The Hippo with Toothache Page 4

  Martine sat down with the cub in her lap so I could examine it. Tough as she could be, she always softened when she had an animal in her arms. She cooed at the bear but it seemed to ignore her. She insisted it had been fine during the past week, ever since a local man, hearing that Martine ran a wildlife rehabilitation facility, had dropped it off at her house. She’d named the little female Kachina, after the Hopi Indian woodcarvings, and planned to bring her to LA when Kachina got a bit bigger.

  I asked Martine for Kachina’s history again. The cub had been cranky that morning, not drinking her milk, and then stopped putting any weight on her right front leg. That’s when Martine had called me. Now Kachina was unable to use her left front leg.

  At first, I suspected the cub had a fever. The problem could be a quick onset of some kind of bacterial or viral infection or an infectious disease affecting the joints or brain. But Kachina’s temperature was normal. Palpating her front legs, I could feel they were thick and swollen. We needed an X-ray, though at that hour I had no clue where to get one. Luckily, Martine knew everyone in town. Within an hour, Silvio, Kachina, and I were being escorted into the back room of a small animal vet clinic.

  The owner of the clinic seemed a bit alarmed—maybe he hadn’t heard me say over the phone that the patient was a bear cub. Soon we had an anesthetic mask over Kachina’s face, and after a few breaths, the isoflurane gas worked perfectly. This was the easy part. We snapped a few films and had our answer: both of the cub’s front legs—the bones above her elbows—were broken.

  My thoughts gelled quickly. A young animal, acutely non–weight bearing on the right and left front legs, with bilateral humeral fractures … I looked again at the radiographs. Not only were the bones fractured, they were abnormal. The outer walls give bones their strength; they should appear thick and robust on an X-ray. In Kachina’s X-rays, virtually every bone in her body appeared paper-thin. Her tiny skeleton didn’t have the strength to support her weight and had fractured under the stress. Why? There must be something missing from her diet, I thought. This bear must have been getting the wrong kind of food.

  I called Martine on her cell phone—she’d gone out somewhere. She was worried about Kachina but wasn’t the sort of person who stood around waiting for answers. Anyway, I had Silvio with me, and she knew I’d call her with a full report.

  “Martine, what kind of milk are you giving this bear?” I asked, trying not to sound accusatory. Baby carnivores require a specific type of milk. Martine knew this, of course, as she had raised dozens of young carnivores over the past several decades and was good at it.

  “The same formula that came with her. She’d been taking it very well until late yesterday, as I told you before. It’s in a plastic container back at the house. Why, what did you find?” The pitch of her voice rose a notch. She’d already become attached to this cub.

  “Both her front legs are broken, the bones above the elbow.” While I spoke to Martine, Silvio began gathering bandage material.

  “Well, that would explain why she’s cranky and doesn’t want to eat,” Martine answered calmly, her emotions back in check. “What do we do to fix this?”

  Her optimistic tone didn’t fit the situation—in my mind, anyway. It wasn’t as if we just needed to suture a wound closed. I answered quickly, “We’re going to have to put a cast on both legs, maybe even on her entire upper body. She’s still anesthetized. I have to go.”

  Silvio and I agreed that the only option for stabilizing the thin bones was a cast. It would have to be enormous in spite of the cub’s small size. After years in practice, this would be the first time we’d had to put a whole torso cast on any animal other than a lizard (but that’s another story). When we finished, Kachina looked pitiful. The entire upper half of her body was encased in white casting material, with her tiny furry rear end and legs sticking out the back and her head sticking out the top. We tried to put a slight bend in the cast so her front legs were not totally straight. Our biggest worry was whether she could breathe normally, since the cast undoubtedly put some pressure on her chest. We decided the best thing we could do for the cub was to keep her calm.

  As soon as Kachina woke up, we mixed some Valium in honey. No bear refuses honey. She took it readily. Two hours later, back at Martine’s house, she took her bottle. A good sign. The plan at that point was to have Martine keep Kachina quiet in the cast while her bones healed. The next morning, Silvio and I headed back to LA with some blood samples.

