The Holiday show from Ireland arrived at The Turtle Hospital November 20th to film for their newest series. Ciara Whelan and Jon Slattery travel from their home in Ireland to exotic places around the world filming with locals and wildlife at each location. January 2010 will mark the beginning of their second season where Ciara and Jon came to the beautiful Florida Keys to film. One stop was of course, The Turtle Hospital. The Holiday Show spent the day filming at our facility when a small green sea turtle was brought to the emergency room by FWC biologist Sue Schaf. Holiday, as she was later named by Jon, was suffering from large external tumors caused by the Fibropapilloma virus. Upon admittance, Holiday was blind from the tumors on her eyelids and weak from being unable to feed herself.

Filming for the show concluded that day and Jon, Ciara and Tom said goodbye to staff and Holiday the sea turtle. Holiday remained at The Turtle Hospital awaiting an endoscope to see if the tumors were also growing internally. Unfortunately, at this time, internal tumors can  not be treated. An endoscope was performed on December 1st by Dr. Doug Mader (Marathon Veterinary Hospital). Happily, no internal tumors were found. Surgery was performed to remove the tumors from around her eyelids. Dr. Mader was able to successfully remove the tumors and Holiday has her sight back! A second surgery will be necessary to remove the remaining tumors along the underside of her flippers. Holiday will then remain at The Turtle Hospital for one year under observation to ensure she has no re-growths.