The wild turtle was found in a local park with a broken shell by a Maryland Zoo employee This turtle has the coolest tech in town. According to the Maryland Zoo, an injured wild Eastern box turtle was recently discovered at nearby Druid Hill Park by a zoo employee. Worried that the half-shell wouldn’t make it on his own, the employee brought the turtle to Maryland Zoo’s hospital. Get push notifications with news, features and more. “He had multiple fractures on his plastron, the bottom part of his shell. Because of the unique placement of the fractures, we faced a difficult challenge with maintaining the turtle’s mobility while allowing him to heal properly,” Dr. Ellen Bronson, senior director of animal health, conservation and research at the zoo, said in a statement. The veterinarians at the zoo hospital came up with a creative solution to the unique fractures. Using metal bone plates, sewing clasps and surgical wire, the vets were able stabilize the turtle’s fragile, broken shell so it had a chance to heal. Unfortunately, for everything to heal correctly, the turtle’s shell cannot touch the ground.Since they don’t make turtle wheelchairs (yet! ), the veterinary team had to come up with some extra-special wheels. turtle Credit: Maryland Zoo “We drew some sketches of a customized wheelchair and I sent them to a friend who is a LEGO® enthusiast,” said Garrett Fraess, a veterinary extern at the Maryland Zoo. The LEGO® lover came through, using the specs provided to create a custom, colorful wheelchair that perfectly fits the grapefruit-sized turtle. “The small LEGO® frame surrounds his shell and sits on four LEGO® wheels. Plumbers putty attaches the device to the edges of the turtle’s upper shell, which gets him off of the ground and allows his legs to be freed up so he can move,” Fraess added. turtle-2 Credit: Maryland Zoo Moving hasn’t been a problem for the healing turtle: he instantly took to the new contraption and has been rolling around the zoo. In typical turtle fashion, these animals are slow to heal. The temporary zoo resident will likely remain at the facility’s hospital and on his wheels until the spring.<doc-sep>There aren’t turtle-size wheelchairs, so vets at the zoo tasked Garrett Fraess — a fourth-year veterinary student who is on a clinical rotation at the zoo — to come up with a solution. He drew some sketches of a customized wheelchair and sent them to a friend in Denmark who is a big Lego fan. She designed and built a small wheelchair, customized to fit the turtle.<doc-sep>By Dana Hedgpeth | Washington Post A wild Eastern box turtle at the Maryland Zoo in Baltimore had trouble moving with a fractured shell. So with some creativity, ingenuity and sketches, a veterinary student designed and built a small wheelchair for the turtle. The material? LEGOs. And yes, there’s video. How do you help a turtle with a broken shell? Would you believe LEGO bricks? https://t.co/EmgSCoLEnY pic.twitter.com/evneeVpHiQ — KVAL News (@KVALnews) September 26, 2018 The turtle was injured and found in July by a zoo employee in Druid Hill Park. It was brought to the zoo’s hospital, where veterinarians found several fractures on the bottom part of its shell. The injuries were unusual for being underneath its shell, not on top, so the challenge became how to let the animal move around and also let the injury heal. The zoo’s veterinary team did surgery on the turtle and stabilized its shell. They inserted metal bone plates and sewing clasps, then used surgical wire to hold the “delicate shell fragments together,” officials said. But there was another problem. The bottom of the shell had to stay off the ground. There are no turtle-sized wheelchairs, so Garrett Fraess – a fourth-year veterinary student who is on a clinical rotation at the zoo – came up with an idea: He drew some sketches of a customized wheelchair and sent them to a friend in Denmark who is a big a LEGO fan. She designed and built a small wheelchair, custom-fit for the grapefruit-sized turtle. In a video, veterinarians show how they tweaked the LEGO wheelchair and fitted it on the turtle. The wheelchair is unique in that it surrounds the turtle’s shell and sits on four LEGO wheels, zoo officials said. With some help from plumber’s putty, it attaches to the turtle’s upper shell. Black, yellow and red LEGOs make up the wheelchair. With the wheelchair strapped on, the turtle can move but still keep the bottom of its shell off the ground. It “allows his legs to be freed up so he can move,” the zoo’s turtle experts said. The turtle appeared to like its new wheels. “He never even hesitated,” Fraess said. “He took off and has been doing great.” Eastern box turtles are a native species in Maryland. The Baltimore zoo has a special project at Druid Hill Park, where it has tagged and monitored more than 130 turtles over the last decade. Tracking the turtles there helps conservationists learn more about how the turtles manage to survive in an urban setting. This particular turtle, tagged in 2000, is believed to be 18 years old. Because turtles have a slower metabolism, they do not heal as fast as birds and mammals. The turtle will therefore likely use his LEGO wheelchair through the winter and into the spring. Officials said the turtle retains strength in its front legs. And even with the wheelchair strapped to him, he still uses his animal instincts, such as “fully closing his shell if he feels threatened,” officials said. Once the wheelchair-bound turtle recovers, zoo officials said, they plan to return him to the park. For now, the turtle shows signs of recovering. “He can turn on a dime,” Fraess said. “He can scoot like a normal turtle.” And Fraess is thrilled that the unique design “wasn’t ridiculed for being a zany idea.”<doc-sep>
The Maryland Zoo A wild turtle is now a Lego enthusiast after receiving a custom wheelchair made from the plastic bricks. The Maryland Zoo in Baltimore took in an injured Eastern box turtle suffering from fractures on the underside of his shell in July. The zoo's hospital staff performed surgery on the turtle to stabilize the plastron with metal plates, clasps and surgical wire. After the surgery, the next challenge was figuring out how to keep the bottom of the turtle's shell off the ground during his recovery. "They don't make turtle-sized wheelchairs. So, we drew some sketches of a customized wheelchair and I sent them to a friend who is a Lego enthusiast," said Garrett Fraess, a fourth-year veterinary student doing a clinical rotation at the zoo. Fraess' friend then worked up a wheelchair design. The chair consists of a frame that goes around the turtle's shell. Plumber's putty helps hold it in place while four Lego wheels give the turtle mobility. The zoo released a video showing how the turtle gets around in his Lego contraption. The Maryland turtle isn't the first to get an assist from a Lego build. A tortoise received a Lego prosthetic leg in 2013 and another tortoise with a metabolic bone disease got Lego wheels to help him get around in 2014. Fraess expects it will take about a year for the zoo's rescue turtle to make a full recovery. "He took off and has been doing great," Fraess says. "Turtles are really good at healing as long as the shell remains stable." The zoo plans to release the turtle back into the wild once he's healed.