Born Free: BELLA'S RECOVERY

Bella’s eye is still showing no complications after the cataract removal on 9th December.  It is interesting seeing the extent of her vision when she moves off the smooth concrete and goes out onto the grassy slope at the back of her enclosure.  Sometimes she walks very slowly and carefully picking her way through the long grass and bushes.  At other times, when something attracts her attention at the top of the slope, she will bound towards it confidently.   

Born Free’s senior veterinary consultant, John Knight, says that when Bella is tentative in her movements, this will probably be because she cannot focus at short distances and so placing her front feet is more difficult (she does not know what she is placing them on) and also she cannot anticipate the proximity of undergrowth before it hits her face. At medium and longer distances her sight is much better, and also she will be more sensitive, and so more responsive, to movement.

If we had inserted a replacement lens into Bella’s eye after the cataract removal, then she would have near-sighted vision as well.  However, unlike a pet dog or cat that can be handled, the long-term, follow-up care needed would have been almost impossible to carry out effectively, and would have been very stressful for Bella, so the decision was taken not to replace her lens.  We are delighted that she now appears to have good medium and long-sighted vision at least.  Before the operation everything would have been a blur.

Bella is relaxed and confident in her new home which is lovely to see, and continues to enjoy having regular meals and a varied diet - a far cry from the slimy, grey necks and wings from factory-farmed chickens she was fed on before.

We are still working on the lengthy process of securing all the necessary permits, and arranging the flights and overland travel to the Lilongwe Wildlife Centre, but we hope it won’t be much longer before Bella can exchange the Romanian winter weather for the sunshine in Malawi.

We have been sent some lovely photos of Bella in the snow at her temporary home in Brasov Zoo.  They have been sent  by Dr Ion Brumar, the vet who cares for her.  Apparently she hasn’t been too keen to go out in the snow, preferring to remain in her heated indoor quarters, but it was a beautiful sunny day when the photos were taken and obviously Bella felt like stretching her legs.  It seems very clear, from one of the photos, that she is stalking the photographer using her eyesight, not her hearing or sense of smell.  Ion is convinced her vision is very much improved.

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Born Free: BELLA’S SURGERY GIVES HER THE CHANCE OF BEING REHOMED

BORN FREE

KEEP WILDLIFE IN THE WILD

October 2008

Bella had a glaucoma in her left eye
and a cataract in her right

Bella the lioness is transferred from Buhusi Zoo in Romania to Brasov Zoo two hours away.  The Born Free Foundation arranged with Brasov Zoo to give Bella a temporary home while she was recovering from an operation to remove her left eye, permanently damaged by a condition called glaucoma.  It was suspected Bella also had a cataract in her right eye.

EXPERT ATTENTION!

John Knight, the Born Free Foundation’s veterinary consultant is in charge of her move, assisted by Brasov’s vet, Dr Ion Brumar.  Opthamlmic surgeon Dr David Donaldson, from the Animal Health Trust in Suffolk donates his services for the surgery on Bella’s eyes.  Acrivet, the veterinary department of S&V Technologies in Germany generously loan a head-mounted microscope and the portable ‘phacoemulsification’ kit specially designed for veterinary use, which allows cataract removal to be carried out on larger animals. Dr Iuliana Ionascu from the Department of Surgery and Comparative Ophthalmology at the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine in Bucharest also donates her services. 

A veterinary practice in Brasov, the Kronvet Clinic, unusual in Romania for having an anaesthetic machine, have offered their staff and facilities for the operation.  The anaesthetic machine, used to dealing with cats and dogs, will be adapted to make it suitable for a lion!  

17.10.08 – Bella’s diseased left eye is removed.  She recovers successfully from the operation at Brasov Zoo.

Bella’s diseased eye with the glaucoma was removed

9.12.08 –John Knight and Dr Donaldson return to Brasov with colleagues from Acrivet.   The front capsule of Bella’s lens is removed and then ultrasound directed at the lens using a special handset which liquefies the hardened cataract material within the lens, allowing it to be aspirated from the eye. 

Dr Donaldson prepares to
remove the cataract

This method generally has fewer complications and allows for faster healing, and indeed Bella seemed to have some vision within hours after the surgery.  She was seen gazing at the sky as if looking at the clouds overhead, behaviour not noticed before.  So far, so good. 

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Born Free: BELLA RESCUE - BELLA'S CASE HISTORY

BORN FREE

KEEP WILDLIFE IN THE WILD

Bella’s diseased eye needed removing before she could be transported

Bella is a one-eyed lioness rescued from Buhusi Zoo, a run-down zoo in Romania, and now living at the Lilongwe Wildlife Centre in Malawi.  Her rescue in 2009 was a joint operation between the Born Free Foundation and a small NGO called Lions Roar.

Lion’s Roar were told  that Bella had been born in Buhusi zoo in 2002 and sold as a cub to gypsies who used her to attract tourists into having their photograph taken with the little lion.  When she became too dangerous for handling, she was returned to the zoo to be used for breeding.  As is often the case with cubs taken away from their mother for hand-rearing, it seems Bella was not given a proper diet while her skeleton was forming, and she has an arched, ‘roached’ spine, and unnaturally curved back legs. 

We are not sure what happened in Bella’s early years, but she was about four years old when Lion’s Roar discovered her, living in appallingly filthy, barren conditions in the zoo, with inexperienced, insensitive, uncaring keepers giving Bella and the other animals the minimum amount of care.  At that time Bella had a mate, a four year old lion named Fugi.  Lion’s Roar were told that Bella had given birth to a single cub the previous year which had died after two days.  Bella then gave birth to another cub. Lion’s Roar warned the zoo staff not to handle the cub, as Bella and Fugi were being diligent, gentle parents, but the keepers did take the cub out of the cage for short periods – perhaps hoping to sell it for use by gypsy photographers.  Sadly, the cub died in August 2006 and Fugi died shortly afterwards, seemingly from an un-treated kidney infection.  Bella was left alone. 

Not only was she alone, but she was almost blind: an un-treated glaucoma in her left eye had permanently damaged her vision, and it appeared she might have a cataract in her right eye. 

Filthy and run down, the zoo was closed to the public in 2007.

REHOMING BELLA?

In 2007, after the zoo’s closure, Born Free rehomed three lions from the zoo, Jools and her sons James and Jerry, to our sanctuary at Shamwari Game Reserve in South Africa.  

We wanted to rehome Bella to Africa too, but our veterinary consultant had strongly advised against transporting Bella with her glaucoma: the bulbous eye could be knocked and rupture on the long journey and the haemorrhage could be fatal if this happened in flight, while we were unable to get to her.  Unfortunately we could find no veterinary practice in Romania that had the facilities for such surgery, and nowhere Bella could receive the necessary follow-up care.  

Over 12 months went by then, and Lion’s Roar tried to improve Bella’s enclosure with sleeping platforms and environmental enrichment, paying for it to be kept clean and for a better diet.  Then we heard of a veterinary practice in Brasov, two hours from Buhusi, that had an anaesthetic machine.  In addition, nearby Brasov Zoo offered to care for Bella while she recovered.  Quite by co-incidence, an ophthalmic surgeon from the Animal Health Trust in Suffolk had offered his services just weeks before, not knowing of Bella’s case.  Suddenly it seemed Bella’s story had the chance of a happy ending after all.