Abstract

Anesthetic approaches to sea turtles may vary among clinicians depending on the perception of past success, what the person initially learned, and the prevalence of information available. Techniques may also differ based on the level of sedation or anesthesia required for short diagnostic procedures or long surgeries resulting in extensive tissue removal such as papilloma surgery. A number of anesthetic protocols have been used with a wide variety of effects on induction, maintenance and recovery.^1,2 The length of recovery appears to primarily vary depending on the drugs included in the protocol. Blame for extended recovery or death has included individual drug components, overlapping effects from multiple drugs included, species involved, use of intraoperative NSAIDs, and the length of the procedure. Variation in patient species, health, and anesthetic agents used has made comparison of techniques challenging.

A juvenile Kemp's ridley sea turtle that required multiple ballooning procedures for a tracheal stenosis received different drug combinations for each procedure to compare and contrast recovery time of different drug protocols. An acceptable level of patient control was required with each protocol to avoid damage to the endoscopic equipment. Drugs administered on the different procedure dates included ketamine, dexmedetomidine, butorphanol, midazolam, lidocaine, benzocaine and sevoflurane. Full recovery varied from 45 minutes to 11 hours depending on the drugs and the approach. Monitoring included blood gas evaluation, endotracheal capnometer, temperature, body reflexes, and exhaled anesthetic gases. In addition to standard reversal drugs used, doxapram and epinephrine were administered in cases of extended recovery.

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank the many people who assisted in the many procedures. These included the staff and volunteers of Clearwater Marine Aquarium, the Zoological Medicine Service, Hollie Chiles, Pia Oresjo, Sarah Purcell, Daryl Heard, Ramiro Isaza, and James Wellehan as well as the internal medicine support staff.

Literature Cited

1.  Chittick EJ, Stamper MA, Beasley J, Lewbart GA, Horne WA. Medetomidine-ketamine-sevoflurane anesthesia for injured loggerhead sea turtles. J Am Vet Med Assoc. 2002;221:1019–1025.

2.  Harms CA, Piniak WED, Eckert SA, Stringer EM. Sedation and anesthesia of hatchling leatherback sea turtles (Dermochelys coriacea) for auditory evoked potential measurement in air and in water. J Zoo Wild Med. 2014;45(1):86–92.