Secrets of the Zoo Down Under Season 6 Episode 2

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Transcript

00:00They say don't ever work with babies or animals but what if they're baby animals on this all-new

00:16season welcome back to the ever-changing world of Taronga where you'll witness things you never

00:27thought possible you can actually hear her breathe and meet new faces oh hi buddy you'll never forget

00:35so good it's time to discover oh my god exactly who's who in this zoo on this episode it doesn't

00:51feel good a heart-stopping moment he's now not breathing literally I can't hear hardly as this

00:58majestic cat just keep bagging keep bagging is brought back from the dead so that adrenaline's

01:04in meet Laura and Beck it doesn't look like we've got any termites in here yet possibly the only two

01:12humans it's a bit of a guessing game excited to find termites we haven't done anything like this

01:19before and a trip to the dentist for the world's largest rodent they have really big influenza teeth

01:26really huh I hadn't noticed

01:29at Taronga Western Plains Zoo a wild week is nothing new

01:43but this particular week is shaping up to be a bit wilder than usual for Taronga's vets and nurses

01:52well it's a pretty busy time at the wildlife hospital at the moment yeah I'm going to put

01:56three different drugs in his cocktail

01:58so I'm going to have a second one drawn up for the dart in case we need it so we've actually got

02:07two tiger anesthetics planned mainly to look at their dental health and the two incoming patients

02:13are not just any Tigers they're senior Sumatran Tigers Satu and Sakti Satu is our eldest tiger here

02:22at the zoo and he's just had his 18th birthday last month Sakti is I guess our spring chicken here at

02:29the tiger facility he is actually 13 years of age over there in Sumatra you'd probably expect the

02:37Tigers to live to be approximately 10 to 12 years of age however when they have a high standard of

02:43care quite often they can live to their late teens even their early 20s for us our main focus is making

02:49sure that our animals have a good healthy life and that's exactly what today's double Tiger checkup

02:57is all about so I've got both pole syringes I've got the blowpipe yep dart rifle yep hand injections

03:04drawn up here yeah the first tiger on the list is the eldest Satu we know that he's had some dental

03:11issues in the past he's got some canines that have fractured and been treated with root canals

03:15well make sure there's nothing painful our dental veterinary specialist David is flying in from Melbourne

03:21today for these procedures if the dental specialist finds any issues with the Tigers teeth that could

03:27make things a little more complicated big cats they are prone to getting high potassium in their

03:33blood while they're under anesthetic and that can be a life-threatening complication particularly

03:38with long procedures we want to try and keep our anesthetic time as low as we can but dental

03:42procedures can be quite lengthy being an older cat there's a little bit of an increased risk with

03:46his anesthetic the high potassium can affect his heart rhythm and in a really severe case you can

03:52actually have a cardiac arrest so we'll keep the procedure as short as we can before they can

03:57begin the procedure they'll need to sedate Satu we have got a hand injection and 21 gauge needle all

04:08right good luck thank you so we're gonna head in now with um the anesthetic drugs that the vets have

04:16given us to administer it won't be long until they call us I don't think they say come up we'll let the

04:21vets know how his injection has gone all right I'm going Dutch hold that Megan to Alisa yeah go ahead

04:37looks as though we've got 100% is lying calmly on the grass that's awesome well done so amazing

04:45that's all gone perfectly with the first tiger asleep I've checked he's got no blink the team

04:54quietly enter the den and prepare him for the move to the animal hospital let me get the catheter stuff

05:01ready um so we've got quite a big team working on Satu so I'm getting a reading heart rate's 80

05:09we've got three vets working on him we've got three nurses cephalics are usually hard we want to make

05:16sure that we do everything as efficiently as we can every team member plays a crucial role and as they

05:23continue prepping Satu vet nurse Jane notices a change in his vitals he's got an odd breathing

05:32pattern getting closer closer closer than breath hold yeah yeah how long have we been since injection

05:3815 minutes okay vet Alisa watches closely assessing the tiger's respiration rate yeah he hasn't had a

05:47good deep breath for a minute if Taronga in Sydney had a prize for the most relaxed and laid-back

06:02resident buddy you doing this guy would certainly be a top contender this is Carlos he is one of our

06:14capybara boys we've got four males capybaros are native to South America I kind of like to call

06:22them South American hippopotamuses they love to spend time in the water they do have webbed feet

