Grant: 18-024C
Project Title: Completion of advanced diagnostics for the Sea Turtle Hospital Suite
Project Manager: Catherine Eastman
Organization: University of Florida - Whitney Laboratory (Research and Educational Institute)
Grant Amount: $20,580.00
Completion Date: 2019-09-10
Summary: This project will work toward completing the implementation of advanced imaging equipment needed to continue treatments at the Sea Turtle Hospital at Whitney Laboratory. This project actively leverages a donation made to the hospital. The Sea Turtle Hospital Suite received part of an endoscope used for examinations, and we will bring this needed piece of advanced imaging into our diagnostic repertoire at the Sea Turtle Hospital with the purchase of new scopes and attachments. The equipment will be essential for the evaluation and treatment of the more than 45 critical case sea turtles that we care for each year.
Results: Since the receipt of the Sea Turtle Grants Program funding, the majority of the major equipment has been purchased and received (September 2018). Clinical staff have been trained on using the endoscope and are currently scoping all patients. Veterinary team have been able to look for internal tumors and anomalies on 10 patients since the scope was purchased and rendered active. We have also taken diagnostic biopsies from patients with “suspicious internal lesions” and were able to determine they were not internal FP tumors. The staff determined a television screen was a necessary addition to project the field-of-view to a large wall mounted screen. Additional equipment was required to accommodate this, but the result was helpful for veterinary team to capture images, movies, and view internal anomalies magnified.