17 May 2008

We traveled to Bannerghatta Zoo and saw the lions, tigers and sloth bears. Most of the cases the veterinarians treat here are lacerations from animals playing too rough or getting in fights. There was one mass on a tiger that was undergoing liquefaction from a necrotic center. A lion with a swelled ankle was receiving prednisalone. The animals did not have species specific dosing charts, and were simply dosed as a large housecat. Most of the bears were happy, and friendly with relatively few injuries. All had holes through their noses where they had rings placed while they performed in circuses. India has a ban now on all use of wild animals for performance in circuses and such. (I do not know if this applies to snake charmers.) There was a surgery suite next to here where some animals have been treated. A big-cat or bear surgery must be quite the experience. One lion with a hormone imbalance had lost his mane and looked more feminine. The Siberian tigers were kept separate and were larger in size. These cats were fasted every other day as they would not find food every day in the wild, this was more natural for them. The Dr. expressed how she wished all animals could be fed more naturally, opposed to what is convenient, but the animals were healthy and there is a lot of beaurocracy to go through to change anything in the zoo. She even has had to stop them from keeping all the animals completely isolated from one another, because the zoo thought there would be less injuries, but did not account for the mental well being of the animals. Most food was proportioned based on the sex and age of the animal, and not actual weight. Special needs animals that might have a sore mouth were switched from beef to chicken, liver, and milk. There is a tree with bright red flowered all around here, and Vibha showed us how to make a pop sound with the petals that she used to do when she was young. We toured the zoo, seeing the giant red squirrels, king cobras, hornbills, monkeys, hippos, and other animals. The zoo had a small diagnostic laboratory that was a satellite of the institute we were being trained at. They could run blood work and pathology there. The on call vet that took us around was an energetic, fun woman named Dr. Roompa. We had a nice dinner out with to Dean of the College and got to use an Internet café even, for 20 minutes, as some of the girls were measured for their sarees.