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Gujarat: How Doctors Saved A Lion From Going Blind

ramonmercado

ramonmercado

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Reminds me of Clarence in Daktari. vid at link.

Gujarat: How doctors saved a lion from going blind​



A five-year-old lion in the western Indian state of Gujarat is recovering his vision after doctors performed cataract surgery on both his eyes. Officials at the Gir forest - the last abode of the Asiatic lion - first noticed something was wrong when the lion stopped responding even when prey was nearby. They then took him to a rescue centre, where an examination showed he had mature cataracts in both eyes.

A cataract surgery involves replacing the eye's natural lens with one made out of plastic. They are routinely performed on smaller animals such as dogs. To prepare for operating on the lion, the doctors read research papers and spoke to experts. They also studied an eye sample obtained from the post-mortem of a dead lion to understand the anatomical structure.

The lion is now recovering from the surgery and will be released back in the forest soon.

Video by Hanif Khokhar, BBC Gujarati.

Published 12 hours ago

https://www.bbc.com/news/av/world-asia-india-61755737
 
ramonmercado said:
Reminds me of Clarence in Daktari. vid at link.

Gujarat: How doctors saved a lion from going blind​



A five-year-old lion in the western Indian state of Gujarat is recovering his vision after doctors performed cataract surgery on both his eyes. Officials at the Gir forest - the last abode of the Asiatic lion - first noticed something was wrong when the lion stopped responding even when prey was nearby. They then took him to a rescue centre, where an examination showed he had mature cataracts in both eyes.

A cataract surgery involves replacing the eye's natural lens with one made out of plastic. They are routinely performed on smaller animals such as dogs. To prepare for operating on the lion, the doctors read research papers and spoke to experts. They also studied an eye sample obtained from the post-mortem of a dead lion to understand the anatomical structure.

The lion is now recovering from the surgery and will be released back in the forest soon.

Video by Hanif Khokhar, BBC Gujarati.

Published 12 hours ago

https://www.bbc.com/news/av/world-asia-india-61755737
Click to expand...
While I appreciate a heart-warming story as much as anyone, and the vets certainly mean well, isn't this interfering with natural selection? Animals that would be "weeded out" by the harsh reality of survival now survive beyond their natural lifespan.
 
Ronnie Jersey said:
But it's the same as we humans receiving treatment for diseases and ailments.
Animals deserve help as well.
Click to expand...
If it were a domesticated animal, or human-inflicted injury, I would agree with you. But nature is nature, and it's not a comfortable place... the weak are ruthlessly weeded out, which is the natural course of things, and keeps species strong enough to survive on their own.
 
SimonBurchell said:
If it were a domesticated animal, or human-inflicted injury, I would agree with you. But nature is nature, and it's not a comfortable place... the weak are ruthlessly weeded out, which is the natural course of things, and keeps species strong enough to survive on their own.
Click to expand...
Sorry, I don't agree - animals deserve our care. They are so vulnerable, their needs are so great, and we are encroaching on their territory -
therefore, we are responsible for their health and happiness.
 
Ronnie Jersey said:
Sorry, I don't agree - animals deserve our care. They are so vulnerable, their needs are so great, and we are encroaching on their territory -
therefore, we are responsible for their health and happiness.
Click to expand...
Wild animals do better without us than with us. While helping an individual animal may seem like a goid thing, this upsets the balance if nature. Over time, with repeated intervention, a species will become weaker and unable to survive in the wild, in effect domesticated.
 
This is a Gir lion. We have killed most of them and removed most of their habitat. There are very few left. The least we can do is help them out. We have completely and totally fucked up the balance of nature so talking about making species weaker because we have refrained from wiping them out totally is a bit misplaced.
 
We are also interfering with the lives of animals with hunting - leaving babies with no mothers to care for them.
Just my opinion that we are responsible for their care, we are not the only species living on this planet.
 
If there aren't many lions of this type left (endangered, threatened, etc.), then preserving the lion's genetics to increase the gene pool is worth doing. This may be so even if the specific lion is not a stellar genetic specimen. The clear demarcations between extinct in the wild, alive in breeding reserves, repopulated in the wild, etc., are getting blurry, and this may be a really good thing. I hope we can bring back cheetahs and other big predators. Rhinos are probably past hope.

I am not a vegetarian. Not all animal species are worth saving.
 
The surgery was the right thing to do.

To avoiding helping an injured animal is cruel.

The "natural selection" is not an issue for me, there are millions of animals in forests and woods that we never get near to, so the few that we can help we should help.
 
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