Tiger Reserves

KOLKATA: The Sunderbans tiger, that was brought to Alipore zoo with an ailment in its right elbow three weeks back, underwent a surgery on Tuesday. This was the first major surgery in the zoo in the last five years. The tiger in its prime had hygroma — accumulation of fluid in joints — in a region close to the elbow of its right front leg.
"The surgery is successful and the tiger has been released in cage," said Asish Samanta, the zoo director. TOI was first to report about the tiger's ailment in its July 16 edition. Sources said the quality of post-operative care will decide how fast it recovers.
The seven-year-old tiger, that was rescued from Sunderbans Kultoli village last December and kept at the Jharkhali rescue centre for almost seven months, was brought to the zoo on July 14. A medical board was also formed to take a call on its treatment. State zoo authority's member secretary V K Yadav had earlier told TOI that the fluid accumulated in the joints was drawn out for quite a few times and the doctors had even performed tests on the fluid. But it turned out to be a "recurring problem".
According to a zoo source, it was later found that the fluid was originating from a fibroid mass. "At times, conducting a surgery on the joints becomes difficult. But we found that the fluid was actually getting accumulated adjacent to elbow joint — and not in it. So, we decided to go for a surgery," said a zoo source.
The surgery that started from 12.50pm continued for almost an hour after which the tiger was given an antidote and released into its cage. It regained its consciousness at around 3.10pm. "Almost 800-900ml fluid was taken out and the tissue, also known as bursa, where the fluid was getting accumulated was also taken out. The bursa weighed around 250-300 grams," added Samanta.
"It was kept without food for the last 24 hours since it had to be tranquilised for the surgery. We had also stopped offering it water 12 hours prior to the surgery. It will be kept on light diet two chicken a day for the next two days. From the next day onwards, we will gradually shift to its regular diet of beef," said a source.
On the post-surgery plans, an official said that in such cases antibiotic and painkiller, both in the form of injection, are given to the big cat. While the antibiotic course usually lasts for five days, the painkiller can be given for two to three days depending upon the pain. He also said that the dressing would be changed in every two to three days. However, he didn't confirm whether the dressing would be done in a squeeze cage or the tiger will again be tranquilised for the purpose.
The surgery team on Tuesday was led by the joint director of animal resources development department Dr Rudra Deb Mukherjee. Other doctors present were Gopal Samanta, Subrata Sanki, Arnab Majhi, Sivaji Bhattacharjee and Pankaj Kumar.
On being asked about the disease, a doctor said that it's a situation similar to capped elbow, which is common in humans. Rough surface, excess body weight and lack of exercise are reasons behind this.
In the last few years, the zoo doctors have treated the Sunderbans tigers for various ailments — from posterior weakness and infected osteoarthritis to corneal opacity. The last time when a major surgery had to be performed on zoo animals was in 2011 when a male and a female jaguar had to undergo surgeries for abdominal tumour and malignant tumour respectively. While the male went on to live for two more years, the female died within a couple of months.