Objective: To describe the presentation, clinical findings, diagnosis, treatment, and outcome of cases of trismus (lockjaw) in cold-stunned sea turtles.
Animals: 4 Kemp's ridley (Lepidochelys kempii) and 1 loggerhead (Caretta caretta) sea turtle.
Methods: Cold-stunned sea turtles that presented with difficulty or inability to open their jaw between 2009 and 2023 were included.
Phaeohyphomycosis caused by species represents an important disease of concern for farmed and aquarium-housed fish. The objective of this study was to summarize the clinical findings and diagnosis of infections in aquarium-housed . Clinical records and postmortem pathology reports were reviewed for 15 individuals from 5 public aquaria in the United States and Canada from 2007 to 2015.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: To characterize osteolytic lesions in cold-stunned Kemp's ridley sea turtles (Lepidochelys kempii) hospitalized for rehabilitation and describe methods used for the management of such lesions.
Animals: 25 stranded, cold-stunned Kemp's ridley sea turtles hospitalized between 2008 and 2018.
Procedures: Medical records of sea turtles with a diagnosis of osteolytic lesions were reviewed retrospectively to obtain the date of diagnosis, clinical signs, radiographic findings, microbial culture results, hematologic and plasma biochemical data, cytologic and histologic findings, antimicrobial history, time to first negative culture result, treatment duration, and outcome.
Blood glucose measurements provide important diagnostic information regarding stress, disease, and nutritional status. Glucose analytical methodologies include dry chemistry analysis (DCA) of plasma and point-of-care (POC) glucometer analysis of whole blood; however, these 2 methods differ in cost, required sample volume, and processing time. Because POC glucometers use built-in equations based on features of mammalian blood to convert whole blood measurements to plasma equivalent units, obtained glucose data must be compared and validated using gold-standard chemistry analytical methodology in reptiles.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFHealth assessments of wildlife species are becoming increasingly important in an ever-changing environment. Kemp's ridley sea turtles (; hereafter, Kemp's ridleys) are critically endangered and incur several on-going threats to their population recovery; therefore, it is imperative to advance the understanding of baseline blood analyte data as a diagnostic and monitoring tool. For in-water, trawl-captured, immature Kemp's ridleys (minimum = 31) from Georgia, USA, the objectives of this study were to (1) establish reference intervals (RIs) for packed cell volume (PCV) and 27 plasma biochemistry analytes and (2) determine length-specific relationships in blood analytes.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAn 11-day-old little blue penguin () died unexpectedly. Prior to hatching, the egg experienced trauma and resultant defects were repaired. The chick hatched without complication and was clinically normal prior to death.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCold-stunning in sea turtles is a frequent natural cause of mortality and is defined as a hypothermic state due to exposure to water temperatures <12°C. Derangements of biochemistry and hematology data by cold stunning have been well documented, although the effects on coagulation have not yet been investigated. The objectives of this study were to characterize the hemostatic state of non-cold-stunned sea turtles and to compare cold-stunned sea turtles at admission and after successful rehabilitation via a sea turtle-specific thromboelastography (TEG) protocol.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAn adult female captive-born Atlantic guitarfish ( Rhinobatos lentiginosus) was found acutely moribund on exhibit and died soon after presentation. Abnormalities on autopsy were focal cutaneous erythema on the tail, a small liver, many variably sized friable ovarian follicles, and coelomic effusion. Histologic examination revealed systemic bacterial embolization, and yolk coelomitis with minimal associated inflammation and some mineralization.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCaptive American horseshoe crabs Limulus polyphemus housed at the National Aquarium presented with a variety of shell and gill lesions over a 3 yr period. Carapace lesions were located on both the dorsal and ventral prosoma and opisthosoma and included multifocal circular areas of tan discoloration, ulcerations, and/or pitting lesions, extending from superficial to full thickness. Gill lesions involved both the book gill cover (operculum) and individual book gill leaflets and included multifocal circular areas of tan discoloration, tan to off-white opaque proliferative lesions, and/or areas of black discoloration.
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