Zoo Doctoring.

Horowhenua Chronicle, 30 January 1911, Page 4

Zoo Doctoring.

"Do we ever have to doctor up our animals?" repeated the keeper of a famous' zoological gardens in response to a query. "Why. we are always doctoring them. There is hardly one of our guests," he continue:!, indicating the animals by a general wave of the hand, "who do not require medicine and even .surgical attendance at times.

"The lion and boar cubs, perhaps, are the most troublesome. Ymi can never 'be sure whether they're to live till they are at least two and a half years old. Teething plays havoc with them all. The little boar cubs had swollen jaws like children with the mumps. T treated their jaws with washes and solutions, and the inflammation was brought to a head, and the gum healed. Mow Uiey are all right. "Then there are the camels. They are almost sure to develop kidney trouble when they cat: h cold. They are used to a hot, dry climate. Declare tender, but the monkey i.s really the hardest to keep in sound health. Fever attacks almost all animals attunes. It isn't safe io tamper with the wild ones then. They show it in their eyes and in biting at themselves. "The elephants are least liable to illness. Of course they get oft' their feed, like human beings who lose their appetites. Then we give them carrots, of which they are very fond, and apples, or else we <10 and cut some iresh grass for them.

"Xo ; we don't lot the visitors fi ed the animals if wo know it. AVo used to liavc any amount of trouble with the monkeys. Monkeys frequently die as a. result of being led. by generous visitors. The autopsies would show shoe buttons, a thimble .a piece of metal, or glass in. the stomach.

■''There is an operation which we have to do sometimes, 111 ollirh not of tenor than we can help: that is paring the lioness' claws. This is done because the claws grow into the animal's pads. A dozen keepers witli ropes and iron hooks and a powerful pair of shears are needed for this operation. "When the feet are examined it is often found that the huge claws .have thrown into the pads, and ' sometimes they are so deeply embedded that it, is hard to tell where they are growing out of tho flesh and where they arc growing into it.

<! The operation consists in cutting the nails and pulling the embedded stumps out of the flesh. Tt i.s no easy task, for as claw after claw is cut tho lioness becomes more and more frantic, until finally s,!:c closes her jaws on the iron chains used to .hold her down and bites them until the bars bend. An antiseptic so'ution is applierl to the paws when the oepration is finished.

"The I'eet ol' elo.hants in captivity also 'have to be looked after,' lie continued. "They have to he examined constantly, and once or twice a year specific treatment is required to keep them in order. Tn its general shape the bottom of an elephant's foot is somewhat like a blunte-d oval. The solo is a flat pad, or cushion, tough,'but elastic, being of a gristly, or cartilaginous, character. The toenails of the elpehant get long and have to be treated. "The picture set with which an elephant's feet are. put in order consists of a carpenter's drawknife, a rasp, an da sheet of sandpaper, the last being used for polishing tho animal's nails if that is considered desirable. The elephant's bent leg is rested 011 a box, suitable in (height and in such a manner as to ibring tihe sole of tlie foot into a position where it can be conveniently got at, and then the operation is..started at the pad withi the penknife, shaving it down to the desired thickness.

"The upturned bottom of the foot appears to be about as bio - as tb;> lop of a lint box. The nails are duly rut and trimmed, and whatever other attention the loot may require is {riven. "Some elephants are more tender in the feet than others, just as some men, and; some elephants are touchy about their feet, and dnn'fc like to iliavethem handled at all. Others submit to this manicuring without making any difficulty about it."