01/04/2018  Animal was found floating in a channel near Captiva Island and was brought to Clinic for Rehabilitation of Wildlife for assessment.  Turtle had spider wire fishing line entangled on both flippers and coming out of mouth.  Fishing line was removed from flippers and animal was given subcutaneous fluids and kept in shallow water overnight.

01/05/2018  Because turtle has numerous fibropapilloma tumors present, was transported to Mote for continued rehabilitation.  Radiographs revealed a lot of gas in the GI tract.  Blood work revealed an elevated white blood cell count.  Animal was started on subcutaneous fluids daily until eating and injectable antibiotics.  Removed as much of the line as possible coming out of mouth and tied the rest around a cotton ball in hopes of aiding in the fishing line passing through the GI tract.  Prognosis is guraded because unsure how much damage the fishing line has caused internally.  Animal was placed in rehab. pool in shallow water.

01/06/2018  Thurston ate squid and capelin immediately when offered.  Plan on keeping diet low until animal defecates.  

01/08/2018  Animal did defecate twice yesterday, which is a hopeful sign so far.

02/10/2018  Thurston is very active.  He is eating well and defecating normally.    Has yet to pass the spider wire.  

02/16/2018  Mote's veterinarian, Dr. Stamper, anesthetized Thurston and used a laser to remove all of the small fibropapilloma tumors including tumors present on both eyes.  Will wait until animal's red blood cell normalizes prior to removing the largest tumors.  

02/17/2018  Thurston is recovering well from surgery - he is resting in his tank today and eating normally.

02/28/2018  Thurston contiues to heal well following his frst surgery - eating well, actively swimming normally.

04/07/2018  Thurston had a second surgery today to remove all the large fibropapilloma tumors that remained.  He shows no signs of regrowth from the first surgery.  

04/11/2018  Thurston is recovering well following surgery.  He is eating and swimming normally.

05/10/2018  Tumor removal sites are continuing to heal well.  Thurston is very active and eating well.  Antibiotics were discontinued.  

06/15/2018  Some new tumors were noted, so Thurston had another surgery today to remove them.  

06/29/2018  Thurston is back to normal following his recent surgery.  He is receiving oral antibiotics again.  

09/07/2018  Due to continuing and rapid regrowth of tumors, Thurston was humanely euthanized.