"A big question was whether his good back leg was functioning as well as we thought," explained Veterinarian Matt Johnston, CSU assistant professor of zoological medicine, who was the chief surgeon. 14, his day began at dawn, when he was lightly sedated, placed in a rolling cage and trucked to Colorado State University's Veterinary Teaching Hospital, where muscle conduction, a CT scan, x-rays of spine, right leg and hip were done to ensure they were sound and that chronic pain or dysfunction wouldn't be a problem. The medical choices were surgery or euthanasia. Since then, he walked stiffly, but the muscle holding the bad leg deteriorated and could not be repaired. Steroids, acupuncture and massage healed his right leg, but not the left. Snow Magic's medical problems began a couple years ago when he suffered a spinal aneurism that paralyzed his back legs. His usual diet is about 15 pounds of meat a day - layers of chicken, fish and beef spiked with vitamins. The second day home he ate an entire turkey. He is walking, drinking water and eating. His veterinarian said that exotics don't worry at their incisions like some animals do. He is not wearing a post-surgery plastic collar - he'd make short work of that. His white fur was shaved, revealing skin as pink as a baby's. A visible long, thin red scar runs along his hip line where his left rear leg used to be attached. Part of the floor is concrete, the rest padded for his comfort It is cleaned several times a day with soap and water.įinished with the snack and his grumbling, Snow Magic relaxed. It includes sturdy bars at the door and the two windows that let the warm winter sun in. The cage was built a couple of weeks ago. At 7-by-12 feet it's much smaller than the usual den so that he can't get too rambunctious. His recovery enclosure is attached to the center's medical clinic. Stripeless white tigers like Snow Magic are rare. The tiger came to the facility - home to more than 120 exotics - several years ago after retiring from a magic show in Las Vegas. "The big cats do that when they get a new enclosure," explained Julie Walker, director of operations. Snow Magic was claiming his new den, with emphasis on HIS. The panther across the way stared at Snow Magic's enclosure, as did three coatimundis. Nearby in another enclosure, a couple of orange stripped Bengals joined in. The 10-year-old tiger then emitted a deep and deafening roar. He grabbed a meatball in his humongous jaws and quickly finished it off. The pills, hidden in a baseball-sized meatball, are tossed through the bars of the new surgery recovery enclosure at Serenity Springs Wildlife Center near Calhan. 14 surgery, Snow Magic showed that his pain medicine is no bitter pill to swallow. That's not such a good idea if the cat is a 500-pound rare white tiger, who just had a leg amputated. One of the usual ways to give medicine to a balky kitty is to open its jaws with a gentle squeeze, push it under the tongue, stroke his throat.
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