Kahlua

Green (Chelonia mydas)

(ST10160)

Age Class	Juvenile
Gender	Unknown
Date Stranded	October 24, 2010
Location of Stranding	Sebastian Inlet in Brevard County
Date of Arrival	October 25, 2010
Number of Days of Care	1163 days

Final Disposition

Turtle was humanely euthanized after failing to respond to treatment.

10/26 Kahlua arrived today at the hospital weak and emaciated. The turtle suffers from many fibropapilloma tumors on both eyes and all four flippers. Upon admission, the turtle received fluids, was X-rayed and given a fresh-water dip to remove many leeches. 10/28 The turtle has started to eat squid and sea grass. 10/30 Kahlua had laser surgery to remove the tumors on the upper half of the body and eyes. Once in surgery, one eye had to be removed because one of the tumors had deeply penetrated into the eye. The turtle was dry docked over night and was placed in the water in the morning. Kahlua is weak and is trying to adjust to only having one eye. Recovery from the surgery will be a slow process. 11/28 Kahlua continues to slowly recover. The turtle has not started to eat on its own and is being tube fed twice daily. The last bloodwork submitted showed a small improvement within the chemistries. Kahlua is getting stronger and we hope the turtle will begin eating soon. 12/13 Kahlua continues to be tube fed daily and to very slowly heal from surgery. 12/28 Unfortunately, Kahlua did not heal from surgery. After much discussion and many tests, we determined that the best course of action and most humane thing to do was to euthanize Kahlua. The necropsy (an animal autopsy) showed an overall breakdown and failure of the kidneys, lungs and heart, confirming our theory that it was best to humanely euthanize the animal.