Week Seven Part I – How to save a life…

I mentioned in my last post that we had two seal pups flying into Anchorage on my Wednesday. The pup we first heard about that was coming from Petersburg died during transport. The other seal that was coming in from Egegik arrived alive but she was clinging to life. Whoever prepared her for transport had packed her all wrong. She was kept in a Rubbermaid container which is standard for the smaller communities that cannot get their hands on a kennel. The problem was that there were too few air holes made in the sides and the lid. They also had her wrapped in a winter/thermal jacket for the 3 hour flight from Egegik to Anchorage. It was because of those circumstances that she arrived with a 106.2 F/41 C temperature and totally unresponsive. This is past the point where an individual is experiencing hyperthermia; where the core body temperature has been in an elevated state for an extended period of time, leading to organ failure, brain damage and death. This was our first seal pup to arrive in a critical state.

We worked hard to stabilize her with ‘round the clock attention. There were 4 am feedings. We administered sub-cu fluids multiple times a day and we were constantly monitoring her temperature. Her temperature eventually came down, but she still remained unresponsive and much like a ragdoll. She didn’t need to be restrained. I would just climb into the tote and kneel next to her and open her mouth for the tube to be inserted. I remember her face was crusty and her mouth dry. Her head was just dead weight in my hands. She could barely keep her eyes open. The vet had fixed a catheter to her spine in order to get quick blood draws and administer medication. We were drawing blood nearly every feed to monitor glucose levels and packed cell volume (PCV). We used the same kind of glucose monitor that diabetics use. By monitoring her glucose levels we were able to determine if we were providing her with enough energy to get her to the next feed since all she was being tubed was fluids. The PCV was looking at the ratio of blood cells to plasma which determined how hydrated she was. We were never worried about her pulling it out for the first few days because whatever position we placed her in was the same 3 or 4 hours later. Those first 48 hours were critical and I was fortunate enough to be a part of monitoring her progress during that time. I was asked to come in at 4 am to tube her fluids to get her through to morning. We also took her temperature and drew blood for analyses. I was surprised to see her holding her head up and somewhat undulating around. She was even resisting a little when we went to tube her. I thought to myself that things were looking up for baby girl.

To this point she was a critical case and we had been reluctant to give her a name. Since we were seeing signs of improvement, one of our volunteers that had gone to pick up this seal was given the opportunity to name her. She chose the name Buckle.