Bubbles' troubles continue.
The 260-pound Atlantic green sea turtle made news a year ago when she underwent a CT scan at the Creighton University Medical Center. Bubbles hadn't eaten in about seven months.
Thursday came the update: Bubbles is better but far from fully recovered.
Henry Doorly Zoo staffers said Bubbles underwent additional CT scans last fall, this time at the University of Nebraska Medical Center. It seems Creighton's machine wasn't quite large enough to get excellent pictures of Bubbles' large frame.
Dr. Anne Hubbard, a pediatric radiologist at UNMC, said she has performed diagnostic imaging of monkeys, gorillas, orangutans, African wild dogs and tigers.
"Bubbles was my first turtle," Hubbard said.
The new scan revealed a large mass in her cloaca, which is a sac near her anus. Doug Armstrong, director of animal health at the zoo, said he used various devices to clean out the claylike mass made of fecal matter, calcium and minerals that blocked her tract.
And Bubbles began to eat again. She has been known to devour six heads of lettuce in one day.
She had a vigorous appetite for lettuce and fish from January through April. Then her appetite waned.
"Now she doesn't like lettuce," said Mitch Carl, the zoo's curator of aquatics. She sporadically eats fish and shrimp, about once a week.
Bubbles swam around the shark-reef exhibit Thursday afternoon. Her shell is the size of a large sledding saucer. The look in her eyes suggested determination, wisdom or knowledge. Or boredom, perhaps.
The zoo has kept Bubbles since 2003. She had probably been struck by a boat propeller, then was rescued, injured, near the Florida Keys. She is probably 15 to 20 years of age. Sea turtles may live 80 to 100 years.
Bubbles' keepers now worry about ulcerous lesions on her shell. She might have a virus or a problem with her immune system.
"We haven't resolved all of her medical problems," Armstrong said.
It would be nice to claim a fairy-tale ending, he said, but so far that hasn't happened. And the medical saga of Bubbles goes on.
Contact the writer:
402-444-1123, rick.ruggles@owh.com
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