California Zoo Veterinarians Save Gorillas Using Medical Techniques – New York Times International Weekly – International

While the patient lay unconscious on a table, a cardiologist made an incision in his chest. They removed a small implanted heart monitor with low battery and inserted a new one.

The patient was diagnosed with heart disease; The monitor will provide continuous data on heart rate and rhythm, alerting their doctors to irregularities. Four stitches were required to close the incision. In a few hours, the patient, a gorilla named Winston, will be reunited with his family at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park in California.

“Winston, 51, is a very old male gorilla,” said Matt Kinney, senior veterinarian with the San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance, who led the medical staff during the procedure. With better health care, new technologies and better nutrition, he said, “we’re seeing animals live longer and stay healthier longer.”

With “human-managed care”, gorillas can now live two decades longer than the 30 to 40 years typically found in the wild. However, like their human relatives, aging also leads to chronic diseases. Gorillas suffer from heart disease, which is the leading cause of death for them and us. So now the questions for caregivers are the same as for doctors and older human patients: How much treatment is too much?

To keep the gorillas healthy, zoo veterinarians turn not only to technologies and medications developed for humans, but also consult medical specialists such as cardiologists, radiologists, gynecologists, and dentists.

Winston takes four heart-related medications that people also take, although in different doses. (Weight 205 kg). The heart monitor they found has also been implanted in humans. He received his annual flu shot this fall and is receiving physical therapy for arthritis.

Many of Winston’s longtime caregivers have retired. But Winston is still on the job and leading his pack of five gorillas while keeping the peace.

“He is a gentle silverback and an incredibly patient father,” said Jim Hagwood, curator of the San Diego Zoo Safari Park. “He will still allow his youngest daughter to take food out of her mouth.”

The zoo has twice herded females with babies, which could lead to infanticide in the wild. “They raised those males like they were their own children,” Hagwood said.

Winston, a western lowland gorilla native to central Africa, came to the San Diego Zoo in 1984. Kinney, who performed Winston’s first echocardiogram, said he was in good health until 2017, when his keepers noticed a “general meltdown.” The tests showed only some subtle changes, nothing worrisome, he said.

Then, in 2021, the whole herd was hit by the coronavirus. “Winston was the one most affected,” Kinney said. After receiving monoclonal antibodies, Winston recovered.

While Winston was being treated, veterinarians and doctors found health problems. His heart began to pump less efficiently; Due to which his daily regimen of medicines was hidden in his food and implanted monitors. He also takes ibuprofen and acetaminophen for arthritis. Of greater concern was a CT scan and biopsy that revealed a cancerous tumor was damaging Winston’s right kidney.

After considering Winston’s life expectancy and determining that the tumor was not growing, “we felt comfortable continuing to monitor him,” Kinney said.

“We want to make sure that Winston is living a good life, so that he feels satisfied,” he said. “We have a good understanding of what makes Winston, Winston.”

Paula Spann. the new York Times