Grey seal found with frisbee in neck is released back into the wild after five months rehab
Frisbee the seal weighed just 67kg when she was rescued and had a massive wound in her neck.
A female grey seal found with a yellow plastic frisbee around her neck has been returned to the wild after months of recuperation.
She had suffered serious injuries and was starving to death after being found with the plastic ring that was cutting into her neck for up to six months. She was rescued and underwent five months of rehabilitation at an RSPCA centre, where she was named Frisbee.
According to The Independent, volunteers at Friends of Horsey Seals attempted several times to rescue Frisbee.
Her health continued to worsen before the volunteers were able to catch her with a net and hand her over to the RSPCA on 15 September.
Earlier efforts to catch her would be thwarted as she would always be with a large group of seals and if one was spooked, the whole group would disperse making it impossible to get near her.
Frisbee's rescue off Horsey Beach, Norfolk, came just a month after the RSPCA rescued another seal, also with a plastic ring around its neck. She was taken to the RSPCA East Winch Wildlife Centre.
"Seals are inquisitive creatures by nature, so it's likely she spotted the frisbee in the water and went over to investigate and that's how it became stuck around her neck," centre manager Alison Charles said.
"Over the months she has grown and as result it has become more and more embedded in her neck and it is likely that towards the end it would have been restricting her from eating and drinking."
Charles encouraged anyone to make efforts to find their frisbee if they lose it on the beach.
She added that Frisbee was "extremely emaciated" when she arrived at the centre. Once the plastic ring was removed from her neck, RSPCA staff were able to see the extent of her wounds.
"I've never seen an injury like that and I've worked with seals for over 20 years," Charles told ITV News.
Frisbee received antibiotics, painkillers and steroids to cure her "very deep and infected wound" and went from weighing 67kg on admission to 180kg.
