Meet Freya. She was in care with us for 46 days before she sadly passed away.
Her death was completely preventable!
Freya was at a reasonable body weight when she came in, but her shell was covered in a thick layer of algae indicating she was health compromised. Her bloodwork showed that she had an infection and was clinically dehydrated. We put her on antibiotics and fluid therapy straight away. Freya’s x-rays showed an enlarged and blocked oesophagus and solid material in her intestines. Dr Greg at Alma Street Veterinary Hospital performed an endoscopy under general anaesthetic for us to remove the blockage which contained mud and shells.
Freya never showed any interest in food during the whole duration of her time with us. She did however start to pass hard rock-like faeces. Faecal analysis showed pieces of plastic inside the faeces. We performed enemas to help the faeces move out more easily and gave her medication to support gut motility.
Unfortunately Freya did not respond to her treatment and passed away. Her post mortem showed several pieces of plastic in her large intestine, including a fully intact curtain hook. The sharp plastic pieces had ruptured her large intestine and a large volume of hard faeces had moved into her body cavity, creating a massive infection. There was nothing we could have done for her to fix this.
We are absolutely DEVASTATED to have lost a patient this way after caring for her for 46 days Freya’s death was directly caused by human impact and completely preventable! Poor Freya, humanity really let her down…
Please reduce your plastic consumption and don’t let any more sea turtles or other marine wildlife go through the intense suffering Freya went through.
As consumers, WE are the ones that can drive change. Surely we can do better for this planet and its animals.