Massages help relieve arthritis pain for Saffron the camel

ABC NEWS (Australia)

If you get to this stage of the week and feel like you need a massage, you're not alone. "Saffron" the Arabian camel had her regular massage at Victoria's Werribee Open Range Zoo this morning a ritual that has benefits beyond self-care.

Transcript

00:00Saffron may not be the star of the show at Werribee Zoo, but no one's told her that.

00:08Absolutely.

00:09She's a spoiled camel, but she's well worth it.

00:11At 23 years of age, she's been living with arthritis for many years.

00:15She's finding it harder and harder to get up off the ground.

00:18As she does age, we're monitoring that really closely and really taking a holistic approach

00:22to her health and welfare.

00:24The zoo has been working with an equine soft tissue specialist who gives her a massage

00:29every two months to help ease the pain in her joints, making use of some tasty incentives.

00:35She dictates what we do, so if she's kind and nice, then we keep going, and if she decides

00:40it's not today, then everything stops.

00:43Saffron is usually so blissed out, keepers can x-ray her or use thermal imaging to identify

00:49any hot spots that need extra attention.

00:52Since he started treating her, she's getting up a lot easier.

00:54He's treating her hamstrings in particular for that one, so while she's, I guess, building

00:58up those muscles back again, it's really nice to have him keep coming back.

01:02It doesn't work for all animals, and it takes a bit of extra effort, but zookeepers say

01:06this rewards-based system could be applied to other animals, and as for saffron, well,

01:12massage is helping get her over the hump of old age.

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