06:29just like a duck and they hold their breath for five minutes as well just like hippos it's actually

06:37their kind of safety refuge so they do have quite a few predators in the wild and what they'll do they'll

06:42go into the water to protect themselves you can see with his ears eyes and nose they're all in a

06:47straight line all together so they'll kind of just be sitting with those above and they can see and hear

06:52everything well Darcy you might want to cover his ears for this next bit so tomorrow he's just booked

06:59in for a general anesthetic just to make sure he's all nice and healthy obviously when he is under the

07:06anesthetic we can actually get a good look what's going on like Taronga's Sumatran Tigers in Dubbo six

07:12year old Carlos is also getting on a bit Carlos is turning six in a couple of weeks now six for a

07:20capybara is actually getting quite old for them in the wild life expectancy is probably about seven or

07:26eight for a male so much the same as our Tigers Darcy will not only get a physical but a dental check

07:34too with capybaras they are the world's largest rodents so being a rodent they have really big

07:41incisor teeth growing constantly we give them a lot of brows you know branches and that actually helps

07:47with their dental care if you've ever wondered what a capybara toothbrush looks like and I know I

07:53have well wonder no more this is a cocus log they'll chew on that throughout the day just kind

08:01of trims down his teeth and just make sure they don't become overgrown with the general anesthetic

08:05tomorrow we can actually get a much better look at his teeth just to make sure they're all nice and

08:08healthy and there's no issues with them as well Carlos is super affectionate he's super comfortable

08:15with people he's very tactile he loves pats you can give him a good scratch like this and yeah just

08:21really curious when we come in he's always kind of the first one to come over to see what food we

08:26have or just what we're up to as well this trusting relationship between keeper Darcy and Carlos the

08:33capybara might be tested tomorrow when Carlos has to be anaesthetized my role will be to hand inject

08:41Carlos for his procedure capybara skin is quite tough so it's a bit hard to get the needle in I know he's

08:47going to do great but I've been building up so much for this hand injection and I want it to go

08:52smoothly so yeah just thinking about that a lot so quite nerve-wracking a lot of anxiety right now

08:57yeah he hasn't had a good deep breath for a minute back at Taronga Western Plains Zoo all right let me get

09:06you out of the way aged Sumatran tiger Satu has just been sedated last time he had a 16 tube but he's now

09:14struggling to breathe we're just tubing it it's not an uncommon occurrence in aged animals under

09:21anaesthetic and the vet team begins intubating him to assist his breathing just tell me when you're ready

09:27yep ready gee mate you got a visual not really I can see the epiglottis no we might have to change

09:38to sternal I think there's a lot of going on so we're just gonna have to sit him up on his tummy

09:43to get a better position for tubing on three one two three in sternal leg under

09:50yeah is that better Catherine yeah that's heaps better with any older animal there are increased

09:57risks with anaesthetic just because their organs are a bit more tired they may not be working as

10:02well he's doing very tiny shallow breaths it's right we'll just get him on the truck and yeah

10:07just we can breathe for him if we need to with his breathing now supported the vet team can move

10:15Satu to the wildlife hospital to be prepped for his dental exam good to go yeah oh god a crowd oh

10:25yeah okay one two three go you got it okay all right so we'll get him on hook him up yeah so

10:40we're on four percent we are on two percent or leaders it's nothing like hitting the ground

10:46running the treatment room is packed with veterinary staff and there's also a crowd gathered to watch not

10:54one but two Tigers making a visit to Dubbo's Wildlife Hospital yes everybody this is David and Tracy

11:02thank you thank you all right yeah left side yep okay so two or one's missing yep two or two has three millimetres all

11:12round and abrasion so we're very privileged to be welcoming veterinary dental specialist David to Dubbo

11:19he's actually come here all the way from Melbourne okay gingivitis of one calculus of one and David's one of a

11:24handful of veterinary dental specialists in Australia who has the skills and then and the knowledge and

11:29experience to do this type of procedure on a tiger so this is a tiger that I looked at in 2011 and also

11:36in 2019 and he fractured these canine teeth which are the big fang teeth and I did what's called root

11:43canal procedures on them and I'm back here today to take some x-rays so we'll have to leave in a minute

11:51okay I'm ready when you are clear while dental specialist David works his way through the

12:00necessary x-rays one done looks good x-ray again vet Elisa monitors a sample of Satu's blood to check

