging and bloodwork were all within normal limits and she was cleared for release. Because blood patch pleurodesis is a fairly novel procedure in sea turtles, a satellite transmitter was placed to be able to monitor Rocky and help to assess the efficacy of the procedure in treating this common ailment.

Admission Details

Arrival

Date

December 29, 2022

Stranding

Location

Hutchinson Island, FL

Initial

Condition

Floating

Admission

Weight

220 lbs.

Current

Weight

220 lbs.

Care & Progress

Feb 15, 2023
Good
Off All Medications
Rocky was released from Juno Beach, Florida on February 15, 2023.
Feb 10, 2023
Good
Off All Medications
Blood patch was successful. Rocky's release is scheduled for Wednesday February 15 at 10:30am on Juno Beach.
Feb 05, 2023
Poor
Minor Adjustments Made
Jan 24, 2023
Poor
Minor Adjustments Made
Jan 20, 2023
Poor
Minor Adjustments Made
CT scan is scheduled for Wednesday Jan 25 to determine cause of buoyancy.
Jan 13, 2023
Poor
Minor Adjustments Made
Treatment includes antibiotics and a weight on her carapace to counterbalance the floating.
Dec 29, 2022
Poor
Requires Continued Treatment
New Patient

Tracking

Tag Date:

Mar 28, 2024

Tracking Location:

Juno Beach, Florida

*All work was performed under Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission permit MTP-205. These maps do not constitute publication. All maps and data may not be used or referenced without expressed written consent from LMC.

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