Turtle Patient 152: Jum, Sub-Adult Olive Ridley
Jum was found entangled by the neck in Raa Atoll. She was rescued by Joali Being and transported to the Rescue Centre via Joali Resort.
The Vitals
Intake Date: 2 July 2021
Patient Number: 152
Rescue Location: Raa Atoll
Reason: Found entangled
Transport Method: Seaplane
Status: Deceased 12 July 2021
Species: Olive ridley
Scientific Name: Lepidochelys olivacea
Sex: Unknown
Age: Subadult
Length: 54.4 cm
Weight: 12.25 kg
Jum has kindly been adopted by Timofei Aleksandrov and by Regina Sanchez.
Jum’s Story
Jum is a sub-adult Olive ridley turtle. The entanglement has left a deep ligature wound that will need surgical intervention in order to prevent the scar tissue contracting down and effectively throttling her. She is incredibly weak and emaciated, arriving at only 12.25kg when she should be at least 16-18kg. She has a long way to go before she can be considered for release, but thankfully she has all 4 flippers and a strong will!
11 July 2021
Jum is having a tough go of it; she is still very weak and is finding it hard to eat, although she is at least attempting to chew some bits some of the time. She is having daily fluid therapy to support her. We are planning surgery next week to sort out her neck and insert a feeding tube. It may take a little while yet and although she is our most critical patient, we are confident we can pull her through this.
12 July 2021
Jum unfortunately passed away after she was sedated for the insertion of a feeding tube. She had been getting progressively worse over the course of the preceding week despite intervention, and it got to a turning point where we had to try and get nutrition into her or she was definitely not going to pull through. It is always devastating to lose a patient, but Jum was already far gone when she was found. Unfortunately there were just too many issues that had developed. On post mortem we found that she had an abnormal heart, pancreas and large intestine. She was also so emaciated that the bones of her plastron had dislocated from her carapace. We are at least glad that she passed away peacefully.
