Current Patients

 #21-010 is a female grey seal pup. She stranded in Belmar, NJ on February 11th, with small puncture wounds to her left front flipper and is very underweight, weighing only 32.4lbs.   

This pup is less than two months old, and likely did not learn how to eat on her own after being weaned from her mother.  Grey seals only nurse for about two weeks, and once weaned they are completely independent. Grey seal pups weigh about 30-35lbs when they are born, and by the time they are weaned they can triple their body weight. The pups will live off of their fat reserves as they learn to hunt for fish on their own. It seems this little one wasn't successfully feeding herself, so she dropped back down to close to birth weight. 

After offering the pup live minnows in her pool, her instincts finally kicked in and initiated a feeding response.  We are happy to report that #21-010 is already eating on her own!  This little pup will stay with us until she gains some more weight before being released.  

#21-008 is a yearling male Harbor seal. He stranded in Strathmere, NJ on February 4th, suffering from a large bleeding wound under his left front flipper, and an open injury to the same flipper, severely impacting one of the digits. 

Our veterinarian feels the large wound under his flipper actually started out as a smaller injury that became infected, and as the infection spread it affected a much larger area of tissue.  Our veterinarian was able surgically remove the affected digit , preserving the use of his front flipper. The missing digit will not impact his ability to catch fish, eat, haul out or evade predators.  The large wound on his side is also healing very well.  

Harbor seal  #21-008 is now eating on his own and is gaining weight. We anticipate that he will be a good candidate for release in about one month.