Zoos, Circuses, Safaris: A Gallery of Captivity

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Bigcat Enthusiast

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#174

05-05-2016, 10:15 PM

Big boy here.

*This image is copyright of its original author

http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/A-lio...to-2189048
When life is good, Tunya, a 435-pound lion at the San Francisco Zoo, has sex 20 times a day and gets treats like "blood popsicles" or dead rabbits.

When life is bad, he shakes and trembles. Technically speaking, Tunya is a wobbler -- he sometimes has trouble putting weight on his front legs, and endures pain that can last for days.
On Thursday, vets at the zoo sent Tunya to the Veterinary Medical Teaching Hospital at UC Davis. The diagnosis: a cervical vertebral abnormality. The conclusion: no easy fix. The next step: unclear, but possibly another commute on Interstate 80 for high-risk surgery that might or might not cure his ills.

Tunya's rare troubles began about a year and a half ago. Zoo officials have observed two more shaking episodes since then, the most recent three weeks ago.
Dr. Freeland Dunker, head vet at the zoo, concluded that the area between Tunya's sixth and seventh vertebrae was skewed, resulting in a pinched nerve, and that surgery was the answer.
And so, at 5 a.m., Tunya and six zoo employees left for UC Davis, a world mecca
medicine.
It was the first time the zoo had brought an animal to Davis for surgery, Dunker said -- though it was not the first lion for Davis. And it was Tunya's first excursion since April 1997, when he arrived from South Africa, with much fanfare, at the age of 3 months.

A contest to name him and female compatriots Amanzi and Kita drew more than 1,000 entries. Dunker saw them as the building blocks for a new pride of lions at the zoo -- and as part of a national breeding program to offset the ills brought by inbreeding and crossbreeding.
WAITING FOR 'THE GIRLS'
The morning before his Davis outing, Tunya looked neither sick nor like a poster boy for genetic diversity. Instead, he just looked mad. He paced furiously inside his 6-by-10-foot cage until "the girls" returned to their adjoining cages.
Linda Caratti, animal keeper in the lion house, said Tunya feels protective toward Amanzi and Kita, but also worries they'll meet another male if they're out of his sight.
As soon as the two strolled in from outside, Tunya plopped onto the straw- strewn floor like a contented kitten.
On a typical day, the lion eats 8 pounds of horsemeat for dinner and gets a knuckle bone to chew on. A favorite treat is popsicles made from frozen horse blood, resembling sorbet or a Sno-cone.
"Sometimes just giving them a bowlful of blood is enjoyable," said Caratti, who's taken care of the three South Africans -- the only remaining lions at the zoo -- from the beginning.
When the females go into heat every five to six weeks, Tunya mates with them about 20 times per day.
"It's very quick," Caratti said. "There's no quality time, there's no champagne."
Asked if Tunya prefers one or the other, Caratti said, "Whichever one is in estrus is his favorite."
Since becoming sexually mature at 2 1/2 years of age, Tunya hates to be touched, at least by humans. It's a good thing he was unconscious for most of his visit to Davis, because he was touched a lot. He was pushed and pulled, smacked, poked, yanked and manipulated into positions not befitting the king of the jungle.
AWAKE BUT STILL GROGGY
Although he was knocked out in San Francisco Wednesday afternoon while he was crated, Tunya was awake, though groggy, when the zoo's trailer pulled up to the Large Animal Clinic in Davis at 7 a.m. Thursday.
The mood among his handlers was focused and alert.
Working with a lion can be scary, said UC Davis anesthesiologist Linda Barter. "You don't want them to wake up and kill someone."
As a precaution, San Francisco Zoo keeper Ron Whitfield, looking like a professional hit man, toted an encased 12-gauge shotgun all day.
At 7:50 a.m., Dunker ventured into the trailer with a tranquilizing dart. Half an hour later, Tunya got a second dart. A horse, meanwhile, pranced around the parking lot.
"Tunya does love to eat horses," Caratti noted.
By 8:39 a.m., Tunya was out cold, though Dunker slapped his face to make sure. Catheters were taped to Tunya's legs to provide fluids, a clip was fastened to his tongue to monitor vital signs, and tubes were shoved down his throat to administer anesthesia and oxygen.
Six people tugged and lugged until the lion, by now an inert mass of tawny fur, was placed on a gurney and escorted into an examining room.
His heartbeat was 72, his entourage about two dozen people. An orthopedic surgeon examined him. By the end of the day, the departments of anesthesiology,
radiology, neurology and orthopedics would all get involved.
LIKE A 'FAR SIDE' CARTOON
Finally, Tunya was wheeled out and a sheep with a hernia wheeled in. It was time to take the elevator to the second floor. By the time one lion on a gurney, four humans, one oxygen tank and the formidable anesthesia apparatus were wedged in, the tableau resembled a "Far Side" cartoon.
"Looks like I'm waiting for the next car," said UC Davis oncologist Eric Simonson, who had just wandered by. "Let's hope the lion doesn't have cancer."
By 9:30 a.m., Tunya was in the X-ray room. During his three-hour stay, keeper Lori Komejan phoned from the zoo in San Francisco to say "the girls are calling out for him like crazy."
The X-rays confirmed Dunker's diagnosis, but also indicated that surgery would be far more complex than expected and not something anyone could do right away. As Tunya's gurney was rolled down the hallway, a black pit bull froze in unblinking terror and a white Samoyed bolted in the other direction. Luckily, a Chihuahua with congestive heart failure had just come and gone.
It would take another hour and a half for Tunya -- whose name means thunder in Swahili -- to regain consciousness.
Meanwhile, anesthesiologist Barter, who is allergic to cats, rubbed cortisone into her crimson arms and face. San Francisco zoo veterinarian Jacqueline Jencek massaged Tunya's legs and pondered his future. His role, after all, is to breed and multiply.
POSSIBLE CAREER CHANGE
"That's his job," she said.
And what if his job description changes because of poor health? "His new job will be to be very handsome," Jencek said with a sad smile, after a long pause.
At 2 p.m., Tunya snorted a few times, opened his eyes and began the long, slow process of waking up from the anesthetic -- a precarious phase that sometimes includes seizures.
The lion didn't return to San Francisco until 8 in the evening. Dunker and Jencek kept an all-night vigil. By Friday morning, Tunya was back in his cage and the exhausted head vet was figuring out what to do next.
If surgery is performed, the risks are high.
"Surgery might paralyze him -- and how do you deal with a paralyzed lion?" Dunker asked.
UC Davis neurologist Karen Vernau said Tunya's problem occurs most often in Dobermans, who are decidedly unlionlike but would serve as the best point of reference. Sometimes, she said, the surgery creates a domino effect and more discs collapse.
Post-operative care would be difficult and labor-intensive, Dunker said. And Tunya's cubs could inherit the problem if it's a genetic defect rather than the result of injury -- something that's impossible to know.
If nothing is done, Dunker said, Tunya's condition will deteriorate to the point where life is not worth living. In a few years, he could be put to sleep.

