Team of vet nurses needed to lift 175kg lion onto operating table

Australian Community Media

Eight-year-old Zuberi needed a pulp capping to fix a chipped fang. The broken tooth was discovered during a training session, and was likely chipped while Zuberi chomped on a bone. Video voice-over made using ACM-approved AI.

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00:00A team of 10 vet nurses were needed to lift a 175 kilogram lion onto an operating table

00:06at Melbourne Zoo.

00:08So for most of our animals here, and especially for our dangerous ones, they are trained to

00:12have a hand injection for their anesthesia.

00:14So when we do a procedure like this, he has to be anesthetized, as you can imagine.

00:18So yeah, the keepers gave him an injection and he had a nice little snooze while vets

00:26got in there.

00:27We went up to the veterinary hospital and were able to fix his tooth and bring him back

00:30on the same day.

00:31Eight-year-old Zuberi needed a pulp capping to fix a chipped fang.

00:36The broken tooth was discovered during a training session and was likely chipped while Zuberi

00:40chomped on a bone.

00:42The 10cm long tooth took 30 minutes to cap while the animal was sedated.

00:47Well the lion's teeth are huge, so they're about 10 times the size of your domestic cat.

00:52So like a centimetre versus 10 centimetres, like massively different.

00:57And then we often do a lot of like meerkat teeth as well, and they're only millimetres

01:01high.

01:02So yeah, the lion's teeth are just crazily big.

01:05It's a privilege really to get so close to them, I guess, because you never get close

01:08to them in the wild.

01:09So it's really exciting in that regard.

01:13The dentistry is fantastic because it's bigger, so it's actually easier because everything's

01:18larger.

01:19And compared to say 20 years ago, or when I was starting off doing the dentistry, we've

01:24got tools now and instruments that make life so much easier.

01:27So it's a fast procedure, like pulp capping takes about 30 minutes.

01:30And if we did like a domestic cat in the clinic, it'd still take 30 minutes.

01:35But just being so close, like just to be so close to a lion is, it's just, you know, it's

01:40one of those lifetime experiences that you'd probably never have if you didn't have the

01:44job I had.

01:45You may have seen that he was wearing some little mittens or kind of booties on his feet,

01:49on his paws.

01:50Our volunteers actually knit those for them, and it just helps to keep them warm throughout

01:54the procedure.

01:55And it's, it's also really cute, of course.

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