  Halfway home, I realized I hadn’t looked at the milk powder label. I called Martine and asked her to check it. “Becky, as I told you, it says Commercial Bear Milk Powder. It came with the bear.”

  “Does it say anything on the label?” I asked.

  “Becky, it says Commercial Bear Milk Powder,” Martine repeated, sounding irritated.

  —

  A week later, I drove back to check on Kachina and to get a sample of the milk powder. We’d run the cub’s blood samples and found an abnormal inverted ratio of calcium to phosphorous. These results confirmed the diagnosis: Kachina’s bones were thin from a condition called metabolic bone disease. While young carnivores need to consume both calcium and phosphorous, there is normally more calcium than phosphorous in their mothers’ milk. When they start eating the flesh of other animals, they get these minerals from bones and cartilage as well as from meat. If they don’t get the right proportions of minerals, their bones cannot mineralize normally. This is a classic disease that occurs in captivity when the wrong type of milk or meat without bones is fed to a carnivore. It can happen in lions, tigers—and bears.

  Walking into the backyard, I expected to find a sedated and immobile bear. Instead, Kachina was a ball of energy. She’d figured out how to walk by using her cast like a sled. Propelling herself with her back legs, she took corners by tipping her cast to angle around the turns. To my surprise and great relief, Kachina had adapted beautifully to her confinement. This was an endearing animal. Encouraged by her energy, we changed her diet: no more mystery milk powder. We gave the cub a small amount of a commercial zoo diet made for bears called “omnivore chow,” a fancy type of dog kibble. She seemed to like it. Our plan was to wean her off milk with the hope that solid food—and the correct amounts of calcium and phosphorous—would help her bones catch up with the rest of her body.

  I no longer minded the house calls to another state. We were definitely making progress, and Kachina was no longer in pain. On my third trip, four weeks after we’d put her in the body cast, I noticed the bandage material was starting to break down, and also that she was growing out of it. The better the cub felt, the more stress she put on the cast; it wouldn’t last much longer. But before we replaced it, we wanted to see how the bones were healing. We arranged to go back to the local vet clinic and take another set of radiographs. This time we simply laid Kachina on the table and took pictures of her front legs through the cast.

  Expecting to see progress, we were stunned by the results. The bones were not healing at all. We could barely even see them. They were disappearing. Maybe our cast was too good, so supportive that it had removed all the stress on her bones, something they needed in order to mineralize.

  I had a sinking feeling this bear wouldn’t make it—that the bones would never heal. Though Kachina seemed to feel fine, it was only the cast that was holding her little body together. We decided to go ahead and change the cast, which meant anesthetizing her after all. Luckily, bears are pretty easy anesthetic patients, and she slept quietly while we took new pictures and replaced the cast. No one said much. It didn’t seem right to put this great wad of material around the cub’s small body if it wasn’t going to help cure her. I left for LA with very little hope.

  We had lots of discussion at that point. Silvio and I reviewed the X-rays and the blood work results again, and set up a meeting with Martine. She wanted us to take the cub to an orthopedist. “Spare no expense” seemed to be the Waystation’s unwritten motto, even though funds were always ti
ght. We explained that the bones weren’t strong enough to support surgical repair using plates or pins. Martine wouldn’t accept this answer. So we took more X-rays using a special technique, digital radiography, in order to improve the image quality. We sent them to a specialist. The answer was what Silvio and I had expected: no surgical options.

  We pored through books, made phone calls, talked to several other vets, and tried to get the results of the milk analysis. Though they still weren’t available, we had to believe that the original formula had been inappropriate nutrition for the bear’s healthy growth. Kachina’s diet was now as balanced as we could make it.

