BENGALURU: Veterinary doctors of Bannerghatta Biological Park saved and successfully treated a baby hippopotamus after it suffered from faecal impaction.
Two years ago, the mother hippopotamus, named Drishya, gave birth to a calf named Sani. Of late, the young one was not defecating and was not consuming water and food due to pain, and it was also not able to drink its mother’s milk. The doctors at the park tried to induce diarrhoea by giving medication in the food, but it was unsuccessful.
The veterinary doctors of the Bannerghatta Biological Park contacted various doctors of different parks in India and abroad, including Africa, and elicited information about the treatment modes.
The team of doctors took up the challenge to treat Sani. First, the mother and baby hippopotamus were separated. The difficult part was to do darting as the skin of the hippopotamus is very thick. Only behind the ear and near the tail the skin is thin and the dart should be aimed and delivered to the exact spot. If anything went wrong, it could have even been fatal.
Sani was sedated and lost consciousness within 24 minutes. The operation was carried out under the guidance of Park Executive Director Sunil Panwar. The team of doctors, led by Dr Umashankar and Dr Vijaya Kumar, Dr Vishakha and Dr Manjunath, and 15 other staff members, manually removed around 6 kg of faeces from the hippopotamus anus in 45 minutes. After the completion of treatment, drugs were administered to reverse the effect of the anaesthesia.
After some time, the hippopotamus calf consumed food and mother’s milk. The officials of Bannerghatta Biological Park are happy to have succeeded in such a rare attempt for the first time.
“Our doctors and zoo keepers’ team work with devotion, and when they find any zoo animal suffering, in my opinion, they feel sad and unmindful of personal risk, they give treatment. The mother hippopotamus was very furious, but they took a risk and treated the baby. I’m very proud of their dedicated work. Some of them have a personal attachment to the animals,”said Sunil Panwar, Executive Director of Bannerghatta Biological Park.
“On September 27, the keeper informed us that Sani was not drinking water and was having issues with defecating. We tried to give medicine to the calf, but it was not consuming it. We consulted various experts and discussed the procedure that had to be carried out. We could traquilize the animal in the first attempt itself. Immediately, we did the procedure and administered various medicines. In Karnataka, zoo authorities have done this procedure for the first time and we are proud of our team of doctors,” said Dr Umashankar.
“The skin of the hippopotamus is very thick and rubbery, and darting is a very difficult task because sometimes, it will bounce back and medicine won’t be ingested in the body. The darting must be done at a particular spot in the skin, like behind the ear or near the tail. We darted Sani in its ear. Wild animals need to be handled carefully. Darting Chemical Immobilization helps to treat wild animals,” said Dr Manjunath.
“The condition of the hippopotamus is called faecal impaction. It was having difficulty defecating, and we had to sedate it and remove the faeces manually. We administered the necessary medicines and lubrications. This condition is common in domestic animals, but it is very difficult to handle such situations among wild animals,” said Dr Vijay Kumar.