Report on Lion injured on Nakoma Road
On March the 9th was called out by parks to attend lion hit by car on Ngoma road. It had apparently been hit by a speeding car and to my knowledge whoever hit it left the scene without stopping. I darted it with 3 cc Zoletil and on impact of the dart she decided to charge me. I had to fend her off with my tranquilizer gun until she left me Laura was panicking but I was laughing while fending her off.. The lion was approximately 9 months old and about 55 kilos female. It has an injured front paw on palpation and I could feel possibly broken bones in her carpal area. We transferred her to the clinic and Parks provided me with a cage so we could keep her. I treated her with antibiotics, anti-inflammatories and pain killers. I wormed her and eradicated ticks and parasites with front line. I suspected it would be OK and we would be able to release it in a week or so. It drank water freely.
On March 11, Lion was doing well. She was very aggressive and attacks anyone near cage. We obtained permission to shoot and impala to feed it tomorrow. It won’t eat butcher meat that was supplied by parks. Lions want fresh meat. It was putting weight on front leg so I suspected it would be OK to release in a week.
On March 12 parks shot an impala with Permission and permit. Lion showed little interest in eating fresh impala and only took a few bites. It was acting very irritable. It stood up and it seems to have severe hindquarter weakness almost as if it had a broken hip.
On March 13 Lion ate very little of impala. I knew she would starve to death so I decided to institute further diagnostics. I darted her with a half dose than original time of 1.5 cc Zoletil. On X- rays I found that one bone in left fore carpus has fractured, its pelvis had a fracture in mid- ileum but bones still together. Spine was intact.
Unfortunately lion expired during exercise much to my surprise.
Autopsy revealed it had extensive internal injury to its intestines and right kidney with various multi-focal hemorrhage's due to being hit by car at high velocity. It was obviously toxic from poisons released in healing process. It would have taken over 3 weeks to combat the ill effects of this and would have taken 2 months to heal broken bones. This would have occurred if I was able to inject medication daily which was no easy task due to her aggression. It would not have survived in wild. Hyenas would have killed it within 24 hours. At least it had some pain relief and death was while it was sleeping. I was sad but there was no way I could have know its kidneys were so damaged and shutting down without doing regular blood works. Due to her aggression it would have been impractical to take daily samples without sedating her each time which would have aggravated the kidneys . No anabolic steroids are available her in any case
We can only attempt to do our best to save such endangered animals for release back into the wild . Every incident is a learning experience. The lion did not suffer.
