Constipated sea turtle released

When you gotta go, you gotta go. Unfortunately for a 200-pound loggerhead sea turtle, he couldn't go and therefore he couldn't dive. Enter the good doctors at the Turtle Hospital in the Florida Keys, who diagnosed "Pal" with a serious digestive problem and used a pretty common human remedy to solve the reptile's bowel issues.

"The turtle couldn't go to the bathroom so we gave him Metamucil to help him with that," said Richie Moretti of the Turtle Hospital. Now Pal is swimming, and pooping, just like any other healthy loggerhead in the wild. He was released off Marathon on Thursday.



Doctors said Pal's digestive system was overloaded by his seaweed intake. That's a potentially fatal issue for sea turtles because they need to defecate in order to take a dive.

Pal was found by four fishermen off the Lower Keys who noticed the turtle couldn't submerge itself under the water. No diving means no food and also leaves sea turtles susceptible to predators from above and below. Turtle doctors spent the next month curing Pal's back up problem with antibiotics, oils and the laxative found in most homes.