My plan for today was to drive 1.5 hours down to the beach here. I just want to check it out, and I miss the beach! I packed up my swimsuit, rash guard, towel, sunscreen, snacks, water, and a book. Before heading to the beach I was going to stop by the park and see Keeno before he underwent a procedure. (making sure he doesn't have kidney stones) He's old, so there's always a possibility he wouldn't come out of the anesthesia, so I wanted to see him at least once more. Well, my short visit turned into half a day!
I went into the park before 9 so I'd have enough time to see Keeno before they started. Nobody was at the lion hut yet, or in the office, so I waited a little bit and finally saw Sarah & Valerie (Carnivore keepers). Sarah said I could ride with them to go pick up the truck that we needed to transport Keeno in. So we drove up to Brown Bear hut (the others were cleaning it) to get it. On the way there was one Bison standing right in the middle of the road! It did that thing where it wasn't sure which way to go around us, so we both tried right, then left, then it finally decided on right and went. lol. :) After we switched vehicles, and on the drive down to Lion hut, I saw the Hippo! He's hard to catch glimpses of in the water, but I saw him! He was upside-down with his feet and stomach above the water surface. hahaha!
Once at Lion hut, we let the young couple out (Tau & Sarabi). We also moved Natasha out into her own pen, but left Keeno in his room. The others cleaned up the room that Keeno would be recovering in, and a room beside that for Natasha to be close to him. The vet van arrived at that point. There were about 5 vet interns from the nearby college to help.
All of us waited outside the hut area while the main vet and Sarah went in to dart Keeno. We could hear him roar a lot when he got darted. It was sad. About 20 minutes later he still wasn't totally out, so they did another dart. Keeno really only roared the one time after the first dart. (Tau & Sarabi heard this and were pacing back and forth, wondering what was going on)
Keeno came through his procedure well, and will be fine. It was quite an experience to observe him being cared for and treated. I won't say more here, "patient confidentiality" and all that.....
Angela & Matt had spread a bunch of hay in the hut for Keeno to lay comfortably on when he was returned to his area. The vet administered the wake up drugs, then he and Sarah moved quickly out of the room and locked it up. We all stood watching through the fence. He took 5 or 10 minutes, but then we saw his eye open slowly and look around. Then he started licking his lips over and over. After a few minutes he started gagging or coughing, which they said was normal cuz he'd had a breathing tube in. He wasn't fully awake, but was trying to stand up and in doing so his tail was spinning round and round, spreading the hay everywhere. He gave up on that endeavor and just laid there and licked his lips and coughed a little more. He was still lying down when I left, but more aware. I told him I would see him tomorrow.
So much for the day off I had planned for myself! Since the beach is a 3 to 4 hour round trip away, it will have to be another day. I was glad to give up my beach time for the amazing experience of being there with Keeno for his procedure. And he will recover well! :)
bye for now..
No comments:
Post a Comment