The Turtle Hospital

We woke up at 7:45 after a good night's sleep.  Bill picked up two "grab and go" breakfasts from the office...oatmeal, muffin, yogurt, juice and an orange.  We ate some of it while getting ready.  I called The Turtle Hospital and made reservations for a tour at 11:00.  We left at 9:40 (57*), went to McDonalds for breakfast, then rode around until 10:45, when we pulled into the hospital parking lot.   The 90 minute, $30 tour was very interesting and informative!  Once again, we took too many pictures.

This is a green turtle with fibropappilloma tumors on it's face.  They are caused by a herpes-like virus.  Luckily, they are treatable; however, the turtle will stay at the hospital for several months to ensure that the tumors don't grow on it's internal organs once it's cleared up on the outside. 

The hospital was once a roadside hotel, offering a salt water swimming pool, which was open to the seawater and the contents rose and fell with the current.  

The pool still does that and is now a recuperation area for several turtles.  Several of these suffer from "Bubble Butt Syndrome".  This condition is caused when the turtle receives a boat strike to it's shell, causing air pockets beneath the shell, which prevent it from being able to dive, therefore it can only float.

One of these turtles arrived at The Turtle Hospital in March, 1989 and is appropriately named "Bubble Butt".  There is no cure but recently they have discovered that they can secure weights to the turtle's shell, so it can dive.  However, a turtle sheds it's shell (scutes) a few times a year and it would shed the weights, too, so even though it can dive, it can't be released.

This is my best picture (it might actually be Bill's).  This turtle has "butterfly bandaids" on it's shell, holding it together until it heals.  

A lovely view from the back of The Turtle Hospital, which I'm sure is enjoyed by the staff that live on the premises, in the former motel rooms.

Because it's cool, here's some turtle bones ;o)

I don't generally make purchases at places we stop and tour but I did like this magnet, so I gave it a home.

It's 1:00 and time for lunch!  We got burgers at Wendy's and found a spot at the end of a residential road, parked and ate in the truck.  63* and windy from the north, not really nice enough to eat outside.

The View at Lunch

While "The View at Lunch" looks lovely, it's quite deceiving...  This is the view when I turn to the left.

Pretty depressing ;o(

Thanks for stopping by...

;o)