Oct 2016: Shelly the broken-shelled box turtle

Hi, everybody! I know you probably thought I died or went to live in an ashram in India, but no. I'm just a vet student and we're antisocial/stressed/stinky. I thought I'd write a little update on what I've been doing and introduce you to a very special turtle.

Early this year I decided to apply for transfer to a veterinary school in the United States. Don't get me wrong-living in the Caribbean has its perks. But affter 4 years of living abroad, dealing with developing country medical systems, losing a small part of my soul every time I went to the grocery store, and dealing with daily power outages, I'd had enough. I completed my last semester in St. Kitts in May and then took the summer off to have ACL surgery and wait for news from the schools to which I had applied. In June, I got the call I'd been waiting for. The University of Georgia College of Veterinary Medicine offered me a spot in their Class of 2019. Delaying graduation by 9 months seemed well worth the opportunities, convenience, and comfort offered by life in the States. I immediately accepted the position and moved to Georgia in August.

I spent a lot of time worrying if I would be able to "cut it" at UGA. For once, my worrying actually translated into reality. The exams at UGA are much more difficult than what I had become accustomed to at Ross. Instead of multiple choice where you have a 25% chance of at least guessing the right answer, UGA exams are fill-in-the-blank or short essay. They also use a different grading scale that only awards 4.0 GPA points for A's over 93%. Which means, if I get a 92% it's still an A but I will no longer have a 4.0 GPA. This is a way to further assign rank in a class of 114 people. Most doctors will say that grades don't matter in vet school. They're right. If you go on to be a small animal clinician, no one is ever going to ask your GPA. However, if you want to do a residency, that's a different story. So far, I've maintained my A's but my GPA is no longer 4.0 I'm not sad about this. Going to an amazing school like UGA is worth the 0.05 lost GPA points.

Because they were unsure about what classes I would want to take, UGA enrolled me in a smorgasbord of different electives, including "Behavior Problems in Cats," "Advanced Clinical Dermatology," "Clinical Techniques in Large Animal Medicine and Surgery," and "Lab Animal Medicine." My favorite class, by far, has been dermatology. I've always been one of those nasty people who like to squeeze and pick. Being immersed in the splendid world of rashes, tumors, and abscesses has been fascinating. Did you know that dogs with allergies don't get hay fever like humans do? They get a skin rash! How cool is that? While this semester has been awesome, I'm eagerly anticipating Christmas break. Translation: I can't wait to read for pleasure without the crushing guilt that usually comes with reading anything non-textbook during the school year. Also Santa Claus, buying gifts, and snuggling with the boyfriend (Oh yeah! I gots me a boyfriend, too.)

There are so many amazing student organizations and opportunities available here. There is also a brand-spankin new bajillion dollar Veterinary Teaching Hospital. If you imagine a wondrous place that has doctors of every specialty, a horse-sized MRI machine, and a particle accelerator for radiation therapy, you'd be imagining this place:

This is just the front entrance for the small animal hospital! 

There's even a special ward for exotic pets and wildlife, aptly named "Zoological Medicine."

The front doors of the "Zoological Medicine" ward.

This ward has special incubators for reptiles that simulate sunlight and moonlight so that they can maintain their Circadian Rhythm. WHAAATTTT? Special cages with drains that allow you to create a tiny pond for Jerry, the sick duck? YES. This also happens to be my favorite part of the hospital because it's where I work...

That's right. I applied for a position on the Wildlife Treatment Crew (WTC) and I got it! At UGA, there is a club for every interest (e.g. The Student Chapter of the American Association of Feline Practitioners) and two veterinary fraternities for socializing. Students interested in cow emergency surgery, for example, can apply to be a paid member of the Large Animal Emergency Treatment Crew. In my typical "the hard way is the only way" fashion, I managed to apply for the only treatment crew that doesn't pay. More about that later.

WTC members sign up at the beginning of the semester for "call." Being "on call" means that you are available to come in to the hospital at a moment's notice if you're needed. We sign up for three-2 week periods of call per semester, for a total of 6 weeks. During one week of the 2-week period, you are a Primary, meaning that you are the first one to be called in. The other week you are a Secondary. The Secondaries are called in to help if the Primaries get overwhelmed. My first round of call was in September but I didn't get a patient. *cue sad face* That's actually a good thing because it meant that nobody had run over a baby rabbit with their lawn mower that week (very common.) Also, I had 5 tests in a two week period, so I wasn't sad to have the extra study time.

My second round of call started last Sunday (October 23rd.) Rachel, another WTC member, and I were responsible for the care of "Shelly," a tiny wild box turtle that had been presumably run over by a car. She had a fractured shell and had been in the hospital since October 8th. Shelly is recovering in an incubator that allows us to change the temperature during the day (80 degrees) and at night (70 degrees.) This helps her feel like she is in the wild. She lives in an empty glove box and rests on a nice bed of hay.A small water dish provides the level of humidity that she likes best.

Shelly relaxing in her tiny glove box.

Normally, we are not allowed to take pictures of our patients without the permission of the owner. Since Shelly is owned by Mother Nature, she gave me permission to photograph her as long as I don't post any pictures of her with a double chin. Introducing the very special Shelly turtle...