12:09how he's responding to the anesthetic so we've just done his first sort of blood tests and we've got his

12:14baseline potassium which is something we've got to monitor really carefully through his procedure so

12:19his baseline is for all which is perfectly normal and our intervention point is if it increases by

12:24one Satu's blood potassium levels are good which means there is little risk of damage to the tiger's

12:31heart but if the levels were to get too high it could cause a cardiac arrest Jane you got a blood

12:39pressure there yep got it everything needs to be considered 116 over 58 the team are constantly

12:46balancing the tiger's surgery with the clinical realities of sedating such an aged animal we are

12:54seeing some of the kidney values a little bit on the high side and we want to make sure that we're not

12:58making anything worse so we're watching his blood pressure really closely his heart may not function as

13:02well as a younger cat we may have some issues underlying with these kidneys and we certainly don't want to

13:06make those things worse while he's under anesthetic with Sato being older a low blood pressure event

13:12during anesthetic that can actually push them into kidney failure still to come he's a bit nervous

13:19Darcy's big surprise I think he definitely knows something is happening but just how will Carlos react

13:26feeling a little bit nervous about it all and one two three double trouble some tough decisions ahead

13:35he's not particularly stable for vet Alisa we're in the danger zone

13:39here's a quick echidna quiz how many termites do you think these spiny anteaters devour each day a few

13:54hundred a few thousand nope each echidna in the wild would eat about 10,000 termites a day

14:01that's more than a few so if you had to rustle up that many you might need to get a little creative think outside the box

14:12yep this box what we're doing here today it's a little unusual I'm here to find some termite mounds set some traps and hopefully be capturing some termites to bring back for the echidnas

14:24I've chosen this location so we believe it may be an active termite mound it is experimental no

14:33guarantees that we're going to be able to collect anything but we're willing to sort of do a bit

14:37of trial and error Laura has traveled to some local bushland to try out an interesting termite trap

14:44technique I've got a bucket here it's got some holes drilled in the bottom what I'm going to do

14:48is pop down next to the nest its scientific name is a termite bait station going to collect up some

14:56soil from nearby basically it's a bucket full of tasty termite treats a little bit of leaf litter as

15:04well here's some wood that I've collected from nearby it looks like it's already had some termite

15:09activity on it what I'm going to do is I'm going to pop it in the bucket here to try and encourage

15:13them to enter this one and start to eat this wood I mean it looks pretty enticing right I just want to

15:21get the bottom of it just below the surface level here so the holes are just in the soil a little bit

15:28of water it'll just create a moist environment and encourage them to move in and really what

15:34self-respecting termite wouldn't want to move in the last thing left to do is just pop the lid on it

15:43we'll leave it and we'll see if some termites have moved in hmm they termite or they termite

15:54not we'll have to wait and see back in Dubbo at the Taronga Wildlife Hospital so we just need to

16:05radiograph 404 and 104 not one but two aged Sumatran Tigers are each booked in for a thorough dental

16:14checkup and health assessment x-ray first up is 18 year old Satu and while the dental examination is

16:23quite routine it's the side effects from the general anaesthetic that's keeping the vet team on their toes

16:29we may have some issues with these kidneys and we certainly don't want to make those things worse

16:34while he's under anaesthetic low blood pressure can actually push them into kidney failure and it's

16:38not just low blood pressure that they have to monitor the drug combination he's had does tend

16:43to keep their blood pressure a little bit high so we want to make sure that that's all fine blood

16:48pressure is 102 over 58 mean of 73 so at the moment his blood pressure is really good titles stable

16:57everything's stable though if we're seeing trends that we need to intervene then we've got everything

17:02ready to do that the team are allowing a three-hour window to keep Satu anaesthetized while specialist

17:10David examines and addresses any issues with the tiger's teeth was this the one that's got the

17:17fracture but should there be any concerning signs that Satu's health is at risk that Alisa will stop

17:24the examination immediately and the tiger will be returned to its den to recover the throat packs out

17:32and his pharynx is clean did we take photos David yes yes great yeah I've got pictures of his teeth

17:38yeah that's not his head okay we don't have to do any treatment on this side we just need to take

17:42some radiographs okay okay x-ray x-ray again just step back a meter and that'd be good

17:49oh so his respiration's got up a tiny bit yeah oh that looks good excellent his mouth is perfectly

17:59fine so he's got wonderful oral health for an 18 year old tiger we are done oh look at you go yeah so

