Venous blood gas and biochemical analysis of wild captured green turtles (Chelonia mydas) and Kemp’s ridley turtles (Lepidochelys kempii) from the Gulf of Mexico

by Kerry L. McNally, Cody R. Mott, Jeffrey R. Guertin, Jonathan C. Gorham, Charles J. Innis

Blood was collected from wild captured green and Kemp’s ridley turtles off the west coast of Florida, USA. Blood gases and biochemical values were analyzed using a point of care (POC) device in the field. Analytes include pH, partial pressure of carbon dioxide (pCO₂), partial pressure of oxygen (pO₂), total carbon dioxide (TCO₂), bicarbonate (HCO₃), base excess (BE), oxygen saturation (sO₂), lactate, sodium (Na), potassium (K), chloride (Cl), total carbon dioxide (TCO₂), anion gap, ionized calcium, glucose, blood urea nitrogen (BUN), creatinine (Crea), hematocrit (Hct), and hemoglobin (Hb). These are novel data for wild healthy Kemp’s ridley turtles, and results for green turtles were generally consistent with past studies of green turtles with exceptions primarily in blood gas values. Ninety percent of the green turtles had fibropapillomatosis (FP), but none of the blood analytes were correlated with disease severity. Only BUN was correlated with weight of green turtles, and there was no correlation between blood parameters and weight of Kemp’s ridley turtles. This study provides data that are useful in understanding the physiologic status of sea turtles specific to this region, allowing for comparisons to other populations, life stages, and disease states.