Patient Update: Huevos Rancheros

By Kate Hruby, Communication and Education Coordinator

Harbor seal patient Huevos Rancheros during a sedated medical exam.

The mass around Huevos Rancheros’ ear.

Huevos Rancheros, 26-52, had an unusual quickly-growing mass around his left ear. We drained the area and ruled out an abscess as the problem. Still unsure of the cause, we took a biopsy of the site and sent it in for testing. The results gave us an answer: sealpox, which is a pretty common virus among harbor seals despite the uncommon way it appeared on Huevos. We also looked at bacteria and fungus from the biopsy, and got good news. There wasn’t any kind of fungal infection and the bacteria was all normal for a harbor seal.

Bacterial results from Huevos Rancheros’ sample.

Testing like this lets us understand what is happening inside a patient and helps us inform their care. Huevos is in quarantine to prevent sealpox spreading to the other patients, and got an anti-inflammatory and an antibiotic to help him recover. Today, he got cleared by our veterinarian to stop his meds, so now all he has to focus on is gaining weight before he can return to the ocean!