Like all women, Shelly is thrilled to get on the scale.

You can see that Shelly has a lot going on. The shell of a turtle is made out of bone so when they get a cracked shell, it's like you breaking your leg. Except for them, underneath the bone is THEIR ORGANS. A broken shell exposes the soft tissues beneath it. When she was first brought in, they put her under anesthesia, made a small incision in her side, and looked to see if there were any signs of infection INSIDE her body. An infection that has spread inside the body cavity has a grave prognosis. She would have been humanely euthanized, the fate of many injured wild animals. But Shelly is one lucky turtle! They found no signs of infection!

Walking around with a broken bone like that is very painful. Shelly was not interested in eating because 1)she was in pain, 2)turtles slow down and don't eat much in the winter months,and 3)wild animals in the hospital don't want to eat. Like humans, animals can't heal if they aren't getting proper nutrition. To help Shelly recover, the doctors inserted a feeding tube into her esophagus. The tube coming out of her body beside her neck, the one taped to her shell in the picture above is the feeding tube. She is also getting a pain medication injection. Every morning and every afternoon she gets a yummy meal of a special diet made for omnivores in critical care.
On Friday, I promised her I'd bring her pancakes from Cracker Barrel but the best I could do is "pancake batter:"

This paste is prepared from a special powder for ICU patients. I suck up 2mL in a syringe and inject it into her feeding tube.

Broken turtle shells are often repaired using zipties to pull the fracture together. Shelly has been in the hospital for 3 weeks but they haven't been able to repair her shell yet. Last week, she had a concerning complication: mold started growing on the inside of the crack in her shell. Closing the shell with bacteria or fungus in the crack would effectively trap the pathogens inside her body cavity. Shelly was put under anesthesia on Thursday and the infected tissue was removed with a dremel-type tool. We are packing her shell fracture with antibiotic-infused gauze to hopefully kill the infection so that she can proceed with surgery. Tomorrow, she is having an endoscopy procedure but I'm not sure why (possibly to look at her stomach?)

This was her shell fracture before the debriding (surgery to remove the infected tissue.) You can see the body wall underneath.

Having a living, breathing patient all week has been amazing (and exhausting!) I go in at 7am to check Shelly's incision, weigh her, feed her, and make sure that her habitat is clean. Then I go back at 4pm for her recreation time. Enrichment is very, very important to the health and well-being of our wildlife patients. Every afternoon, Shelly gets to go outside to walk around in the grass and sunbathe for 30 minutes. During that time, I watch her to make sure that she doesn't go somewhere she shouldn't (the road-her favorite place) and to protect her from other animals. Often times, people walking into the hospital to pick up their dog will stop and admire her and ask questions. I love this. What an amazing opportunity to educate people about the importance of wildlife conservation! It's also a chance to spread the word that if someone finds an injured wild animal, they can bring it to the vet hospital and we will treat it (except for venomous reptiles and rabies-vector species like raccoons<-----the law.)

Shelly loves to exercise her legs and dig in the grass! The crack in her shell is bandaged to protect it.

Very few people understand the reality of wildlife rehabilitation in the United States. All of Shelly's care is being paid for by the UGA Wildlife Treatment Fund. This is 100% funded by donations. Each semester, the WTC hosts a fundraiser to help pay for the care of these amazing creatures. Unlike the other treatment crew members, WTC members work on a completely voluntary basis. This is often the case for wildlife veterinarians, as well. Sadly, animals requiring greater than $300 in medical treatment are humanely euthanized. It is unfortunate that these hard decisions must be made, but in order to do the greatest good for the greatest number of animals, it is necessary. This Thursday I will be participating in the Wildlife Treatment Crew fundraiser at a local brewery in Athens. A percentage of the sales will go to the treatment fund and we are also selling cool pint glasses and wildlife-themed memorabilia. Bear Hollow, a local animal sanctuary, will be bringing some animal ambassadors for visitors to interact with!

I would love to continue prattling on about the plight of injured wildlife and how awesome Shelly is but I have to go to the hospital now! My week as a Primary ends today so I'm passing the Shelly torch on to the next two caregivers. If all goes well, Shelly will have surgery to close her shell fracture, will remain in the hospital until she is stable, and then she will go to a wildlife rehab. They will keep her over the winter until she is ready to be released into the wild. Check back later this week for an update on her condition!

Thank you for taking the time to read about my vet ventures! Having my first wildlife patient this week has been both exhausting and life-affirming. I often find myself overwhelmed with the amount of studying that needs to be done, or the paper that needs to be written, or the grades that need to be obsessed over. I am preoccupied with thoughts of the future because I just want to get through this day, this week, this month. I think everyone experiences this. It's so hard not to get bogged down by the constant barrage of to-do's, the over-stimulation of social media, and the ever-present pressure to MAKE MORE/DO MORE/HAVE MORE. But in the end, empathy costs us nothing. Getting up at 6 am to care for an injured turtle and then watching her close her eyes as she enjoys the sun's warmth on her face, well...it makes it all worth it. THAT is what life is supposed to be about. Helping those that can't help themselves (animal AND human), those that can do nothing for you...this is living! Have you lived today?

Peace,

Sarah