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<< Back All in all we were very fortunate that neither animal was seriously hurt or maimed in anyway. However, Gypsy did incur about 6 minor skin punctures and small cuts. As the old saying goes, "An ounce of prevention, is worth a pound of cure" and we decided to have one of the Sanctuary?s veterinarians (Dr. Tim Tristan) take a look at her. We have seen all to often a small minor cut and wound become a major health issue fast! Due to this fact we chose to take the safe path and have her looked at. The following morning Dr. Tristan came out to the Sanctuary and we all prepared for the examination. We transferred Gypsy into her indoor lockdown and David and myself walked in to administer the 12.0 mls of Xylazine required to anesthetize her. In addition to the Xylazine, we also administered 10 mls of Atropine intramuscularly to insure that Gypsy's heart rate would be beating within safe parameters. Roughly 7 minutes after the injections, Gypsy was out and the examination was started. After examining both sides of her we discovered six small wounds. Three of which required one stitch each. Gypsy incurred a small insignificant puncture to her neck. We basically just cleaned and disinfected it and moved on to her other areas. From her neck we moved onto two other small abrasions. One on her left forearm and another on her right hind leg. Again, these two abrasions only required cleaning. From there we discovered a 1/2 inch long skin tear on her left lateral thorax. After shaving the margins of this wound and scrubbing it with a sterile disinfectant, Dr. Tristan placed one suture to close the wound. The examination then led us to another small tear to Gypsy's right front paw. This area was prepared as the others, and stitched with a single suture. The last wound was located on her back left hind limb near her achilles tendon. This also required a single suture to close. Now that all of Gypsy's injuries were shaved, scrubbed, disinfected and sutured, we decided to take advantage of Gypsy being sedated. Rolling her on her left side, we shaved her inner thigh so we could collect a blood sample. The Sanctuary periodically collects blood samples for routine lab work on all of the animals. Having "Normal" blood values to establish healthy reference ranges is invaluable for future treatments if ever necessary. Once the examination was completed and all of Gypsy's wounds were treated, it was time to revive her! While still on her side, an injection of 6.0 mls of Yohimbine was given intravenously to reverse the effects of the sedative given 20 minutes earlier. What an amazing thing to watch! Within 6 minutes Gypsy was up and walking around like nothing happened. Greeting everybody with lots of "Chuffing" (tiger greeting vocalizations). For the next week, Dr. Tristan instructed us to administer 2400 mgs of Amoxicillin (a antibiotic) to Gypsy orally in her food. An additional part of her recovery was daily "Hydrotherapy" treatments. What this basically means is that the keepers run the hose on her healing wounds and allow Gypsy to swim as much as she likes. Gypsy is now 100% recovered.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Story by: Jason and David
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