VETS have removed 915 coins from the stomach of a 25-year-old sea turtle which had been swallowing items thrown into her pool for good luck.
The green sea turtle, living at a conservation centre in Sriracha, Thailand, had been finding it hard to swim normally because of the weight.
The cash and other objects removed from the turtle named Omsin – Thai for piggy bank – weighed 11lb, nearly a tenth of the turtle’s total body weight of 130lb.
Vets removed 915 coins from a sea turtle after tourists threw them in her pool for luck
The vets said they believed the seven-hour-long operation was the world’s first such surgery.
Nantarika Chansue, of Chulalongkorn University’s veterinary science faculty, said: “We think it will take about a month to ensure she will fully recover.”
The green sea turtle had been finding it difficult to swim properly because of the weight
She added that Omsin would need six more months of therapy.
The turtle’s keepers have been unable to get a value for the coins, as some of them were foreign and many corroded.