EVALUATION OF CARAPACIAL REPAIR TECHNIQUES FOR INJURED TURTLES PRESENTING TO A WILDLIFE CLINIC

Chelonians commonly present to the North Carolina State University College of Veterinary Medicine's Turtle Rescue Team (TRT) for shell injuries. Several shell repair protocols are described in the literature, but many of these techniques are invasive, require a surgical plane of anesthesia, can result in infections or iatrogenic trauma, and are inaccessible in the wildlife rehabilitation setting. The objective of this study was to retrospectively evaluate three minimally invasive and inexpensive carapace fracture repair methods used at the TRT from 2012-2021. In total, 1,761 turtles presented with carapace fractures. Fracture repairs were performed in 428 turtles and were successful in 236 patients (55.1%). A successful outcome was defined as a fracture that was stable on manual palpation and the patient survived to release. The fracture did not stabilize but the subject survived to release in 13 cases (3.0%). Out of the repairs performed, there were 110 (25.7%) hook-and-wire procedures, 93 (21.7%) fragment removals, 94 (21.9%) marginal hole-and-wire repairs, and 131 (30.6%) repairs that included a combination of procedures. Success rates were highest for fragment removal (69.9%), followed by marginal hole- and-wire repairs (63.8%). The combined hook-and-wire procedures with fragment removal achieved a success rate of 57.9%, while hook-and-wire procedures alone saw a success rate of 47.3%. No complications arising from stabilization procedures were reported. The odds of success were significantly higher in adult males (OR = 3.904, 95% CI = 1.200, 12.705) and females (OR = 3.636, 95% CI = 1.087, 12.158) compared to juvenile turtles. A prognostic scoring system was developed based on published literature and clinical experience at TRT; the odds of success decreased as the prognosis moved from excellent to grave (OR = 0.330, 95% CI = 0.233, 0.458). These minimally invasive techniques should be considered in future chelonian fracture repairs.