Different one.

An Israeli vet operated on an eight-year-old 440-pound African lion to remove a tumour from its stomach. The lion, Samouni, underwent about two hours of surgery involving a biopsy and the removal of the tumour.
Veterinarian Dr Yigal Horowitz and the staff at the Ramat Gan Safari performed the two-hour operation. The lion is expected to be back on his feet by Thursday.
The tumour will now be sent for analysis to determine whether it is benign or malignant.
Here are some images of Samouni being taken for the surgery, operated on and recuperating.

*This image is copyright of its original author

http://www.mid-day.com/articles/when-a-l...r/16410182

*This image is copyright of its original author

A tiger is recovering from dental work at a zoo after breaking three of his front teeth.
Nine-year-old Amir, a rare male Sumatran tiger, had to have the chipped teeth filled in at Howletts Wild Animal Park near Canterbury, Kent.
The tiger, who weighs more than 20 stone (280lbs), was sedated and transported to the on-site hospital for treatment by dental surgeon Peter Kertesz

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2864998/Best-double-check-anaesthetic-Dentist-perform-surgery-fix-tiger-s-teeth-broke-chewing-bones.html#ixzz47niOF6gY
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*This image is copyright of its original author

CLEARWATER, Fla. – It's not unusual for a cat to get a hairball, but a 400-pound tiger needed help from veterinary surgeons in Florida when he couldn't hack up a basketball-size hairball by himself.
The 17-year-old tiger named Ty underwent the procedure Wednesday at a veterinary center in the Tampa Bay area community of Clearwater. Doctors said in a statement that they safely removed the 4-pound obstruction from Ty's stomach.
The tiger, which is cared for by Wildlife Rescue and Rehabilitation in Seminole, was brought to veterinarians after not eating for nearly two weeks. Doctors said they detected the hairball using a scope with a camera.
Vernon Yates, whose nonprofit group regularly assists law enforcement agencies with seized animals, says he's thankful the hairball was removed and Ty is doing fine.

*This image is copyright of its original author

http://www.foxnews.com/health/2013/05/23...-that.html

*This image is copyright of its original author

Bringing a rather large lion into the work area. Each animal is weighed when brought to the work area. This lion was 425 pounds.

*This image is copyright of its original author

Specialist vet dentist Stephen Coles can be forgiven for making sure his patient was sound asleep yesterday before he started poking a tooth broken off at the gum.
Harare, 10, may be the runt of his litter but he's a very large one: 180kg and fangs longer and thicker than an average man's fingers.
"You wouldn't put your hands in his mouth unless you were very sure he was asleep," Dr Coles said.
Dr Coles, one of only two specialist dental vets in Australia, is regularly called to Melbourne Zoo.
Harare had a full check-up at the hands of zoo vet Helen McCracken while he was out and was found to be in good health.
http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/ns...6165378230