18:07the rest of the teeth are good yeah perfect that's what we want to hear David while the dental exam

18:13has concluded the vet team are still performing their own assessment of the aged tiger all right

18:20let's go so I'm just taking the opportunity while he's under anaesthetic to give him a full thorough

18:25examination so like you would take your cat to the vets once a year for a checkup we did find that he's

18:33got some arthritis in his joints and we've had a good look at his foot pads and we found that his

18:38toenails are a little bit long his claws look at that one do we need to that's got a trim that one

18:42that's going into his pool so we wouldn't normally cut a tiger's nails but we're just noticing because

18:49he's getting a little bit older he's not wearing them down as much like your pet cat does as well

18:54no one anticipated a tiger manicure today but the team came prepared for anything though nailing this

19:02part is a bit more time-consuming than expected so we've been monitoring very closely obviously well

19:08the whole time he's been under anaesthetic and we've just noticed a couple of little parameters are

19:12changing CO2 has gone up a bit his respiration rates just gone a little down he's not taking nice

19:22big deep breaths he is looking a bit paler than before how long are we out so it's been nearly

19:29two and a half I think we probably need to quit while we're ahead stretcher must be outside I'll grab

19:36it we've decided the best thing today is probably just to be grateful of all the information that we've

19:41got we've checked his teeth we've done all the important things we're not going to push it too

19:46much all right should we disconnect this we're going to get him back straightaway to his enclosure

19:50one two three we'll go off that way even though the checkup finished slightly earlier than planned

19:59this grand old tiger appears to be a picture of health all right I'm giving you three verses so yeah

20:07I'm gonna give him one and a half mils one and a half mil okay that can go out I'm just gonna pull

20:18that tube now for an 18 year old cat I think he's looking really good so that's one tiger down right

20:30folks if we can get the stretcher carriers please and one to go on three one two three next up is 13

20:40year old Sakty recently keepers have noticed that he's just having a little bit of trouble eating and

20:45chewing when he eats his food so the first thing we're going to do is open his mouth and just see

20:49what's going on you can see the tooth is broken off it should be as long as the lower one the other

20:55side's just as bad at Taronga's Wildlife Hospital in Sydney the vet team are preparing for a small

21:06excursion just make sure you've got surgical prep stuff today we're going to be anaesthetizing a

21:12capybara called Carlos and we're going to be doing a thorough health check on him that Adelaide and

21:17her team will be examining Carlos from tooth to tail Liz McConnell to a capybara keeper hey we're just

21:28about to leave the hospital we're about to do a capybara anaesthetic whereabouts would you like

21:32us to part exciting to do a capybara yeah yeah so capybara are unusual because they are a rodent I

21:45think a lot of people might forget that because of their size they're so so enormous I sort of

21:52think of them as almost like giant guinea pigs I'm actually allergic to guinea pigs and agoutis but not

21:58capybaris so ah well that's handy for the procedure today yeah you want to do I mean for yeah okay cool

22:13this will be the first time Darcy has hand injected Carlos okay hi guys so I've got the

22:21hand injection for you I've popped quite a big needle on here to get through the tough skin yes

22:25once he's down we're just kind of getting comfortable pop him on an oxygen mask and

22:31then we'll do his health check all right I'll give you that thank you feeling a little bit nervous about

22:39it all I've only done one hand injection before with his brother Pedro come on bud you can do it

22:46and come down he's a bit nervous I think he definitely knows something is happening I grab

22:52a couple of the sweet potatoes to ensure Carlos the capybara is kept calm try saying that fast three

22:59times Darcy enters the enclosure completely alone to administer the injection sorry love all Jacob and

23:08the rest of the team can do is wait go ahead I'm just coming out of the dentist I think I got it cool

23:19good job he's just received the injection which is really really great Darcy did an amazing job now

23:26we're just sort of waiting for that medication to take an effect the injection a bit of improvisation

23:34a new spot for Carlos but he did really well and it's not long before the sedative begins to take

23:41effect oh I got him he's falling over he's falling over yeah Naomi shift Adelaide head just letting you

23:51know Carlos is lying down now that's great it's now time to transport this giant sleeping rodent so

24:00his check-up can begin two three good job okay we'll bring him in now yep one three at Taronga Western

24:14Plains zoo 18 year old Sumatran tiger Satu is safely back in his den after a successful trip to the

