THOMASTON – A stranded baby seal discovered near Thomaston Harbor was being treated with a few “fishshakes” Monday at a marine animal shelter in Westbrook.

“She’s very emaciated,” said Greg Jakush, president of Marine Animal Lifeline. The seal weighs just 32 pounds and is 21/2 feet long. She has not been named.

About 8 a.m. Sunday, Elaine Larrabee of Thomaston spotted the gray seal pup lying in the dirt nearly 100 feet from the water’s edge at Thomaston Harbor, Sgt. Michael Janczura said.

Larrabee contacted police, and Janczura went to the scene.

A Knox County dispatcher paged an area marine animal rescue organization, and soon Jim Cuthbertson of Thomaston arrived to assess the seal’s condition, Police Chief Kevin Haj said.

Rescuers said the seal was clearly malnourished and dehydrated.

Cuthbertson and Janczura put the pup in a cage for transport to the nonprofit Marine Animal Lifeline Center in Westbrook, which rescues and rehabilitates injured, sick and abandoned sea mammals.

According to Jakush, patient No. 127, who is only a couple of months old, is suffering from a slight bacterial infection, malnutrition and dehydration.

He said a healthy pup her age should weigh twice as much. The seal was not injured, he said.

The seal was undergoing hydration and nutrition therapy in the form of intravenous and oral fluids, and an occasional “fishshake” made from blended fish.

Recuperation for the pup is expected to take about two months. The seal then will be released to her natural habitat. Harbor seals, which are not quite as rugged as gray seals, take about a month longer to recover, he said, because they have a longer weaning period.

Jakush did not know what caused the baby seal to wind up beached and in poor health.

The pup may have become separated from her mother or the mother figured it was time to let her baby go, he said.

“We’ll never know,” he said.

The rescue center has given up on naming the marine animals it treats, Jakush said, because there are so many.

The staff is caring for about 30 seals, and it releases a few each week, he said. Before the marine animal is set free, a tag the size of a quarter bearing a patient number and the organization’s telephone number is glued to the animal’s fur for future reference.