A rare turtle that survived being bashed against rocks when he washed up on a Cornish beach has had his shell patched up using dental paste, timesonline.co.uk reports.
The loggerhead turtle was underweight, malnourished and dehydrated when he was found stranded at Widemouth Bay near Bude.
Since then the turtle has been nursed back to health by staff at the Blue Reef Aquarium in Newquay – with the help of a local dentist.
The staff were unsure of what to do about black lesions on the turtle’s shell, damage that was caused when he was tossed against the rocks.
A local pharmacist and a dental surgery came to the assistance by donating a tube of Orabase to provide an extra layer of protection while the injuries heal.
Helen Randall, practice manager at Gentle Dental in Newquay, said: ‘The aquarium approached us.
‘They have contacted us in the past for a similar sort of thing, a shell or similar hard covering.
‘The shell is very hard which is similar to teeth,’ she said.
‘He was less nervous than some of the patients at the practice.
‘He was huge, and it was a three-person job.’
The turtle is now doing so well that he is on display at the aquarium and staff will release him back into the wild, possibly in the Canary Islands, in the next few months.
