In a World First, Surgeons Operate on Rhino’s Broken Leg and Fix Her Limp
A 2-year-old female rhino known for her “boisterous” nature has just undergone surgery on her ulna in a world-first procedure.
Using equine surgeons’ knowledge of similar procedures done on horses as a template, the team of specialist veterinarians successfully healed the rhino’s leg, and even got her up and about wearing a cast.
Amara is a southern white rhino—the most common species in Africa—born at the Knowsley Safari Park near Prescot, in northwestern England. Known for her love of roughhousing, Amara developed a limp, and vets pondered over what to do.
“Earlier this year, Amara began limping on her right front leg,” Knowsley Safari Park told ABC News in a statement. “The Knowsley Safari team brought in specialist equine surgeons from the University of Liverpool to help with the diagnosis, where radiographs confirmed a fractured ulna.”
“Under anesthesia in Amara’s enclosure, the large team performed a lengthy operation, including key-hole surgery of Amara’s wrist, in a procedure lasting five hours.”
The ulna is the medial bone that in humans connects the elbow to the wrist on the palm-side of the hand. Similar to humans, in rhinos the ulnar bone is found in the lower section of the front legs.
The safari park says no documentation or evidence of such a procedure was found in the run-up to the operation. The rhinoceros is part of the same order as horses—Perissodactyla—or odd-toed ungulates, and so equine surgeons led the procedure based on the same surgical methods used in horses.
“We were unsure if the cast would be strong enough and how Amara would cope with such a restriction on her limb,” Dr. David Stack, senior lecturer in Equine Surgery at the University of Liverpool, told ABC News. “We hoped that she would accept it and that she would be able to move around, get down, and, importantly, back up again, but this was unchartered water.”
The zoo told ABC that Amara is so far doing well. Her arm was supported in a full cast and she is kept in her enclosure to minimize movement.
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