{"id":1934,"date":"2015-04-13T12:49:16","date_gmt":"2015-04-13T02:49:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/?p=1934"},"modified":"2015-04-29T12:55:53","modified_gmt":"2015-04-29T02:55:53","slug":"1934","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/?p=1934","title":{"rendered":""},"content":{"rendered":"
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Image: Kathy Townsend.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\r\n\r\nBarry the green sea turtle soon will return to the ocean around North Stradbroke Island, thanks to the speedy intervention of several wildlife professionals.\r\n\r\nThe University of Queensland\u2019s Moreton Bay Research Station, the Quandamooka Rangers, Sea World, and the Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service all worked together to save the 49cm turtle, who had a severe case of floating syndrome.\r\n\r\nMoreton Bay Research Station Education Officer Kathy Townsend said Barry was so listless when she first saw him that she thought he had died in transport.\r\n\r\n\u201cHe was suffering from extreme dehydration and about half his scutes \u2212 the large scales covering the shell \u2212 had severe UV damage and had lifted off,\u201d Townsend said.\r\n\r\n\u201cLuckily the Quandamooka Rangers who found him brought him straight to the station to undergo triage care.\u201d\r\n\r\nTownsend immediately placed Barry on several rehydrating drips in an attempt to revive him.\r\n\r\n\u201cThe change was spectacular: he went from near-dead to lifting his head to check us out,\u201d she said.\r\n\r\nFloating syndrome occurs when a turtle\u2019s gut becomes paralysed, preventing it from being able to digest food.\r\n\r\nInstead, the food decomposes, releasing gases that get caught in the body cavity and cause the animal to float.\r\n\r\n\u201cThe condition occurs from either a parasite infection or from swallowing marine debris like plastic bags or balloons,\u201d Townsend said.\r\n\r\n\u201cTurtles with floating syndrome can\u2019t absorb water so they quickly dehydrate and, because they can\u2019t dive underwater, they\u2019re often attacked by other animals, hit by boats or severely sunburnt.\u201d\r\n\r\nOnce Barry was stabilised the Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service took him to Sea World for a full assessment and antibiotic treatment.\r\n\r\n\u201cHe will spend several weeks at Sea World fattening up and undergoing rehabilitation under veterinary supervision,\u201d Townsend said.\r\n\r\n\u201cIt really is wonderful how Queensland\u2019s marine conservation community works together on these cases.\r\n\r\n\u201cOnce Barry is back to full health we\u2019ll release him back to the ocean, so he can hopefully live a long and happy life.\u201d\r\n\r\nA week after Barry was treated at Moreton Bay Research Station a second turtle, Billy, arrived with similar symptoms, highlighting the need to keep plastic and other rubbish out of the ocean.\r\n\r\nBilly has joined Barry at Sea World and is expected to make a full recovery.","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Barry the green sea turtle soon will return to the ocean around North Stradbroke Island, thanks to the speedy intervention of several wildlife professionals. The University of Queensland\u2019s Moreton Bay Research Station, the Quandamooka Rangers, Sea World, and the Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service all worked together to save the 49cm turtle, who had a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[1638,1640,113,1639,1637,57],"class_list":["post-1934","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-barry","tag-moreton-bay-research-station","tag-news-2","tag-qandamooka-rangers","tag-turtle","tag-uq"],"rise-blocks_total_comments":0,"rise-blocks_categories":[{"term_id":5,"name":"News","slug":"news","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":5,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":0,"count":407,"filter":"raw","cat_ID":5,"category_count":407,"category_description":"","cat_name":"News","category_nicename":"news","category_parent":0}],"rise-blocks_excerpt":"Barry the green sea turtle soon will return to the ocean around North Stradbroke Island, thanks to the speedy intervention of several wildlife professionals. The University of Queensland\u2019s Moreton Bay Research Station, the Quandamooka Rangers, Sea World, and the Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service all worked together to save the 49cm turtle, who had a severe case of floating syndrome...","blog_post_layout_featured_media_urls":{"thumbnail":"","full":""},"categories_names":{"5":{"name":"News","link":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/?cat=5"}},"tags_names":{"1638":{"name":"Barry","link":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/?tag=barry"},"1640":{"name":"Moreton Bay Research Station","link":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/?tag=moreton-bay-research-station"},"113":{"name":"news","link":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/?tag=news-2"},"1639":{"name":"Qandamooka Rangers","link":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/?tag=qandamooka-rangers"},"1637":{"name":"turtle","link":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/?tag=turtle"},"57":{"name":"UQ","link":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/?tag=uq"}},"comments_number":"0","wpmagazine_modules_lite_featured_media_urls":{"thumbnail":"","cvmm-medium":"","cvmm-medium-plus":"","cvmm-portrait":"","cvmm-medium-square":"","cvmm-large":"","cvmm-small":"","full":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1934","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1934"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1934\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1936,"href":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1934\/revisions\/1936"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1934"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1934"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1934"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}