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Zoo e-News Anaesthetising hippopotamus: A veterinary challenge
December 2011
Until relatively recently it has been virtually impossible to anaesthetise the common hippopotamus
Contents / home (Hippopotamus amphibius), especially in the wild in their aquatic environment.
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Hippos are very sensitive to the conventional drug combinations used routinely on other ungulates. The drugs
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are in their aquatic environment.
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Butorphanol (Torbugesic) was first Guss, the National Zoo's hippo bull, Veterinary dentist Dr Gerhard
Spring arrivals at Mokopane used at the National Zoo for a is confined to the night room of his Steenkamp cuts Guss's overgrown
Pygmy hippopotamus destined for enclosure for a dental procedure. A lower right canine with an angle
Two close for comfort
San Diego Zoo in the USA. tranquilising dart has been placed in grinder, while the mouth is held open
his neck. with a steel frame. Blindfolds are
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essential to reduce visual stimulation
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during the procedure.
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Hippos were well left alone by wildlife veterinarians until new drug combinations recently became available which
Anaesthetising hippopotamus are much safer to use on these animals. Butorphanol (Torbugesic) is a synthetic morphine derivative with potent
Boo @ da Zoo sedative and analgesic effects. In the late 1990s in the USA, reports began to emerge in scientific literature of
the drug being used successfully on zoo animals and in particular for the sedation of hippopotamus.
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In South Africa the drug Torbugesic was not registered by the Medical Control Council (MCC), but under special
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licence from the MCC the drug could be obtained and used on specified patients only. At the University of
Pretoria's Faculty of Veterinary Science, the drug was used by equine specialists to sedate horses and keep
them in the standing position for minor procedures.
In 2000, the National Zoo obtained a licence for one bottle of Torbugesic for the examination of a hippo that had
developed an acute large swelling over the left hip. The plan was to sedate her sufficiently to allow examination
of the swelling using ultra sound and to insert a needle into the swelling to examine its contents under a
microscope. But first we had to obtain Torbugesic. To do this required completing application forms for the MCC,
submitting these and waiting for approval. When we eventually obtained the Torbugesic the swelling had
significantly reduced in size, so we decided the procedure was no longer warranted and the hippo recovered
uneventfully.
A new drug combination is used on a Pygmy Hippo
In 2004, we had an opportunity to use Torbugesic on a Pygmy Hippopotamus (Hexaprotodon liberiensis), but this
time the challenge was to obtain a blood sample safely from the animal for pre-export testing for diseases as
required by the import permit to San Diego Zoo in the USA. Dr Leon Venter prepared a dart with 20 mg
Torbugesic and 7 mg Domosedan and shot the dart into the right shoulder of the hippo, which was confined in
the night room. We all held our breath.
The animal was calm and eventually lay down, but we were still not able to handle the animal safely. Additional
doses of the drugs were administered, which resulted in excellent sedation at 50 minutes after the first dart. This
enabled us to get a blood sample from the vein on the inside of the back leg. Antidote drugs were given and the
animal was up and about 10 minutes later. We were delighted with the success of the procedure and impressed
with the good effects of the drug combination on the animal. But we needed to gain more experience with
Butorphanol on hippos and other animals.
http://www.nzg.ac.za/newsletter/issues/18/14.php 2012/02/05
NZG | e-News: Anaesthetising hippopotamus: A veterinary challenge Page 2 of 2
Dr Dave Cooper, wildlife veterinarian in KwaZulu-Natal Parks and Dr Markus Hofmeyr, wildlife veterinarian of
SANParks, have had extensive experience with hippos in the wild and have worked out fairly safe drug
combinations and doses for these animals.
In the zoo environment we are fortunate that we can manipulate the hippos in their enclosure to some extent.
The hippos can be coaxed out of the dam and confined to a night room for examinations and procedures, while
wild hippos will remain in the water, making it much more difficult to dart them. Once the hippo is in the night
room it facilitates the sedating process and additional doses of tranquiliser can easily be administered depending
on the response of the animal.
Dental procedure with a difference
Our hippo bull Guss is aging and literally "long in the tooth" -- he is 45 years old and has excessively long teeth.
His lower canines do not wear properly on the upper canines and as a result they have grown too long and have
started to protrude through the upper lip, especially on the right side of his face. It was necessary to cut these
teeth shorter.
In February 2010 we asked Dr Markus Hofmeyr -- based on his experience with hippos -- to assist us, which he
willingly did. The NZG's Dr Adrian Tordiffe administered a drug combination containing butorphanol to Guss and
after about an hour the animal was sufficiently sedated for Dr Gerhard Steenkamp, veterinary dentist to work on
his teeth.
An angle grinder had to be used to cut through the thick lower canine, but the vibrations of the angle grinder was
enough stimulation for Guss to suddenly wake up. He stood up briefly during the procedure and people scattered
in all directions. Fortunately there was no incident and he immediately went back to sleep. Additional drugs were
administered to complete the procedure and he recovered well a few hours later when he was back in the pool
with the rest of the group.
More recently we had to repeat the procedure on Guss because the canines grow quite fast and the lower right
canine was pushing chewed grass material through the hole in his upper lip while he was eating.
Modern drugs have now found an important niche in veterinary medicine, promoting the welfare and care of our
wild animals.
Dr Ian Espie, Chief Veterinarian, NZG
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