Vet Pals

Anita,who still has her “wild instincts and free spirit” intact according to the doctors,has been confined to the zoo hospital for the past one month. She’s suffering from painful fissures on her hind-side. However,despite the evident pain she is in,Anita continues to remain aggressive and unwilling to be controlled by humans,says Tripathi.

For Pawar,who joined the zoo last October,treating Anita is the first choice. “We have a very stringent schedule for Anita. When an animal is ill,we don’t like to stress her out too much. Early mornings,we study the observations made by her keepers on her previous night’s activities. Based on that we will make a note of her food intake,the nature,timings of her daily ablations and recovery status.” Then follows the routine works— administering two and half litre of saline into her,feeding her antibiotic and mulch-vitamins and dressing up her wounds.

“Finally now,her wounds that caused due to fissures are showing slight signs of healing,but the process is very slow. The lioness is old and her immune system is slow,” says Tripathi adding that the average life span of a captive lion don’t exceed 20 years. According to her,the life of a wild lioness is even shorter— around 15-16 years. “That’s why Anita is so special. She has outlived her life expectancy and yet she’s so feisty,” he says.

According to Tripathi,Anita is not a hybrid but the only “true Asiatic lioness from Gir” in the zoo. “Even the male lion Amar,who died a few years ago,was a hybrid. Anita is a purebred lioness.”

Tripathi marvels at how Anita identifies the doctors’ voice and reacts to it. “We attend to her daily. When we call her name,she will growl back an acknowledgment. It’s interesting how she never betray any affection to us. Of course,we keep a safe distance from her. A wild cat could become aggressive unexpectedly,” he says,showing a healed wound in his wrist caused by Amar during his last days.

Pawar says a blood profiling test done recently to check if her kidney,liver and blood were in good condition showed positive results and proved the lioness was fit.

“Except an infection and fissures,which later developed pus and bleeds regularly,the lioness seems to be fine. However,her food intake has now reduced substantially. We keep her mostly on soups and water diet,” Pawar adds.

The doctors say that they do not expect the lioness’ health to improve drastically and are hopeful that her injuries heal and she is relieved from the pain soon.