Turtle dies after 2nd surgery

Years after serving as a “link” between Thai merit-makers and deities in heaven, sea turtle Orm Sin, which received surgery to remove hundreds of coins from its stomach, died of complications yesterday morning.

A team of vets at Chulalongkorn University’s Faculty of Veterinarian Science struggled in vain to save the turtle’s life after it developed complications from earlier surgery performed to remove merit-makers’ coins from its stomach.

A second operation failed to help and the turtle died at 10.10am. Orm Sin (Piggy Bank) fell ill after swallowing 915 “good luck” coins weighing approximately 5kg over many years.

The coins played havoc with the turtle’s internal organs and also led to blood poisoning.

A team of vets set out to try and save her life with an operation to remove the coins. They had pressed down on her shell, which cracked the abdominal area.

Orm Sin had two operations — the first on March 6 to remove the coins and the second after she developed intestinal volvulus and strangulation.

The removal of the coins left a large space for the turtle’s intestines to move around and they started to tangle up, causing bacteria to grow faster and produce toxins in her blood, said vet Nantarika Chansue, director of CU’s Aquatic Animal Research Centre.

That, compounded by toxins from the nickel in the coins, caused the turtle’s system to fail, she added.

She said two other possible factors that caused the sea turtle’s death were confined space and inadequate natural food. The vet said sea turtles naturally chew on hard objects like coral when bored. In Orm Sin’s case, it ate the coins.

“Stop using animals as tools to make merit,” said vet Nantarika. Merit-makers should drop their coins in boxes rather than in ponds where animals are kept.