Sick seals keep pouring in
It doesn’t stop: reports of critically ill seals crawling on the beaches. Today, November 3rd, no less than ten sick seals were brought to the SRRC in Pieterburen. Last weekend there were five. They are from Terschelling, Vlieland, Ameland, Schiermonnikoog and along the North Sea coast... That brings the number of severe lungworm patients to over one hundred. This is more than twice as many as over the same period last year, and even then we were getting worried about the increase.
These young seals all have one thing in common: they are very short of breath. Their lungs barely work because of the parasites that are eating their way through them.
Autopsies on a number of deceased animals clearly show the cause of death: They suffocated because their windpipe had become fully closed off by balls of worms...
All these critically ill seals need special treatment: Medication against the horrendous lungworms, against suffocation, ongoing check-ups and many small portions of food a day. This means extra work for all seal carers, who, in alternating teams, are working from very early in the morning to very late at night.
11-03-2009 Source: SRRC Lenie 't Hart