24:23dentist there we go I think his eye positions changed a bit he blinked he blinked so he's starting to

24:30take care of the rails that means it's now time for tiger number two we are starting a tiger anesthetic

24:38how you going big man Sakji is 13 years old and recently keepers have noticed that he's just

24:45having a little bit of trouble eating and chewing when he eats his food a tiger's teeth aren't just for

24:51chewing they're also an important tool for socialization like playing which means they're used a lot they

24:59fight with one another or they just rough play with one another and then they bite you know big logs for

25:05example and just day-to-day trauma all signs indicate that this tiger is going to need some serious dental work or a good good

25:15boy just how serious won't be known until he's sedated and in the wildlife hospital this procedure is

25:25going to be longer than Sato and so we're going to have to be quite strict about anesthetic right folks

25:33if we can get the structure carriers please on three one two three timeline we'd really like to be out in

25:42three and a half hours that's for his safety it's not the dental surgery the vet team are most concerned

25:48about one two three but rather the length of time the big cat is under anesthetic we're ready we can

25:55start yep you go and the side effects that can cause I'm just organizing myself to get ready to a

26:02examination of his teeth the keepers thought that he might have some broken teeth so the first thing

26:08we're going to do is open his mouth and just see what's going on and then we'll work out a plan

26:12202 appears to be missing three is one all round with abrasion four one all round complicated crown

26:24fracture you can see the tooth is broken off it should be as long as the lower one I think it's

26:31probably lost a good 15 millimeters on the distal buckle the dental work and the anesthetic time

26:40are adding up the other side just as bad absolutely smashed and part of the crown is actually mobile

26:48in a small pocket of sydney bushland close to taronga horticulturist laura has returned to check

27:01a termite test trap she set a week ago it is a bit of a guessing game it is a little experimental we

27:08haven't done anything like this before laura is hoping to catch if not 10 000 then at least a few

27:17hundred termites to help feed taronga's echidna residents

27:21all right all right enough of the suspense already what do we got it doesn't look like we've got any

27:36termites in here yet oh so this is the first time I've tried setting a trap I've had no luck today

27:44it is experimental but I'm quite certain with a few more goes we'll be able to capture some

27:50well that was a nice try laura to might have better luck next time we've only had the trap set for about

27:58a week so it may take a little bit more time for them to move in and start eating the wood as the

28:05famous old saying goes if you can't catch termites in a park try a bit closer to home

28:12oh something like that so I'm just out here looking for some live termites for our echidnas

28:18enter keeper beck who joined laura on the termite trail back at taronga unfortunately our horticulture

28:25team didn't have any luck in the park maybe beck to might have better luck oh what a little too much

28:32okay I'll let it go I've just found this rotten log hoping there'd be some sort of live invertebrates

28:45in there here we go and I've just started ripping it up to see if there's anything in here yes the

28:53suspense there's other little bugs in there okay okay but are there any tasty little termites yes

29:02I've just found some termites finally termites in the house what a termite result sorry the

29:11echidnas are going to be very happy about this so they'll be very excited if they're half as excited

29:17as I am it's going to be fun times in the echidna habitat hello and stand back here they come

29:36they're really enjoying this soon as I brought this in they all rushed over to have this yummy meal of

29:45termites you can see Robbie here is getting right into that log so they're very very excited they're

29:54using their strong claws to rip open the log and then their beak to probe into the rotten areas they're

30:00very long tongue which is about 18 centimeters long to slurp up those termites and it's just amazing to

30:06watch them doing this natural behavior okay so just doing some quick maths two echidnas that means Laura and

30:15Bec only need to find 20,000 more termites tomorrow oh good luck with that back at Taronga's wildlife

30:25hospital in Dubbo the other side's just as bad Sumatran tiger sucked his teeth are much much worse than

30:35expected not a pleasant sight got lots going on lots fractured with a root retained yeah fractured with a pulp

30:49exposure gets worse this fourth premolar is totally fractured with a mobile as well with the pulp exposed

30:59those that would be really painful so there's a lot to do a lot to do the good news dental specialist

31:05David can help saktee the bad news it's probably about a six-hour procedure all up and we don't want

31:12to keep him under anesthetic for that long ideally we want to be out of here in three and a half we

31:16don't like to keep on tigers will be cats under anesthetic for more about three and a half hours just

