Now she’s lighter, feistier and healthier.
At first glance, Molly looks like any other loggerhead sea turtle, her reddish-brown shell moving gracefully through the water as she pops her nose up for air. But just two weeks ago, Molly arrived at The Turtle Hospital in south Florida covered in barnacles and rare tumors.
“She was quiet when she came in,” Bette Zirkelbach, general manager at The Turtle Hospital, told The Dodo. “It was really bad.”
A charter fisherman had spotted Molly, whom Zirkelbach estimates is 25 to 30 years old, off the coast of an island in the Florida Keys. Commercial fishing lines were wrapped around her body, tethering her to a crab trap.
Notably, the lines were tangled around an enormous tumor near the left side of Molly’s head.
“One of the largest tumors we’ve ever seen!” The Turtle Hospital wrote in a Facebook post about Molly’s arrival at their facility. Zirkelbach said a viral disease called fibropapillomatosis (FP) causes tumors, but it’s rare among loggerheads. She’s only seen two other cases in her whole career.
Staff met the fisherman at a dock and safely rushed Molly to The Turtle Hospital, where they disentangled her from the fishing line. The ailing turtle received fluids and antibiotics as staff wrapped her tumor and immediately flew in a vet who could remove it.
Right now, researchers from around the world agree the best treatment for FP is removing the tumors and helping the turtle build back their immune system. Zirkelbach said her clinic is getting ready to participate in a study to better understand how to treat FP, which is more common in green sea turtles.
For Molly, surgery to remove her 10-pound tumor took three hours. She handled it like a champ and must have felt a bit lighter afterwards.
After going through so much trauma, staff waited for Molly to gain some strength back before tackling the barnacles crusted onto her shell.
Zirkelbach said that barnacles, tiny crustaceans that latch onto sea turtles for free rides to more food, aren’t necessarily harmful to turtles, but too many can slow turtles down or cause infections if they burrow into skin.
Removing barnacles from Molly was part of her healing process. She sat patiently as The Turtle Hospital team pried barnacle after barnacle off her shell. Then staff brushed her off, hosed her down and slathered her with antimicrobial cream. Molly essentially got the full spa treatment.
As they slipped her back into her hospital tank, Molly immediately paddled around, the water gliding over her smooth shell.
“She is biting and feisty now, which is really good to see,” Zirkelbach said. “She’s harder to work with, but that’s showing she’s fighting and strong, which is normal for loggerhead sea turtles.”
https://volume.thedodo.com/embed/aa29219ec?autoplay=true&loop=true&placement=article&player_type=chorus&tracking=article:lede&privacy_consent=allThe Turtle Hospital
Molly continues to heal nicely and gets stronger every day — she even gets the zoomies. There’s no sign of internal tumors, and her vet checkups have gone swimmingly.
Zirkelbach is hopeful that her team will be able to release the “Marvelous Miss Molly” back into the ocean, where she belongs.