It’s always a special day when a turtle we have rescued and nursed back to good health is released back into the sea. Sometimes the rehabilitation process can take many, many months, depending on the injury or the illness.
When you or I see a discarded plastic bag floating in the sea, it is just that – something that someone has thoughtlessly discarded. To a turtle it can represent food. And that is how we came to rescue Letiz four years ago.
She had swallowed a discarded plastic bag which blocked her digestion which weakened the animal considerably and caused her to contract pneumonia and subsequently a lung collapse. This meant that she was no longer able to maintain a stable horizontal position in the water - In fact she spent a lot of her time in rehab on her side in the water and could not swim or dive.
On many occasions we thought she was not going to make it but she pulled through thanks to the expertise and perseverance of our Vet, Dr Anthony Gruppetta and to the dedication of our Rehab Team working under his instructions.
Letiz was cured of the pneumonia but remained with her right side bobbing out of the water and still unable to swim or dive and in this condition she could never be released. A programme of fixing compensatory weights to the carapace was agreed and with the help of Mr Karmenu Bugeja the necessary weights were designed and forged. This rehabilitation exercise was intended to help the turtle straighten out in a horizontal position and thus swim properly and dive in a normal natural way. This exercise was also helping the build up of her muscles.
More months followed with little improvement. Some told us that we should give up and just accept that Letiz would have to live the rest of her life in captivity because if released she would not make it. Yet in our case, hope, is everlasting and we maintain it even in the most desperate of cases.
Luckily for us our expert Vet supported this idea and we kept on trying and trying. Month after month we changed weights to keep her buoyant and stable. One fine day we went for our usual work with the turtles to our surprise we found side Letiz with the other side bobbing out of the water. On this occasion the side with the balancing weights was underwater and not the other way round as usual.
We immediately removed the weights and to our joy she levelled into a quasi perfect horizontal position and just started swimming and diving normally.
In these last few months we have seen Letiz swimming and diving and starting again to catch her own food whilst still in her 3 metre tank.
Finally after four years of recovery and rehabilitation, Letiz was given a farewell and released back into the sea – able to control her buoyancy, swimming and diving like any normal healthy turtle does and with hopefully a long and happy life ahead of her.
Today was an extra-special day – both for Letiz in returning to her natural habitat and for us all who under the guidance of Dr Anthony Gruppetta and with a lot of patience and determination we succeeded in yet another rescued turtle being rehabilitated – a very special case.
We wish we could say she lived happily ever after but this is not a fairytale but a true story so we can only hope Letiz does not meet any other dangers such as litter, pollution etc that would bring her back to land
The Nature Trust Malta Wildlife Rescue Team would like to heartily thank Dr A. Gruppetta for his care and expertise, to MEPA for their support and the Malta Aquaculture Research Centre at San Lucjan for their support and hosting of the rehabilitation tanks. Last but not least we dedicate this happy ending to our many Rescue and rehab volunteers who with dedication cared for Letiz.
Thanks also to those members of the public, companies and organisations who have helped us over the past four years with the costs involved in making Letiz well again.
Nature Trust Malta president Vincent Attard said this story is a motivator to us who are working towards a better environment as it shows that when one is determined, a happy endings can come true. For us all, wild animals mean a lot. They need our protection at times even from humans themselves. We saved another turtle which today is an endangered specie
Dr Anthony Gruppetta added that apart from the treatment to cure her original pneumonia and the gastric injuries caused by the ingestion of the plastic of the garbage bag and some of the contents of the same bag, Letiz had to undergo long treatments to rebuild all its systems. During the treatments the heavy lob sided position remained worrying as this was attributed to the collapse of a sizeable part of the right lung. There was no indication of re-absorption of the air bubble formed and the condition did not improve. When the compensatory weight programme was adopted, Letiz improved but this was only a condition that could be maintained in captivity. The glorious occasion when Letiz took off swimming in an almost perfect horizontal level without the weights was a huge surprise. This is a case where perseverance has paid us back very well!