The Whitney Laboratory for Marine Bioscience
By sponsoring the care of sea turtle Bing Bong you'll be supporting the Sea Turtle Hospital and the work we do to research, rehab and release these amazing animals. Your sponsorship can provide Bing Bong important medical supplies, nutritious food, critical exams and other types of care provided while at the Sea Turtle Hospital.
Suggested amount to sponsor the care of a turtle is $50. We appreciate gifts above $50 as well.
For joining us, you'll receive:
You can even give a turtle sponsorship as a gift!
Please allow 2 weeks for mailed certificate to arrive. Emailed certificates sent within 3-4 business days.
For questions about sponsoring, please contact wlmb@whitney.ufl.edu.
So Feisty!
Bing-Bong, named after the character from Disney’s Inside Out, is the 43rd patient to enter our hospital this year. They were found washed ashore in Duval County’s Huguenot State Park about 2 hours north of our hospital on July 12th. When our hospital first received the call, we were informed that Bing-Bong had a significant vessel strike to the carapace (which is the top part of the shell). After arrival at our hospital and a thorough veterinary examination, it was evident that this animal suffered from predation wounds and not a vessel strike. Wounds like this are likely from a shark. We know that sea turtles have amazing agility in water and can escape large predators like sharks often, but not always. Fortunately for Bing-Bong they were rescued and taken to our hospital for help.
On initial exam, Bong-Bong presented with predation wounds to the carapace (top of shell) and plastron (bottom of shell) and suffered from a mild case of Fibropapillomatosis (FP) tumors within his/her inguinal (rear flipper) region.
Within Bing-Bong’s first 48 hours in our care, complete bloodwork was done, and radiographs were taken. Dr. Brooke noted several fractured ribs on radiographs, but the spinal column was not impacted. Dr Brooke was able to manually stabilize the carapace fracture and removed all necrotic bone. Although the hospital staff was guarded about the prognosis due to the severity of their injuries, day by day Bing-Bong has impressed us. Although there is still a long road ahead for Bing-Bong, we are hopeful for a full recovery.
Bing-Bong has shown an amazing resiliency to what they have already delt with in life! We are happy to report that in just a little over a month in our care, Bing-Bong is happily swimming in one of our rehab tanks and eating a seafood diet readily. They are happily taking oral antibiotics and pain management well for our animal care team. Our plan is to see more improvement with wound healing before starting the FP tumor removal process.