That’s the thing with health care. You know it has to be, but you also fear that a routine check could reveal a serious illness. It was a bit like that with Julie, the lioness from Yorkshire Wildlife Park this week. The team at the park in southern England had concerns that something was wrong with the 15-year-old big cat. Because she wasn’t hungry as a lion lately. What was the reason for the loss of appetite? The nurses guessed stomach problems.
In order to be able to examine the lioness, she was put under anesthesia. And since the doctors and nurses knew that Julie would be knocked out for about an hour, she got the full program – an “MOT”, as the BBC calls it in the best health English, for which the lion examination was worth a photo story.
“MOT” stands for “Measurements, Observations and Tests” and means that the patient is checked through completely – or in this case the patient.
One was keen to find out why Julie wasn’t eating as much anymore, said Kim Wilkins, one of the BBC’s wildlife park directors. So the lioness got an ultrasound scan of the gastrointestinal tract, blood tests were used to check the liver and kidneys, and the veterinarians also took a closer look at the lioness’ joints.
In the end, the park team was very relieved because Julie seems to be in excellent health, despite her relatively old age. It is apparently unclear whether this could be the reason for the lack of appetite.
After the anesthetic, the lioness felt like she had had a night of partying
In captivity, lions can live up to 20 years, longer than in the wild. According to the report, Julie came to the park near the town of Doncaster in the county of South Yorkshire together with a dozen of her own kind twelve years ago from a neglected zoo in Romania. Almost 500 animals or 60 species live in the facility. Many of these are classified as endangered species, according to the park.
After waking up from the anesthetic, lioness Julie was still a bit “groggy,” Wilkins said. “Like after a night of partying in the city”. But the lioness recovered well.
Sources: BBC, Yorkshire Wildlife Park