Meet one of Houston Zoo veterinarian Joe Flanagan's special cases.
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AnimalesTranscripción
00:00So this turtle, we'll call her Lindsay, came to us from Galveston Bay and she had washed in on the rocks near some fishing site and when she came in she was weak and depressed.
00:29She was covered with algae. She was already missing her eye and that looked like an old injury. It was not something that we even treated. We cleaned it up and saw there was nothing more to do there.
00:40So once a month we weigh and measure the turtle, monitor its skin condition, its shell. There are some diseases of turtles that show up with bumps and swellings and so we want to make sure that the turtle is healthy.
00:54We also want to make sure that it's continuing to grow because if it's not growing there may be a problem.
00:58And I'm kind of proud that today the turtle kind of graduated to a new scale and our old scale only goes up to 5 kilos and this time she hit over 7.3 so we're happy.
01:10Once they've recovered we don't want to put them out in the cold ocean water so we wait for the springtime when the oceans warm and they have a better chance of survival.
01:20I became a veterinarian because I love animals and I love to see animals in the wild and I know that I feel a closer association with them the closer I am to the living animal.
01:31And when I have the opportunity to treat an animal from the wild and give it an opportunity and give it a second chance it's like one of the greatest experiences of my life.
01:42There are some turtles that actually I get goosebumps now thinking about the release and the fact that I have had a chance to impact this animal's life and it could be out there for another hundred years.
01:55I am isn't there, just as long as I told you this time in my life I'm still here for the beginning of this time.
02:05I have all been there with my friends and my friends and I have I have the same conversations with other people.
02:12I have a nice little bit of the planet and I have a nice little bit of the world.