Rhino fitted with first-of-its-kind leg cast

Shannon the rhino with her leg in a cast.

Shannon the rhino with her leg in a cast.

Published Feb 13, 2016

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Johannesburg - From the air Dr Johan Marais could clearly see Shannon the rhino was in a bad way. It was how her leg was bent - the poacher’s bullet had shattered it. It was one of the worst injuries the wildlife vet had seen.

“I knew we had a major problem,” says Marais, of Saving the Survivors, which was formed by three of the world’s top rhino and wildlife surgeons to help victims of poaching attacks. Marais is also an equine and wildlife surgeon at the University of Pretoria.

On Tuesday, poachers roaming the Pilanesberg National Park had shot the adult cow, but somehow she and her calf managed to escape. The park’s veterinarian, Dr Gerhardus Scheepers, contacted Marais for help soon afterwards.

“After we immobilised her, we could clearly see there was a major fracture. It was completely unstable and what makes it worse is that it was an open fracture that was infected,” says Marais.

Looking at the extent of the animal’s injury, the team all but gave up on her. “We wondered whether we should put her down or try something new. The decision was to at least try - even with a bad prognosis.”

They cleaned her wound, injected her with antibiotics - and in the bush - fitted her with the first-of-its-kind reinforced cast for a rhino. Then, they reinforced four aluminium rods to the cast to make it strong enough to hold up the one-ton animal.

Marais had put casts on rhinos before over the lower limb, with good results. “This is the first time we did it on the centre front limb right from the bottom to top of the limb. I don’t think it’s ever been done anywhere else.”

The Saving the Survivors team, whose motto is creating hope from hurt, have been referred to as the “pathfinders” for medical research on rhino, a species for which there is little or no research available anywhere, because of their innovative life-saving solutions.

Last year, they famously fitted a fibreglass shield, and then elephant skin, on a rhino called Hope, after poachers gouged out her face.

“After we fitted the cast on to Shannon, we wondered whether we should move her to a boma or leave her in the bush? Both have pros and cons.

“If we leave her in the field, she may walk around too much, which we don’t want, and apparently there are lions in the area. She won’t be able to run away like a normal rhino.

“For now, the rhino is mobile.” Marais watched the latest video clip of her yesterday, showing her walking to a dam.

“It’s good she’s mobile but water and mud is going into her cast. She still uses her head to help her walk; that’s not a good sign. “If there’s a chance it will work, it will probably be better to move her and her baby to a boma.”

He is guarded about the future of the rhino, named this week after US actress Shannon Elizabeth, who was moved by the poaching crisis on a visit to the Pilanesberg last year. “If she was a human being, she would be in ICU. She’s still very critical and we’re not out of the woods, not by a long way yet.”

Saturday Star

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