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Here's week two flying by, and what a week it has been. It started off routine enough, with us interns perfecting our seal restraints. The process of restraining was becoming a bit easier, especially with the feedback we were getting from the seasonal girls. The routine of cleaning was getting easier to contend with as well. We didn't need to be told anymore what needed to be done and we started taking some initiative.
The babies were doing great. Gasket (male Harbour Seal pup ~1 month old) was being his melodramatic self and Muffler (female Harbour Seal pup ~under 2 weeks old) was quiet and adorable as usual. Axle (adult male California Sea Lion) was improving. We had not seen any seizure activity since being in our care. He had apparently seized while on the beach in Homer and this may have been a symptom of dimoic acid toxicity. He was doing so well we were conditioning him in order to be in our pre-release pool out back. We had a transport cage that we had to familiarize him with. We did this by conditioning him to associate running water with food. We would turn on the tap in his feeding tote and pour fish in it to get him in to the cage. We did this for a few days to the point that we could get him completely into the cage and close the door behind him. One afternoon we got him into the cage and pushed him into the back area while we cleaned his holding area and put a scale in it in order for us to get a weight measurement. The original estimate was 70 kg, turned out he was more like 170 kg or 375 lbs. We finally gave him pool access and hoped he would go for a swim. We were trying to get him used to the pool before we could move him to the big pre-release pool.
Thursday was routine enough, we were preparing food for the kids and we were going to feed Axle and get the transport cage set up after we were done. I was checking on the kids when I thought I saw and heard Axle hauling out of his pool and got excited and ran over to watch. My excitement quickly turned to panic when I realized that Axle was in the middle of a very strong and violent seizure. The vet was called promptly while I stood watch and timed his seizure. I'd rather not go into the gruesome details, but I'd like to add that it was something very upsetting to have to watch. The most violent portion of the seizure lasted only minutes. Dr. Carrie (the vet) soon arrived to see him for herself. This incident very much confirmed he had a chronic form of dimoic acid toxicity, which is something similar to red tide that affects the brain and nervous system. It starts with an algae bloom and the toxins they produce concentrate at each level of the food chain. These toxins trigger seizures that cause brain damage and sometimes death. There are two types of dimoic acid toxicity: acute which is treatable and chronic which cannot be treated. Because of the magnitude of the Thursday morning seizure it was pretty apparent that Axle had the chronic form and should be euthanized to end his struggle. Dr. Carrie proceeded to sedate Axle with our help. In rare events a sedative can have the opposite effect cause the individual to be hyperactive. This was Axle's case and the doctor had to inject him 2 more times for the drug to take effect. During this time Axle was seizing and again it was pretty violent and difficult to watch. The sedative finally took over and we could go in to put him down. Death came quickly for Axle after the injection. I was relieved it was over and that he didn't have to suffer anymore.
Next came the necropsy (animal autopsy) for which we prepared for right away. I sat in on a portion of it. Knowing that we could learn from dissecting Axle set my mind at ease and kept me from totally breaking down. It was a methodical process and many tissue sections were taken to be tested. I knew he would provide more information towards this disease and I was satisfied with that.
I was slated to do a necropsy on a sea otter on my Friday and I was excited to be involved in it. As usual things don't go as planned around here and a dead female Steller Sea Lion was picked up in the bay area and dropped off at our back door. It appeared that she was lactating and possibly pregnant. The boat and trailer were parked out of the way and we conducted the necropsy on the boat to which I should add was one of the centers and not a private citizen’s. This was the first necropsy I was fully involved in; holding back intestines and bagging tissue samples etc. Dr. Carrie proceeded in cutting the abdomen open and turned out she was pregnant with a full term female pup. It was estimated that momma had been dead for 24 hours at the most. Baby was in a more advanced state of decomposition and was later determined and she was dead at least 24 hours before momma died. After the necropsy on momma had completed we moved inside to dissect baby. The little one had extensive bruising in the right side of the body which was the same side where momma had bruising as well. Their deaths were the result of a boat strike. Baby died instantly and momma lived for another day before she succumbed to her injuries. Again it was upsetting to see a momma and baby dead, especially when she was going to give birth within the week or so. Since she was found in the bay area there is a possibility that she may be known to the researchers here that have cameras on haul out areas, but this may take a while to determine.I didn't have much strength to stick around for the sea otter necropsy which could take three hours to complete. So I missed out, but I hope to be involved in more necropsies over the summer. One of my goals is to become more familiar with marine mammal anatomy and this week certainly kicked it off for me.