31:21because it increased risk with their potassium levels with time against them the vet team need to

31:27prioritize the extractions are probably the best thing to do because they're the most painful and

31:32also they've got all infections the countdown is on three hours to remove saktee's three worst teeth

31:39we'll just watch his blood pressure if his blood pressure is good we might be able to get away with

31:42the first broken tooth right roots coming out is removed in less than an hour yay got it okay so

31:52we've finished taking out the top tooth yeah so that's a good start good job the lower one I'm hoping

31:58won't take as long you know we haven't had a challenge like this for a while the second broken

32:05tooth is proving a lot more difficult got about five minutes until the three and a half hour mark

32:11and we need to take this away some of the bone on the outside in order to take the tooth out come on

32:20you here baby

32:20wow good job the second tooth is out saktee has now been anesthetized for three and a half hours the

32:35time limit they originally set themselves but they're far from finished has he still got another bad one on

32:42the other side yes we haven't started that one yet is he responding at all with that in like anesthesia wise

32:48he's happy potassium's 4.8 so we're in the danger zone if the tiger's blood potassium levels reach

32:55five the vet team will have to intervene what sort of time do you think on that other tooth David an hour

33:03at Taronga's capybara habitat in Sydney our list is lying down now Carlos the capybara has just received

33:17an anesthetic injection okay we'll bring him in now gonna bring in a stretcher because he weighs over 50

33:24kilos good job six-year-old Carlos is getting on a bit so much like those two Tigers in Dubbo he's

33:34due for a veterinary checkup we're gonna bring him inside to the dens that way there's a little bit

33:39more privacy and it's a lot more quiet and calm so we can give him his health check there and then

33:43when he's recovering from the anesthetic he'll be able to sort of have a nice quiet area that he can

33:48wake up in and be nice and calm the capybara's health check should be quite quick but we might

33:54pop a towel his temperature is 354 I'm just having a really good feel of all of his joints and of his

34:06feet as well just make sure all his digits are moving really well we may start to encounter some

34:13age-related health issues but everything feels really good all his joints feel good leaving all

34:20his little toes so far so good but the biggest issue for the largest rodent in the world is you guessed it

34:29those pearly whites I'm gonna have a look in his mouth and check all his teeth that's perfect yeah

34:35let's face it it's hard to miss those front chumpers which for all rodents never stop growing but the

34:44back teeth are a different story just gonna have a look on this other side compared to a tiger's

34:50massive jaw Carlos's is a bit more crowded they do store a bit of food in their mouths makes it a bit

34:59trickier to properly properly see the teeth and so now that I've scraped that food out I can get a

35:07really good look and just make sure there's no hooks or spurs that might be causing him discomfort

35:12that looks good perfect his teeth look really good but no capybara dental exam is complete without

35:26checking on those hard-to-miss giant razor-sharp four front teeth beautiful that's what we want to

35:35see yeah his front teeth are meeting perfectly definitely don't look like there's any problems

35:40we need to address I think we're done great okay reversal's been given yep thank you time to wake up

35:51Carlos who lived um he's you know getting older so it's just nice to know that everything is going

35:58well for him good boy and in no time at all Carlos the capybara is up and about as if nothing ever

36:06happened he's bounced back really quickly more importantly our relationship hasn't changed after

36:13the hand injection I still have really great rapport with him he's still coming over for his

36:18training sessions really enthusiastically she's been really nice so really nice that the hand

36:23injection didn't impact that at all what was his potassium well it's trending up sound 5.2

36:32meanwhile at the Wildlife Hospital in Dubbo we're in the danger zone Sumatran Tiger Sarktis dental

36:39surgery is running longer than the team hoped and has become quite complicated the general anesthetic

36:47has caused his blood potassium levels to rise dangerously high can you just keep your eyeballs

36:53on the ECG trace yes zero eyes potassium is blown up vet Elisa administers a medicated inhaler all right

37:02so he's had his puffs that can help bring his potassium down although Sarktis time under anesthetic is now

37:09up dental specialist David must finish this last tooth to avoid complications such as ongoing pain or

37:17infection setting in we'll just do a temporary treatment on this tooth okay so I've taken the

37:24piece of fractured tooth off can taken the nerve out of the tooth so it's now not going to be a

37:30sore and that should be fine for a few weeks to a month so David you're done we're done all right let's

37:37go the Tigers procedure is over at least for today we'll come back in a couple of months once Sarktis

