Moon

January 1, 2025

Introducing the first patient of 2025, meet Moon! Moon is a dependent, male grey seal pup who was brought to us by our colleagues at @marinemammalrescueack on January 7th after initially stranding on the 5th. In the field, Moon presented as a shivering, lethargic, prematurely separated pup.

Once at our facility, observation and advanced diagnostics showed that Moon was in pretty bad condition. Moon is suffering from labored breathing as a result of bronchitis, omphalitis (a bacterial infection of the umbilical stump), is underweight, dehydrated, has increased liver enzymes, but most notably, Moon is suffering from severe, bilateral conjunctivitis/keratitis (inflammation of the cornea.)

As it stands, Moon struggles to even open his eyes most of the time and may ultimately be visually impaired.  The veterinary and animal care team are monitoring the situation closely to track any potential progress. Moon is considered extremely critical, and his prognosis is guarded.

February 2, 2025

While still very early in the year, it has certainly been an interesting one for the grey seal pups of Nantucket as both of our patients came to us with ocular issues, concentrated in the left eye.  

When we last discussed Moon the prognosis was pretty grim; he wasn’t opening his eyes at all, and we feared he may have been completely visually impaired. After a few days he began to open his eyes, but not without discomfort, showing that he had opacity in the right eye and a raised corneal sequestrum with a ring of edema in the left eye. Though we will never know for certain the origin, we suspect some sort of trauma or a viral infection, likely PHV-1, or a combination of both. Despite treatment and careful management, prognosis remains poor for Moon’s left eye, however he is visual in the right eye. We will continue to monitor Moon for any additional signs of discomfort or progress and treat accordingly.  

Pluto arrived to our facility with periocular mucoid discharge, a moderate blepharospasm, and a transparent raised bulla on the surface of his cornea with the rest of the cornea moderately opaque. While it is likely his ocular issues are associated with a viral infection, we cannot rule out trauma due to the fresh puncture wounds he arrived with. There is a chance the cyst on Pluto’s left eye could heal with medical therapy, however at this time prognosis for vision restoration is guarded to poor. Pluto has full vision in his right eye.  

Of course, we would love for both of our seals to have fully restored vision in both eyes, however they only need one good eye to be deemed eligible for release. At this time our team is managing each case with great care, ensuring there is no discomfort, and doing what we can to prevent decline in vision of the right eyes while also making sure these two pups learn their basic life skills.  

March 3, 2025

Moon has reached the pre-release pool! You may recall this little grey seal pup came to us potentially blind in both eyes, alongside other complications associated with being prematurely separated from mom. With careful treatment and husbandry management, the animal care and veterinary team were able to preserve Moon’s right eye establishing his eligibility as a release candidate (seals cannot be released if they are blind in both eyes.)  The animal care team has gone to great lengths to ensure confidence in the vision Moon does have including environmental changes and live fish testing, and we are happy to report he is doing well in all departments. Moon’s final task is to put on just a little more weight before he makes his way back to the open ocean.

March 12, 2025

We have some exciting news to share! Yesterday morning the NMLC team gathered on the beach to say their final goodbyes to Moon, one of Marine Mammal Alliance Nantucket grey seal pups. When Moon first arrived we were fearful his vision was compromised in both eyes rendering him not only blind, but non-releasable. In true grey seal fashion, with a little help from the animal care and veterinary team, Moon showed his true grit and his right eye was saved. As you watch this special moment, we would like to highlight a few things:

– Moon was only days old at admit, so he has spent more time in a hospital setting than on a beach. What you are witnessing is the acclimation process to basically a new environment. This is perfectly normal behavior, and varies per individual.

– Seal social structures are different than that of dolphins and whales, meaning they do not need to (nor really want to) be in a group to thrive. In fact, seals wean from mom in 4ish weeks on average, and are then on their own to navigate the world. That being said, there were other seals in the area.

– Rocky beaches, humans hate ’em, seals don’t mind at all. There are many reasons we select this particular location, but one of them is certainly terrain related. Terrain that is difficult to walk across means a quiet place for Moon to rest should he choose to hang around for a bit with limited risk of human interaction.