Bannerghatta tigers given emergency dental treatment

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Tigers given emergency dental treatment

 

By Paul Eccleston

Last Updated: 12:01pm BST 11/09/2007

 

How do you pull a tooth from a Bengal tiger? The answer, of course, is

very carefully.

*In pictures: The

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*

 

British dentist Paul Cassar and Lisa Milella, a veterinary surgeon

specialising in animal dentistry, recently travelled to India to treat some

unusual patients.

The tigers needed extensive dental repair work

 

Mohan, a full-grown male tiger weighing more than 400lbs, and with paws the

size of small dinner plates, and Maneka, a female, are former circus

performers who now live in a rescue centre in Bannerghatta near Bangalore in

southern India.

 

The centre is run by the Sussex-based charity International Animal Rescue

(IAR) which also has a rescue centre for bears nearby.

 

The bears have normally been rescued from a miserable career as roadside

dancers. Often they have had their teeth knocked out as cubs to make them

less dangerous to their handlers but this can lead to infection and

excruciating pain for the animal.

 

Paul, from Chichester who specialises in root canal work, and Lisa from

Walton-on-Thames have made several trips to India to treat the bears but

this was the first time they had been asked to work with tigers.

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The tigers, biggest and arguably most fearsome of the big cats, needed

extensive dental repair work. Both had broken teeth which had led to severe

infections and abscesses which had eaten through to the bone.

 

" They had both suffered a lot and would have been at one point in

excruciating pain, " said Lisa, 33.

 

" We removed an incisor from each tiger and we will remove another from the

female next time we visit.

 

" Seeing a full-grown tiger stretched out in front of you is a daunting sight

but they had been very carefully anaesthetised and we had about two hours to

complete the work before they woke up.

 

" Once they are asleep they are essentially pussy-cats and most of their

teeth are quite small. There are so few tigers left now that it was a great

privilege to do something to help them. "

 

Paul Cassar, who is a trustee of IAR, said: " Operating on the bears was

challenging enough but treating the tigers was an even bigger step. When I

go back to my human patients and tell them what I've been doing at the

weekend they are completely amazed. It's the most amazing feeling to be

operating on such magnificent animals. I feel proud and privileged to be

able to contribute in this unusual way to the work of International Animal

Rescue. "

 

IAR and the Born Free Foundation, which has its own sanctuary for rescued

tigers in the same area, have joined forces to set up a new veterinary

surgery in Bannerghatta.

 

Both charities made special appeals to their supporters to raise the funds

needed to build and equip the treatment rooms. The surgery will be used in

future by resident Indian vets to treat the rescued bears, tigers and any

other wildlife needing treatment.

 

A recent scientific census revealed that there may now be as few as 1300

wild tigers left in India and the government has begun a concerted effort to

save the iconic animal and prevent it becoming merely a safari-park animal.