Sea Turtles Get Life-Saving Surgery at Florida Hospital
At the Turtle Hospital in Marathon, Florida, veterinarians are currently caring for 42 sea turtles.
"But five are on their way," adds Bette Zirkelbach.
By the next day, she follows up to say the additional five are getting CT scans at a regular hospital—"the human hospital."
The Turtle Hospital is a veterinary and rehabilitation center that has treated and released thousands of sea turtles since first opening its doors in 1986.
The facility treats about 100 turtles every year, but that number can vary greatly. They saw 81 in 2016 and 175 in 2015. Of all those marine turtles, about half had a disease called fibropapilloma, or FP for short.
FP is a herpes-like virus that causes benign tumors. On their own, the tumors
