Now Empty of Coins, ‘Piggy Bank’ in Terminal Decline

Veterinarian Nantarika Chansue bonds with her patient, 25-year-old Piggy Bank the sea turtle, in a photo posted Tuesday. Photo: Nantarika Chansue / Facebook

Update: Piggy Bank has reportedly slipped into a coma, her vet says

BANGKOK – A green sea turtle who had almost 1,000 coins surgically removed from her stomach was in critical condition Monday after undergoing an emergency operation due to post-surgery complications.

Chulalongkorn University vets said Piggy Bank, who underwent surgery March 6 to remove 915 coins consumed from the pond where she’d lived, was in very serious condition after an emergency operation on Saturday.

Read: Chula Vets Divest Turtle’s Stomach of 915 Coins (Photos)

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“Please keep Piggy Bank in your thoughts. We got this far. The incision is completely healed and never got infected. She started swimming and eating. [But] we can’t control what her body does naturally,” Nantarika Chansue, a veterinary science professor, wrote on Facebook.

After noticing Piggy Bank’s reduced activity yesterday, Nantarika said her team discovered the turtle’s intestines had become tangled up during the recovery process, possibly due to the sudden absence of five kilograms of coins. Nantarika and her team performed an emergency operation on the 25-year old turtle Saturday afternoon to untangle her intestines, release pent-up gas and drain excess fluid collected in her digestive tract.

“Yesterday Piggy Bank seemed depressed and had a stomach ache. We were shocked because on Friday she had started eating food again,” Nantarika wrote.

Nantarika said that the condition most likely arose from Piggy Bank’s natural healing process, as her gastrointestinal tract adjusts to the empty space left by the coins’ removal.

Piggy Bank receiving physical therapy from Nantarike Chansue March 9. Video: Nantarika Chansue / Facebook

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Piggy Bank swims in a two-ton tub while Nantarika Chansue sits poolside in a video posted Tuesday. Video: Nantarika Chansue / Facebook

Nantarika Chansue treating Piggy Bank’s incision March 9 at Chulalongkorn University. Photo: Nantarika Chansue / Facebook

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‘Piggy Bank’ Ate too Many Coins. Now Chula Vets are Trying to Save Her.