Aquarium dolphin ‘hour-to-hour’ after surgery
Not that long ago, Hana would have been, as they say, put down.
But instead of euthanasia, the Vancouver Aquarium Pacific whitesided dolphin got emergency and groundbreaking bowel surgery that began Thursday night and wrapped up Friday just prior to midday.
The 21-year-old female pulled through, but was weak as of Friday afternoon and on round-the-clock medical watch.
“What we have is a very sick dolphin,” Dr. Martin Haulena, head veterinarian at the Vancouver Aquarium, said after surgery was complete. “What we did was quite radical and new.”
It was the first time general anesthesia had been performed on a Pacific white-sided dolphin and the first bowel surgery ever performed on a dolphin, whale or porpoise.
Because they live in water, every breath a cetacean takes is a conscious decision, which made the surgery extra risky. Hana was hooked up to a mechanical respirator.
One of two remaining Pacific white-sided dolphins at the aquarium, she was fine last Sunday, but Monday when staff arrived she was listless and wouldn’t eat.
“Hana never had a sick day in her life,” Haulena said. “She’s never been off her food, she’s never not wanted to interact with people.”
Blood tests indicated some internal inflammation, but nothing yet serious, he said.
But by Wednesday she was severely sick with what turned out to be a lifethreatening gastro-intestinal disorder. Calls for help went out and leading specialists — a surgeon, anesthetist and radiologist — were flown in from as far away as Florida, Colorado and San Diego.
Local hospitals and pharmacies, meanwhile, pitched in with medical supplies and equipment.
With Hana rapidly deteriorating, according to ultra-sound and X-ray readings, the decision to perform a risky operation was made Thursday evening. Seven vets were involved in a medical team of 40 people.
“We flew in the top-notch people in the world,” Haulena said. “It was a dream team.”
Haulena wasn’t sure what caused Hana’s sudden decline, but speculated some sort of bacteria may have taken advantage of a weakened state caused by some sort of pathogen.
A Pacific white-sided dolphin has been recorded living to 37 in captivity. Haulena estimated Hana to be in late middle age.
Hana remained weak and unresponsive on Friday afternoon and was under “very intensive care,” the vet added. He listed her condition as “hour-to-hour.”