Zeehondencrèche Lenie 't Hart

It is happening: Lenie will finally be following in the footsteps of the masses. Who in this day and age does not have a weblog? Lenie! But from today this is going to change.

Children ask me questions on the website such as: “Can I MSN you?” and other things like that. I always reply: “I am not even sure what that means...” But we experience so much exciting stuff at the SRRC every day; you might be interested in hearing about some of it from me.

Today I will tell you about Croco, who was freed of several pieces of plastic hose in his stomach whilst lying in our seal ambulance that was parked in the parking lot in front of the hospital in Leeuwarden. “Why Leeuwarden?” you will naturally ask. Well, just because Dr Piet Spoelstra works there as a gastro-enterologist and has experience in working with seals.

His best adventure with seals was a long time ago, when we asked him to travel to Greece to cure a Monk seal that we were rehabilitating from an intestinal blockage. He came along with all his equipment. At the customs in Schiphol he had no problems. Because he was travelling under the SRRC’s name, he was let through with all his pistol-shaped appliances just like that. However, at a stop off in London he got into trouble. They wanted to know what exactly he was planning to do with those apparatuses. Luckily for him (as well as for us and the seal), there was one officer who recently had undergone such an examination himself and recognised the contraptions. So Piet Spoelstra was let through.

When he arrived at the Greek island Allonissos in the Northern Sporades he examined the seal. We had built a rehabilitation unit there, a ‘real Jarino 1988’, with glass on all sides. While he was busy, the whole village turned out; by the end of the examination everybody was looking in through the windows. Piet Spoelstra said that he was not used to having so many spectators while he worked...

There and then he saved the seal, just as he saved our Croco last week. Our vets are not as experienced in endoscopy as he is. Thanks to his advice, we have been able to save seals that accidentally swallowed fish hooks. Sharp hooks are dangerous for the seal’s organs. “Feed him lots of cotton wool with some ORS (oral rehydration solution)”, said Piet Spoelstra. And you know what? The hook came out via the ‘natural way’, nicely packed in cotton wool. Great! We have publicized this method of treatment and it is now being carried out worldwide. Cooperation like this between ‘animal doctors’ and doctors for humans is really valuable. It often appears that they encounter the same problems.

Croco can now wolf down fish again without any help. He is probably thankful for his saviours. I am sure that later he will tell his offspring all about his adventures in Pieterburen. And especially that he was on television and in the papers.

03-20-2009 Source: SRRC Lenie 't Hart