  But maybe it was too balanced? Maybe we should try providing an imbalance in the other direction—giving her more calcium than she needed. This approach carried some risk because excess calcium can build up in the kidneys, but we felt it was worth a try. The medicine of choice is called Neocalglucon, a calcium-rich, sweet syrup made for children who don’t like milk. We give it to birds when they’re having trouble laying eggs. Kachina loved it.

  Two weeks later, I made yet another house call to Arizona. We repeated the visit to the local vet clinic. By now, everyone knew Kachina and her traveling vets. She’d become a favorite with all who’d met her. With the cast off, I carefully palpated the fracture sites. They were still mobile. It was as if we’d made no progress. The word “euthanasia” loomed in my mind. I put on a new cast, but decided that it was time to have a difficult conversation with Martine. It wasn’t fair to put the little bear through all of this for much longer if we couldn’t heal her.

  Back at the house, Martine poured a glass of wine for herself and handed me a beer. “Becky,” she began in her familiar, demanding tone, “why would you even think about euthanizing Kachina when she is running all over the yard like a happy three-year-old? The animal looks fine. Can’t we just give her time?”

  Basically, Martine was telling me that putting the cub down was not an option. It wasn’t what I wanted to do anyway, so I didn’t react to her tone. I sipped my beer silently. I remembered the advice of an orthopedic surgeon in vet school: if you have a cat or a small dog with a broken leg, just put it in a box. It will heal. The orthopedist meant: confine the animal to minimize its activity. Surgery isn’t the answer. Also radiographic changes lag behind actual changes in the bone. The callus around a fracture site can be fairly complete but it doesn’t mineralize completely for weeks.

  Silvio and I talked about the cub again. Kachina’s appetite had been great, she was growing, and we saw no sign that the bear was in pain. We all agreed to give her a few more weeks.

  Something was different about the cub on my next visit. She seemed stronger, bigger, and brighter. She needed yet another cast. Once again, we took radiographs, not expecting to see anything positive. But finally, there they were—the outlines of her bones!

  Kachina was lucky that it was Martine who had taken charge of her recovery. She’d insisted that we give the bear more time, and she was right. I learned a lesson from Martine that day, one I realized I’d also been taught many years ago in vet school: remember to look at your patient, not the test results.

  In this business, so many animals don’t make it through rehabilitation that when there’s a good outcome, you’re pleasantly surprised—in this case overjoyed. I truly hadn’t thought this little bear would live. When I called the company that made the so-called bear milk, I talked to them until they hung up on me. They weren’t about to take responsibility, even though analysis proved their product was completely wrong for a bear.

  After working at the Waystation on and off for fifteen years, I recently left that job in order to teach full-time. But I visit when I can. Katrina is up to two hundred pounds and lives with another female bear. The image of that little cub in a whole-body cast sliding around Martine’s backyard still makes me smile. Thanks to her, and the Waystation, this bear has a good home.

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  Rebecca A. Yates spent her early years tending to small creatures like birds, lizards, tortoises, and insects in Los Angeles. She received her bachelor’s degree at Humboldt State University, her master of science at California State University, Dominguez Hills, and her degree in veterinary medicine at University of California, Davis. After finishing vet school, Dr. Yates briefly cared for cats and dogs until discovering her true passion in zoo animal and wildlife medicine. She spent nearly ten years working with a variety of wild animal species—including native wildlife—at the Wildlife Waystation near Los Angeles, California. She moved to the East Coast to work as staff veterinarian for two years at the National Zoo in Washington, DC, and then returned to California, resuming part-time work for the Waystation while she pursued a career in teaching. She currently teaches full-time for the veterinary technology program at Pierce College. Dr. Yates can often be seen riding her off-road unicycle up steep canyon roads.

  Raising Kayavak

  by Jeff Boehm, DVM

  AT THE TIME (2000), no one in the world had successfully raised a five-month-old orphaned baby beluga whale. Our choices were decidedly few. We could create an artificial whale milk formula for the calf, attempt to foster her onto an adult female whale who’d recently lost a calf, or force her through a “cold turkey” approach to weaning considerably earlier than we thought advisable. I tried to think of a fourth or fifth option as I hurried from O’Hare Airport to Shedd Aquarium on Chicago’s lakefront. I wished I’d never left for California. Then again, I’d been looking forward to visiting family for the holidays.

