Surgery for Komodo dragon

Anika, the six-year-old Komodo dragon at the Denver Zoo in America, had surgery a month ago – on 30 April 2016. She is now doing well and has made a full recovery.

Anika’s minder, Tim Trout, with 17 years of vulnerable species experience, noticed that the Komodo dragon was not gaining weight after pregnancy. Gwen Jankowski, the zoo’s vet, conducted an emergency veterinarian examination and confirmed that she had peritonitis, which is an inflammation of the membrane that lines the abdominal (stomach) wall and organs.

The zoo vets requested radiographs, an ultrasound, and a stomach tap. They found blood and egg yolk in her abdomen (Komodo dragons are egg-laying reptiles). The disease is called dystocia, and is common but deadly. Dystocia means that female dragons cannot deposit eggs and they become lodged in the body, causing inflammation. More than 80% of female dragons die from this problem. Surgery had to be performed to save her life. Anika had yolk and inflammatory materia in her abdominal cavity, from front to back. ‘That’s not a very good condition to be in,’ siad Jankowski.

The surgery had been performed two or three times in the past at the Denver Zoo, but the animals did not survive. ‘One or two made it through the actual surgery, but died within a few weeks or a month,’ said Jankowski. It was a risky operation.

The zoo’s vetinary team of 11 people, including four full-time vets and five technicians, conducted the delicate surgery. Due to the early detection and intensive after-care treatment, Anika has made it the one-month milestone, and is doing well. Komodo dragons can live up to 25-30 years, so she has many more to live – at least another ten years.

She arrived in Denver Zoo in 2012, when she was two years old. Komodo dragons are unique to Indonesia.

However, there is some sad news. Anika will never be able to lay eggs again, so she will never have baby dragons.

http://www.denverpost.com/2016/06/29/denver-zoo-komodo-dragon-surgery/

http://www.denverzoo.org/animals/komodo-dragon

MARTINA NICOLLS is an international aid and development consultant, and the author of:- The Shortness of Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet (2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The Sudan Curse (2009).

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