Boki the bear having pioneering surgery to drain fluid from skull and stop seizures
A vet will run a tube from inside his brain down to his bladder, where the excess fluid can drain away.
Wednesday 9 October 2024 12:44, UK
A young bear that suffers regular seizures is undergoing pioneering brain surgery at a wildlife park in Kent.
Boki, a European brown bear, has hydrocephalus, a build-up of fluid inside his skull that is putting pressure on his brain.
A team of expert zoo vets anaesthetised Boki in his enclosure at the Wildwood Trust, near Canterbury, and carefully lifted his 23-stone body onto a makeshift operating table.
Elliot Simpson-Brown is in charge of monitoring Boki during the operation, to make sure he remains unconscious for his own safety, as well as those in the room.
"This is his best chance, this is his only chance," he said ahead of the procedure.
Boki started having seizures and vision problems five months ago.
Drug treatment is becoming less effective and his quality of life is being impaired.
The veterinary team feared that if they did not operate before he went into torpor, a winter dormancy similar to hibernation, he may not wake up in the spring.
The three-hour operation is being carried out by Romain Pizzi, an Edinburgh-based specialist with a reputation for taking on cases that other vets will not touch.
He will make a small hole in Boki's skull and run a tube from inside his brain, then under his skin down to his bladder, where it will drain excess fluid.
Mr Pizzi has carried out the procedure just once before, on an Asiatic black bear in Laos.
Surgery was a success, giving the Wildwood Trust confidence that it is the right option for Boki.
Mark Habben, zoological director at the Trust, told Paste BN the team is optimistic.
He said: "If we did not think this would have a happy ending, we would not put him or ourselves through the physical and emotional stress of conducting something like this.
"We want him to be able to climb up trees, jump in ponds and do the things that bears do."
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Boki was born at Port Lympne wildlife park in Kent, where his parents were brought after being rescued from a circus in Spain.
But he was aggressively rejected by his family and was moved to the Wildwood Trust.
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Tap hereHydrocephalus also occurs in humans, affecting one in every 500 births. Other cases can be triggered by illness or injury later in life.
But it is believed to be rare in animals.