37:47recovered from this anesthetic and we'll do another procedure where we do root canals on three if he's

37:51canine teeth one two three but as Sarktis is being moved he shows signs that his anesthetic is wearing

38:04off transporting an animal that's been under anesthetic for that long it is always a bit of a

38:08challenge it's a very fine line managing the anesthetic of these dangerous animals concentrate on getting drugs if we

38:16need it the team need to keep him sedated until he is back in his habitat just giving him 10 mils of

38:22propofol so I've just had to give him some top-up drugs because he was getting a bit too light for our

38:27comfort levels but the top-up sedation comes with its own risks he's now not breathing quite often

38:37when animals are under anesthetic they stop breathing on their own it's quite common in

38:42because especially if they've been under anesthetic for a long time while vet Rebecca monitors his vitals

38:48vet nurse Jody uses a reservoir bag to pass oxygen into Sarktis lungs some reason we haven't

38:56not getting a pulse rate why are we not getting a pulse rate you can hear a pulse bet I can't hear

39:07it you can't hear it vet Catherine checks for a pulse it doesn't feel good huh adrenaline yep

39:19do I live adrenaline is used to stimulate and restart the tiger's heart so that adrenaline's in do you want

39:29me to jump up yeah you jump up Catherine I've got a heartbeat it's a heartbeat yeah you got it now

39:38that feels heaps better now yeah much stronger 24 but we've got no spontaneous breaths no Sarktis needs to

39:54be breathing on his own before the team can return him to his den and safely remove his tube he's not

40:02breathing so that's not gonna work next it's one step forward it looks like he might be stabilizing

40:11and two steps back for Sarktis pulse quality is not good can you listen to the heart while I do this

40:17yep we've got no spontaneous breaths at Taronga Western Plains Zoo Sarktis the Sumatran tiger is in

40:27crisis he's not breathing so that's not going to work his heart stopped beating while under sedation

40:33I can't hear it it's now been restarted but the tiger still can't breathe on his own quite often

40:43the anesthetic depresses their respiratory system and we'll often have to ventilate for them I'll just

40:48keep him on three percent so it's going 70 70 yep so that's not too bad and so we were making sure that

40:54we were giving him enough oxygen through his system just keep bagging keep bagging heart rate's now

41:00increasing it's going back to 73 82 it's getting faster 90 heart rate's 100 suddenly the tiger's heart

41:11starts beating erratically 122 here so getting tachycardia heart rate's got an arrhythmia pulse

41:18quality is not good no it's gone into like a beta the fast irregular heart rate is a sign the tiger could

41:26go into cardiac arrest again just keep ventilating I think I'm stirring up another adrenaline his pulse is

41:34very erratic can you get some calcium gluconate yes 60 mil can you listen to the heart while I do this

41:41yeah any reflexes up there sucked his life is on a knife's edge he was central before not like this

41:52it's different rhythm's better it's a normal rhythm heart rate's hundred pulse feels better the

42:07combination of drugs will help stabilize his heart we've got spontaneous breathing he's spontaneous

42:14breathing it looks like he might be stabilizing so that's a nice regular rhythm his heart rate's

42:22nice and steady now it's a really good rhythm yeah color's better than it was it's not as good as it

42:27was but it's better than it was the best thing we can do for him is get him in there and get him off

42:31all the drugs yeah we have to wake him up guys we've we're gonna move him we've stabilized him more than

42:39he was he's not particularly stable anything can happen the sooner they give Sakti the anesthesia

42:46reversal drug Catherine's got the reversal the better his chances of a full recovery close to the door

42:53we'll just give him a half dose ready for a vessel yep it's now a waiting game to see if Sakti wakes up

43:09come on dude come on buddy he certainly did give us a little bit of a fright on the way back today

43:17especially after we'd invested so many hours into trying to give him a good bill of health and look

43:22after those teeth he stopped breathing and for a minute there we lost his heart and it looked a

43:28little bit dire for a while there we were all quite nervous but when he took the breath on his own and

43:33started to wake up it was a huge relief for us all so we're incredibly relieved that he's come

43:43through this well thankfully now he's stable he's recovering and I'm sure we'll have a good night's

43:52sleep tonight and the next morning just as the doctor ordered Sakti is looking like his old self again

44:05though I don't think he or Sato will be racing back to the dentist anytime soon

44:12you

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