The babies were doing great. Gasket (male Harbour Seal pup ~1 month old) was being his melodramatic self and Muffler (female Harbour Seal pup ~under 2 weeks old) was quiet and adorable as usual. Axle (adult male California Sea Lion) was improving. We had not seen any seizure activity since being in our care. He had apparently seized while on the beach in Homer and this may have been a symptom of dimoic acid toxicity. He was doing so well we were conditioning him in order to be in our pre-release pool out back. We had a transport cage that we had to familiarize him with. We did this by conditioning him to associate running water with food. We would turn on the tap in his feeding tote and pour fish in it to get him in to the cage. We did this for a few days to the point that we could get him completely into the cage and close the door behind him. One afternoon we got him into the cage and pushed him into the back area while we cleaned his holding area and put a scale in it in order for us to get a weight measurement. The original estimate was 70 kg, turned out he was more like 170 kg or 375 lbs. We finally gave him pool access and hoped he would go for a swim. We were trying to get him used to the pool before we could move him to the big pre-release pool.
Thursday was routine enough, we were preparing food for the kids and we were going to feed Axle and get the transport cage set up after we were done. I was checking on the kids when I thought I saw and heard Axle hauling out of his pool and got excited and ran over to watch. My excitement quickly turned to panic when I realized that Axle was in the middle of a very strong and violent seizure. The vet was called promptly while I stood watch and timed his seizure. I'd rather not go into the gruesome details, but I'd like to add that it was something very upsetting to have to watch. The most violent portion of the seizure lasted only minutes. Dr. Carrie (the vet) soon arrived to see him for herself. This incident very much confirmed he had a chronic form of dimoic acid toxicity, which is something similar to red tide that affects the brain and nervous system. It starts with an algae bloom and the toxins they produce concentrate at each level of the food chain. These toxins trigger seizures that cause brain damage and sometimes death. There are two types of dimoic acid toxicity: acute which is treatable and chronic which cannot be treated. Because of the magnitude of the Thursday morning seizure it was pretty apparent that Axle had the chronic form and should be euthanized to end his struggle. Dr. Carrie proceeded to sedate Axle with our help. In rare events a sedative can have the opposite effect cause the individual to be hyperactive. This was Axle's case and the doctor had to inject him 2 more times for the drug to take effect. During this time Axle was seizing and again it was pretty violent and difficult to watch. The sedative finally took over and we could go in to put him down. Death came quickly for Axle after the injection. I was relieved it was over and that he didn't have to suffer anymore.
Next came the necropsy (animal autopsy) for which we prepared for right away. I sat in on a portion of it. Knowing that we could learn from dissecting Axle set my mind at ease and kept me from totally breaking down. It was a methodical process and many tissue sections were taken to be tested. I knew he would provide more information towards this disease and I was satisfied with that.
I was slated to do a necropsy on a sea otter on my Friday and I was excited to be involved in it. As usual things don't go as planned around here and a dead female Steller Sea Lion was picked up in the bay area and dropped off at our back door. It appeared that she was lactating and possibly pregnant. The boat and trailer were parked out of the way and we conducted the necropsy on the boat to which I should add was one of the centers and not a private citizen’s. This was the first necropsy I was fully involved in; holding back intestines and bagging tissue samples etc. Dr. Carrie proceeded in cutting the abdomen open and turned out she was pregnant with a full term female pup. It was estimated that momma had been dead for 24 hours at the most. Baby was in a more advanced state of decomposition and was later determined and she was dead at least 24 hours before momma died. After the necropsy on momma had completed we moved inside to dissect baby. The little one had extensive bruising in the right side of the body which was the same side where momma had bruising as well. Their deaths were the result of a boat strike. Baby died instantly and momma lived for another day before she succumbed to her injuries. Again it was upsetting to see a momma and baby dead, especially when she was going to give birth within the week or so. Since she was found in the bay area there is a possibility that she may be known to the researchers here that have cameras on haul out areas, but this may take a while to determine.I didn't have much strength to stick around for the sea otter necropsy which could take three hours to complete. So I missed out, but I hope to be involved in more necropsies over the summer. One of my goals is to become more familiar with marine mammal anatomy and this week certainly kicked it off for me.
1 comment:
Good for people to know.
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