Catch a Tiger by the Toes
Yesterday I got peed on by a lion, bit a dozen times by house cats, dodged a madly playful bobcat, grabbed a wolf by the back leg, and got to give a tiger a full-body hug.
Sunday I went to Valley of the Kings to work on the "tinies" (the house-cats that live in the barn). The plan was to vaccinate them against Feline Immunodeficienty Virus. I brought my welding gloves, welding gauntlets, and a great technician to help. The gauntlets protect against biting and slashing, unless the cat finds an open seam (which one did on my index finger), but they do not protect against the actual force of the bite. Four hours and several crushed fingers later, we had the ones we could hope to catch done. People have NO IDEA how strong their cute little fuzzball sitting on their lap actually is.
Then I got to pet and play with a new arrival, "Woogie" the bobcat. Very rambunctious since he is about a year old, and HUGE, like #40 or so. I narrowly missed some severe bites by watching for "the look" in his eyes that he was about to playfully latch onto my arm. Woogie purrs constantly.
Next was getting a blood sample from a wolf hybrid, "Bullet." He has basically a dog's personality, but you can never tell with hybrids what "mind" you will be dealing with every 10 seconds or so, a wolf or a dog... but everyone came out in one piece.
Last, but certainly not least, I got to anesthetize "Alti," an enormous Siberian tiger. This #700 tub of a cat knew almost right away that something was "up." I suspect he saw or smelled the tackle box that holds the anesthetics or he glimpsed the pole syringe.
Nothing quite prepares you for such a huge and dangerous animal intently staring and roaring at you. He was pissed. With some distraction and patience, I got enough medication in his butt to calm him down, and then two more injections got him to dreamland.
Alti is an old tiger, probably pushing 20. While his back nails are nice and sharp and short, he stopped sharpening his front claws a long time ago. With no wear, the claws grow into a semi-circle, and Alti had been limping for a while, presumably he had claws growing in his pads.
Sure enough, he had 4 pads that had ingrown nails and accompanying shallow infections.
From previous trial and error trimming big cat nails, the best and quickest solution is a Dremel tool with a diamond cutting wheel on it. It takes a steady hand, a strong back, and ignoring the risk of cutting off your own finger, but the Dremel goes much faster than anything I have tried (including pet nail trimmers, fine-tooth craft saws, cable cutters, and grinding stones).
A well-cared for tiger nail is about as long as half your pinky, and only curves about a quarter-circle. Don't forget the needle-sharp tip.
Poor Alti had two nails that were longer than my index finger, in a half-circle, with the last inch growing into his pad. Fortunately, tigers and lions are able to heal shallow wounds faster than any creature I know, and I expect Alti to be completely healed within the week. The quarter-CUP of penicillin we shot in his butt should help, too.
The plan is to see how Alti fares this winter, and to knock him out (one last time) next Spring and actually declaw him. The discomfort of the front-declaw will be much more humane than the terrorizing prospect of knocking him out every 6 months as well as the risk of anesthetizing an ancient tiger that frequently. It is certainly a difficult ethical challenge, but the final analysis is that the front declaw will give Alti the best chance to be pain-free and the longest life.
The adrenaline surge of working with such danger comes at a cost. We had to shift him in his cage, and myself and one other person were able to shove this 8 foot pile of muscle and fat a foot. I understand the "parent lifts car off toddler" stories... but today as I write this, almost every muscle in my body is aching from the unnatural and feral burst of lifting.
Sunday I went to Valley of the Kings to work on the "tinies" (the house-cats that live in the barn). The plan was to vaccinate them against Feline Immunodeficienty Virus. I brought my welding gloves, welding gauntlets, and a great technician to help. The gauntlets protect against biting and slashing, unless the cat finds an open seam (which one did on my index finger), but they do not protect against the actual force of the bite. Four hours and several crushed fingers later, we had the ones we could hope to catch done. People have NO IDEA how strong their cute little fuzzball sitting on their lap actually is.
Then I got to pet and play with a new arrival, "Woogie" the bobcat. Very rambunctious since he is about a year old, and HUGE, like #40 or so. I narrowly missed some severe bites by watching for "the look" in his eyes that he was about to playfully latch onto my arm. Woogie purrs constantly.
Next was getting a blood sample from a wolf hybrid, "Bullet." He has basically a dog's personality, but you can never tell with hybrids what "mind" you will be dealing with every 10 seconds or so, a wolf or a dog... but everyone came out in one piece.
Last, but certainly not least, I got to anesthetize "Alti," an enormous Siberian tiger. This #700 tub of a cat knew almost right away that something was "up." I suspect he saw or smelled the tackle box that holds the anesthetics or he glimpsed the pole syringe.
Nothing quite prepares you for such a huge and dangerous animal intently staring and roaring at you. He was pissed. With some distraction and patience, I got enough medication in his butt to calm him down, and then two more injections got him to dreamland.
Alti is an old tiger, probably pushing 20. While his back nails are nice and sharp and short, he stopped sharpening his front claws a long time ago. With no wear, the claws grow into a semi-circle, and Alti had been limping for a while, presumably he had claws growing in his pads.
Sure enough, he had 4 pads that had ingrown nails and accompanying shallow infections.
From previous trial and error trimming big cat nails, the best and quickest solution is a Dremel tool with a diamond cutting wheel on it. It takes a steady hand, a strong back, and ignoring the risk of cutting off your own finger, but the Dremel goes much faster than anything I have tried (including pet nail trimmers, fine-tooth craft saws, cable cutters, and grinding stones).
A well-cared for tiger nail is about as long as half your pinky, and only curves about a quarter-circle. Don't forget the needle-sharp tip.
Poor Alti had two nails that were longer than my index finger, in a half-circle, with the last inch growing into his pad. Fortunately, tigers and lions are able to heal shallow wounds faster than any creature I know, and I expect Alti to be completely healed within the week. The quarter-CUP of penicillin we shot in his butt should help, too.
The plan is to see how Alti fares this winter, and to knock him out (one last time) next Spring and actually declaw him. The discomfort of the front-declaw will be much more humane than the terrorizing prospect of knocking him out every 6 months as well as the risk of anesthetizing an ancient tiger that frequently. It is certainly a difficult ethical challenge, but the final analysis is that the front declaw will give Alti the best chance to be pain-free and the longest life.
The adrenaline surge of working with such danger comes at a cost. We had to shift him in his cage, and myself and one other person were able to shove this 8 foot pile of muscle and fat a foot. I understand the "parent lifts car off toddler" stories... but today as I write this, almost every muscle in my body is aching from the unnatural and feral burst of lifting.
posted by Unknown at 3:30 PM
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