  The whale trainers and the on-duty veterinarian, Dr. Annelisa Kilbourn, first noticed something wrong the day before, late on Christmas morning. The calf’s mother, Immiayuk, was acting a bit strange. Observations intensified and concern mounted as the day wore on. Immi appeared lethargic and uninterested in her training sessions. Annelisa called me and we agreed that I should race back. The aquarium staff quickly moved into high gear, shifting mom and calf into a separate pool so they could keep an even closer eye on the pair. Next, they began the slow process of lowering the pool water. The plan was to examine Immi this morning while I flew halfway across the country.

  As I sat on the plane, possible causes for Immi’s changes played out in my mind over and over, from a simple behavioral problem to acute infection. Anxious to get back, I tried to distract myself by studying the other passengers. I wondered if any of my fellow travelers had started the day as I had, with no travel plans whatsoever. It was a safe bet no one else was answering an emergency call about a sick whale and her five-month-old baby.

  The moment we landed, I called for an update. The tearful voice on the other end of the phone confirmed my worst fear: Immi had died. My heart went out to the animal care staff. I imagined their faces, strained with concern and grief. Everyone would be discussing what needed to be done next. The baby whale would soon be very hungry. We had some difficult, critical decisions to make—and fast.

  By the time I got to the aquarium, night had fallen and the clock was ticking for little Kayavak. Annelisa and I met with the curators to talk about what to do next. The calf could dehydrate and weaken quickly without a source of milk. At the same time, we needed to determine the probable cause for her mother’s death. It could have been an isolated event, or it could be something that threatened the health of the other whales, including this precious calf. The difficult task of performing a postmortem examination on Immi—a 1,700-pound animal—would require our complete attention for several hours, and we’d need most of the crew helping. But the 250-pound baby also needed us, and that meant getting close to her. Not a routine proposition.

  We elected to drop the water level in the baby’s pool right away, so that we could perform a physical exam and give her fluids. Administering an electrolyte solution to her orally would at least reduce the risk of dehydration while we sorted out our options. As soon as the water level dropped to a few feet, staff climbed down into the pool and slowly gathered around Kayavak. She proved to be a compliant
patient, allowing trainers to gently restrain her in their arms as they knelt in the water. I passed a flexible tube into Kayavak’s mouth and then her stomach while Annelisa poured the fluids in, using a funnel.

  When we finished, the little whale swam away slowly. She’d been through a tremendous amount over the past twenty-four hours, and it seemed as if she would accept whatever we chose to do for her. We made tentative plans to repeat the calf’s fluid treatments every three or four hours over the next day to maintain her hydration. This would give us time to assess why Immi had died and formulate a plan for Kayavak’s nutrition.

  One of our options—seemingly the most straightforward—was to jump into the business of making baby whale milk. Every mammal requires its own milk formula. These don’t come standardized, and figuring out what works best requires some trial and error. We certainly could not use human, dog, or horse milk formula for a whale calf. Like all marine mammals, these little guys have a huge demand for calorie-dense, fat-rich milk. We might be able to use commercially available milk powders as a base, but we’d need to buy massive amounts and then figure out just the right mix. Or we could use what others had used to raise orphaned dolphins: heavy whipping cream blended with herring fillets.

  We got on the phone to search for more information and determine exactly what we’d need to pull this off. If we chose to pursue this course and raise the calf on formula, it would be a first for a beluga whale. The trick would be to formulate a whale milk “recipe” that would get the biggest caloric bang for our liquid buck. Rather than the ounces per day required by a human infant, we’d be dealing with whale-sized gallons per day! And she would need more all the time as she grew. I wondered if our industrial-strength blender was ready to go.