Grant: 18-031C
Project Title: Sea Turtle Rehabilitation Hospital
Project Manager: Rebecca Wells
Organization: Gulfarium C.A.R.E. Foundation (Non-Profit Organization)
Grant Amount: $9,182.28
Completion Date: 2019-06-24
Summary: The Gulfarium C.A.R.E. Foundation rehabilitates and releases stranded sea turtles along the Gulf Coast of Florida and frequently is called upon as a rehabilitation facility for neighboring states such as Alabama. By purchasing necessary medical equipment for our hospital, we will be able to provide onsite surgery to our patients that will provide speedy surgical intervention, reduce rehabilitation time and resources, reduce additional stress on the patient caused by transportation, and reduce excess staff requirements. All of these factors will increase the success of our sea turtle rehabilitation and release program.
Results: The Gulfarium CARE Foundation has purchased a surgical instrument pack, a surgical table warmer, an ECG monitor with temperature probe, an x-ray tripod stand, a waterproof platform scale, an anesthetic ventilator with additional pediatric size bellows, and an H tank oxygen regulator with connection hoses with the funding provided by this grant. From May 1, 2018 through April 31, 2019 the CARE Foundation treated seventy-three sea turtles including nine Kemp’s ridley, twelve loggerhead and fifty-two green sea turtles. The scale and x-ray tripod were utilized on all of these cases. The scale allowed for accurate weights for prescribing medications, calculating anesthetic drugs, and monitoring weight gain of our turtles during their convalescence. The x-ray tripod reduced radiation exposure to our staff and allowed for more clear radiographic images of the patients. The surgical equipment enabled us to perform surgery on twenty turtles onsite during the past twelve months that reduced the additional stress of transport to an offsite location. The surgical table warmer kept our turtle patients warm during anesthesia allowing for more smooth anesthetic episodes and faster recoveries. The ECG monitor and temperature probe allowed us to monitor the status of our patients during anesthesia and help determine if their anesthetic plane was too appropriate and if they were developing any complications. We have not had the opportunity to utilize the ventilator and H tank regulator and hoses to date since it was purchased after our busy surgery season this past year. It is fully operational and ready to support our turtle patients this coming season. It will allow the surgical technician to be more hands-free to allow more assistance to the surgeon during surgeries and provide consistent, regulated respirations to our patients while they are under anesthesia and recovering. Sixty-six of the seventy-three sea turtles were released back into the Gulf of Mexico during this timeframe.