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‘Chomper is 14.2 pounds lighter.’ Surgery at Keys turtle hospital removes giant tumor

A Florida veterinarian successfully removed a giant tumor from the right front flipper of a loggerhead sea turtle over the weekend.

A family boating off Duck Key in the Florida Keys found the reptile tangled in fishing line and couldn’t help but notice the growth, which was the size of a basketball. The family took the turtle, named Chomper by their two young sons, to the Turtle Hospital in the Middle Keys city of Marathon.

On Saturday, Dr. Terry Norton surgically removed the tumor, which weighed 14.2 pounds, according to Turtle Hospital staff. Chomper weighed 150 pounds before the operation.

Bette Zirkelbach, manager of the hospital, said while sea turtles often have tumors, loggerheads usually don’t, and the size of the fibroma was something that took her and the rest of the staff by surprise.

“In 30 years, we’ve never seen a tumor that big,” Zirkelbach said Friday.

Chomper, a sub-adult loggerhead sea turtle, recovers from surgery to remove a 14.2-pound tumor from its right front flipper Saturday, Sept. 19, 2020.
Chomper, a sub-adult loggerhead sea turtle, recovers from surgery to remove a 14.2-pound tumor from its right front flipper Saturday, Sept. 19, 2020.

The largest tumor removed at the hospital before Saturday was 3 pounds, according to a post from the facility’s Facebook page.

Chomper also has a much smaller tumor around the neck area that will be removed at a later date.

Norton was able to perform the difficult procedure while saving the flipper. But, hospital staff will have to closely monitor how Chomper manages with the appendage in water.

“Feeling 14.2 pounds lighter,” Zirkelbach said Monday morning. “So far, so good with her flipper.”

A loggerhead sea turtle lies on a table at the Turtle Hospital in the Florida Keys Friday, Sept. 18, 2020. The reptile has a giant tumor on its right flipper.
A loggerhead sea turtle lies on a table at the Turtle Hospital in the Florida Keys Friday, Sept. 18, 2020. The reptile has a giant tumor on its right flipper.

Norton is the lead veterinarian at the Turtle Hospital and is also the founder and director of the Georgia Sea Turtle Center in Jekyll Island, Georgia.

The surgery caused Chomper to lose a significant amount of blood, so the reptile required a transfusion from another turtle living at the facility. On Monday, staff placed another compression bandage on Chomper’s flipper to control the bleeding. There is no immediate timeline for how long Chomper will have to recuperate at the Turtle Hospital.

While the staff has been referring to Chomper as “her,” they actually don’t know if the reptile is male or female. The animal is a “sub-adult” that has not yet reached sexual maturity. Zirkelbach said the “guestimated” age of Chomper is about 18 to 20 years old.

“We don’t know, and won’t know until Chomper reaches sexual maturity, about 25 years old,” Zirkelbach said. “The males grow a long tail when they reach adulthood.”