Longtime ABQ BioPark Aquarium Sea Turtle to Undergo Surgery
One of the ABQ BioPark Aqaurium’s longtime residents, a loggerhead sea turtle named Mimi, will be undergoing surgery soon.
Every summer, female sea turtles search for beaches to lay their eggs. In Mimi’s case, she was rescued approximately 30 years ago and has called the BioPark her home ever since. It’s common for sea turtles in human care to forgo laying eggs and reabsorb the follicles that don’t become eggs. During these few months, Mimi’s appetite typically lessens to prepare for laying any eggs before realizing she doesn’t need to. Her care team monitors her during this time in case anything appears to be out of the norm.
Recently, Mimi’s appetite has still not returned to where it usually does at this point. After an ultrasound of her body cavity, it showed that she still had many follicles, which isn’t unusual for Mimi. She was given supportive care medications to see if that would help with her appetite.
Mimi was still not eating as she should. This led to her being taken to the zoo’s veterinary clinic, a first for her. There, her veterinary staff ran tests, took x-rays, checked blood work, and performed another ultrasound. Results showed some mineralized structures in her abdomen that look abnormal, in addition to dozens of follicles in the abdomen that were abnormally sized. This could be taxing on Mimi’s system. There’s also the possibility that those structures and follicles could be infected.
After more supportive care and fluids were given to Mimi with no change to her appetite, the decision was made to schedule surgery to remove as many of those structures as possible. Once those follicles and structures are removed, the tissue will be sent to a pathologist for evaluation.
This surgery is considered invasive, which is why all other non-invasive options were exhausted first. “It’s not something we jump to right away, but all signs are indicating that this problem is not going to solve itself,” said BioPark Senior Veterinarian Dr. Carol Bradford. “Her care is top notch and we’re doing everything that we can for her.”
The BioPark’s veterinary staff will schedule the surgery soon. We will continue to provide updates when we learn more about Mimi’s prognosis.