The rehabilitation of the monk seal ¨Deserthina¨ on Madeira

On Saturday 29 november a call from Rosa Pires on Madeira, asking for help with the rehabilitation of an adult monk seal. Due to the fact that on Madeira there is a very good system of research and the observation of the Monk seal population, the seal is identified as Deserthina. She was the first adult monk seal identified at the start of the observation of the Monks seal population on Madeira 20 years ago. Therefore her estimated age is over 20 years old.
Veterinarian Peter Klaver from the Seal Rehabilitation and Research Centre in Pieterburen (the Netherlands) directly took a plane to Madeira to help.
When found the seal was in a very bad shape. She was extremely emaciated and was easy to handle. She was transported to the research unit on Desertas, where there is good facility for seals with a plateau and a pool. This provided good circumstances to help this seal that obvious needed human help.

Diagnoses
Looking at the animal you could see the discs of her spine. Her neck was thin and her head was very damaged and full of scars. From her nose dirty nasal fluids were coming out. Her eyes showed infectious fluid coming out, causing a circle of pus around the eyes. Her breathing was very heavy and she was coughing a lot with very dirty mucus coming out of the nose. Her body temp was normal. Therefore, we started with amoxicilline with clavulan acid, broomhexine and acetylcysteine. Her blood values were generally ok, but like her body, showed signs of dehydration. The lack of fluid in her body was also observed on curled, not straight, whiskers and it was felt when the antibiotics were injected and felt though her skin which was hard to inject.
Her stomach felt subtle but empty, less faeces was coming out, also less urine was seen (dehydration!).

Treatment
Subcutaneous infusion was performed, 3-4 litres Ringerlactate-Natriumchloride per day. The seal, skinny, still had a weight of approximately 200 kilogram. Which should need 10% of its bodyweight per day in fluid to get hydrated again. Therefore it was necessary to feed her also fluid and food orally. The feeding of the seal was not easy. Several people were needed to keep a good hold on the wild animal. After one try to feed the seal, in which she show her strength, it was clear that more professional help was needed to handle the animal.
The seal avoided any contact with the fish that was tried to be fed to her. She did get also Enrofloxacin and Dexamethason, because of her very bad condition. Luckily urine was produced again due to the infusions that were given before.
The help of Marrije Verspuij was asked as she has 20 years of experience with the handling of seals. On Monday she arrived at Desertas. Directly after her arrival a next feeding was planned. The seal showed clearly less activity and strength compared to earlier days. The wall in front of her was covered with pus and blood from the coughing and from her nose.
While Peter held the head of the seal and put a 'thumb' (a strong plastic cover on your thumb to avoid the closing of the mouth of the seal) in her mouth, Marrije put in the feeding tube. Two litres of ORS (dehydration fluid) were successfully administered to the seal. Step two; feeding fish, was not very successful. The seal struggled with all its strength. The feeding was stopped to spare the energy of the fighting seal. After letting her go, she still tried to bite us. Then suddenly she stopped breathing. Heart massage was done for some time. After 20 minutes the seal was determined to be death. Necropsy was planned to gain insight in the cause of death of the seal.

The next day the seal was transported to Madeira for necropsy. Observations during the necropsy:

• The teeth of the seal showed very old age. All double rowed teeth were missing. Also at the low-left side the teeth were completely shaved? off to flesh. All teeth left were yellowish, not sharp and the roots of all teeth left were visible.
• The seal was so skinny that the discs of the spine where easy to see. The blubber of the seal measured only 1,5 cm, which is extremely little, and subscribes also the emaciated state of the seal. On the inside of the body all ribs were easy to bee seen. There was no flesh around to cover them. This because of the emaciation.
• The animal was known strangled before in fish line on her left hind flipper. Scars of this incident were seen well. Also the incident caused severe damage to the flipper joint. Due to this the left hind flipper was shorter compared to the right hind flipper. The difference was 6 cm in length.
• In the liver some smaal firm bumps were seen. The outer part of the liver was very light in colour, which suggest a lesser function of the liver.
• The right kidney was obviously larger compared to the normal size of the left one (about 1/3).
• In the large intestines some infectious parts were show, dark red brown of colour.
• The heart shows enlargements of the ventricles and decomposition. The walls of the heart were at a minimum thickness, it looked like an empty bag. The lesser function of the heart was very likely related to the age of the seal.
• The lungs showed a lot of damaged and not fully working tissue. In the trachea lots of parasites, looking like small with ticks, were found (not yet determined).
• In the stomach no food was found, only a few parts of octopus. Also a fishing hook was found in the stomach, along with a minimum of intestinal worms. The hook did cause any damage to the stomach.

Final conclusion:
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She had a wonderful life at Madeira and gave the island a new generation of monk seals which we have to look after and need our help till the end of days.

Final conclusion:

Cause of death is old age and dysfunction of the body because of this. Very extreme emaciation, probably caused because of the bad old age condition of the seal.
This seal lived a long live in the surroundings of Madeira and hopefully provided offspring which is of crucial importance to this very small population of monk seals in this area.