This turtle was struck by a boat and found near Beer Can Island in Sarasota Bay.  It was brought to the Sea Turtle Rehabilitation Hospital for care.  The carapace injury extends into the left lung and prognosis is guarded. 9/21 Turtle is still alive and is somewhat lively.  It has a severe infection in the fracture, but healing is beginning.  We are hopeful the turtle will survive. 9/27 Still doing fairly well.  It is allowed to swim in a betadine bath for about one hour each day, to help clean the wound and maintain muscle tone.  White count is quite high, as would be expected. 10/4 Turtle is continuing to do fairly well.  Being tube-fed.  Blood tests reveal that the turtle had very high levels of red tide toxin at the time of stranding, which may have led to the turtle being struck by the boat. 10/7 Turtle has been weaker and less active for the last couple of days.  White count has not gone down, so have changed antibiotics.  Prognosis is still guarded. 10/12 White count is finally going back down and turtle is more responsive.  Back to tube-feeding and turtle is allowed to swim about 5 minutes per day. 10/17 Turtle is swimming 20-30 minutes per day, but not yet eating. 10/25 Turtle has finally begun to eat and may be placed in the water tomorrow for 24 hours.  Healing fairly well and white count has gone down dramatically. 11/2 Turtle is now in water continuously and is eating well. 11/11 White count is staying down and turtle's appetite is better.  Turtle is now gaining weight. 11/18 Turtle continues to do well.  It is now in deep water and is eating well. 12/1 Turtle continues doing very well. 12/9 Still doing well. 12/16 Wound is healing very well at this point.  Lung is finally healed over by tissue. 12/20 Continuing to do well. 1/2/06 Continuing to heal and gain weight. 1/13 Continuing to do very well. 1/24 Still doing very well and gaining weight. 2/1 Carapace is now almost healed. 2/11 Continuing to do well. 2/22 Turtle has quit eating in the last few days and has a swelling in left front flipper.  Radiograph showed no boney changes in flipper, but evidence of pneumonia.  Have started it on antibiotics and medication for pain. 2/26 Cultured Enterococcus spp. from lungs and have changed antibiotics to eliminate it. 3/5 Turtle has begun to eat sometimes and is more active. 3/12 Turtle is not doing very well.  Appetite is poor and prognosis is not very good. 3/22 New treatment is helping the turtle that is now back to eating.  Will reculture lungs to insure infection is gone. 3/29 Turtle is continuing to slowly improve. 4/11 Lung infection continues so we have changed the treatment.  Turtle is eating. 4/24 Turtle quit eating again, but has started eating again this morning. 5/2 Appetite is still variable. 5/12 Appetite has improved greatly and turtle is doing much better. 5/21 Performed a bronchial lavage and cultured a Pseudomonas sp. from the lungs.  Have changed antibiotics and turtle seems to be improving. 5/29 Changed antibiotics again and continuing to improve. 6/12 Appetite is better and has gained some weight. 6/21 White count is much better and gaining some weight. 7/7 Appetite and condition is still variable. 7/18 Slowly gaining some weight, but still some infection problems. 7/24 Appetite has improved. 8/9 Turtle is continuing to improve.  Eating much better. 8/29 Turtle is being placed in large tank outside for sun daily, and it has greatly improved the turtle's appetite.  Doing much better. 9/6 Dramatic improvement continues and turtle is gaining more weight. 9/14 Turtle has been in the Hospital for almost one year, but is finally getting to the point that it may be releasable in the next few months.  Continuing to improve and gain weight. 9/22 Turtle continues to improve. 10/1 Continued improvement. 10/7 Still improving. 10/18 Carapace is now almost completely healed and is gaining weight more quickly. 10/28 More of the same. 11/15 Turtle had developed a slight anemia, but is responding to treatment.  Still hoping for release in the next month or so. 11/28 Anemia is slowly responding, but doing very well otherwise. 12/8 Anemia continues to slowly respond to treatment. 12/14 Continuing to respond to anemia treatment. 1/3/07 Response to anemia treatment has slowed, but doing very well, otherwise. 1/18 Still a slow response to amemia, but improving. 1/24 Removed a small abscess from the right shoulder of the turtle yesterday.  Doing very well.  Anemia continuing to improve. 1/31 Continuing to do well. 2/19 Turtle's anemia is completely gone and turtle is continuing to do very well. 2/28 Turtle's appetite has improved.  May be ready for release in a month or so. 3/15 Still doing well. 3/29 Looking good for release in a couple of weeks. 4/16 Possibly ready for release next week. 4/27 Turtle has been tagged and release has been approved for next week. 5/2 Turtle was released this morning from Coquina Beach on Anna Maria Island.  Release went very well.