By Kate Hruby, Communication and Education Coordinator
Naga the harbor seal pup rests on a pillow in her personal enclosure during the first week of her care.
Naga, a harbor seal pup initially suffering from maternal separation and malnutrition, came to the Rescue Center on August 8th. Shortly into her time in care, we discovered that she also had a disorder called megaesophagus, where the esophagus dilates and loses its ability to move food from the mouth to the stomach. Naga was the fourth patient this summer to be diagnosed with this disorder. Luckily, two of the harbor seals prior to Naga were successfully treated and returned to the wild, and after several months of daily medications, Naga improved as well.
To diagnose this disorder we take x-rays of the patients. The enlarged esophagus is visible in the x-rays, and with successful treatment, we can see the esophagus shrink back to its normal size.
X-rays of Naga’s chest. A red arrow in the first two images points to her megaesophagus. It gets smaller in the middle image and her esophagus has returned to its normal size by the third.
Naga returns to the wild in Hood Canal, close to where she was rescued.
Since the Rescue Center opened in 2021, Naga holds the record for the patient we’ve had in care for the longest. But after 163 days of treatment, learning to feed herself, and gaining weight, she returned to the wild.
Naga was released with a satellite tracker glued to the fur on her back, so each time she floats at the surface of the water or rests on a shoreline, we receive information about her location. Since her release in mid-January, she has explored Hood Canal, Admiralty Inlet and central Puget Sound in Washington State. Stay tuned for more updates as we see where Naga goes from here!
A map of Naga’s locations in the Puget Sound for the month after her release. After data was collected for this map, she traveled to Seattle!