16 minutes felt like 16 hours

Yesterday Sabre the 25 year old leopard (and world’s oldest if Guinness was right that previous record holder was 24) got overheated.  At 4:15 PM Sue Messineo called and said Sabre had been sleeping in the same spot all day and as the sun was setting, he was no longer in the shade.  She didn’t think he could walk well enough to move, now that he was hot.  She had already given him a frozen blood cicle and had been hosing him with cool water, but he was still unable to walk a few feet to shade.

 

When I got there I saw nothing we could make shade with, so I sent Sue, Rebecca and Intern Jamie? to get shade cloth, tarps and snaps.  I climbed up on top of his lock out and made myself into a contorted wall hanging to create as much shade over his whole body as I could.  Every muscle was straining to the point that I thought all my ligaments were just going to tear from the joints.  It seemed to take them forever, but that was probably just because I was so strained.

 

We hooked 3 tarps together and since I was already up on the side of the cage wall, I fastened it up high.  We then draped it down at about a 45 degree angle and affixed to Jinx’ cage next door so plenty of air flow could go through, but no sun.  Sabre was still licking his circle, and acting pretty unconcerned with all of the activity.  Not knowing when he drank last, I asked Sue to get some buckets for water.  She said she didn’t know where any were.  Rebecca and the intern said they didn’t know either.  I texted Gale, but then remembered that there were big buckets in Aspen Echo’s empty cage, so I ran over and got a bucket and an extra water bowl with a lower side, in case he couldn’t stand.

 

We pushed the bowl right up under his face full of water and he had a good long drink.  Meanwhile I’ve texted the vets and finally, Dr. Liz Wynn responds and says we should take him inside to cool off.  How the heck am I supposed to do that?!?  He can’t get up but there’s nothing wrong with his mouth full of teeth.  Jamie calls in and says we don’t have a transport that I can take inside the cage, so I’ll have to cut a hole in the feeding lockout, if I can get him in it.

 

Sue asks if she can give Sabre some half frozen meat to cool him from the inside out and when she does, he stands up, so I ask her to coax him into the feeding lockout.  I go to shut the door, but it won’t shut because someone has jerked it off the top rail by opening it too hard.  I keep tension on the rope as Sue uses the feeding stick to push it down, one square at a time.  Well, this was a huge accomplishment!  Moving him from here will be a lot easier than if he were in the middle of the cage.

 

Everyone has left for the day, so it’s just Sue, Becky, Matt and me, so I choose a transport we can lift alone.  Gale shows up and calls all the interns back to work and gets the transport and poles we usually use.  Gale and I cut a hole in the lockout and and then she used some meat to lure Sabre into the transport.  Well that all went a lot better than I expected.

 

We take him inside the West Boensch Cat Hospital and the vet prescribes 2000 units of sub q fluids.  Sabre is exhausted by the ordeal and doesn’t put up a fuss.  Gale had been scratching him with a back scratcher, so he acted like he didn’t even notice the little pin prick.  We put cameras on him to watch him through the night and shared the links with everyone so they could help.

 

His night was uneventful and the next morning Jennifer Ruszcyk tries to get him to take his morning meds in a piece of meat and he drops it.  She puts it back in his mouth, via a feeding stick, several times and he just keeps dropping it.  Gale gives him 2000 more units of sub q fluids but texts the vet group that Saber’s eyes are not focusing and she thinks he’s fading on us.  Dr. Wynn texts back and asks if she should come over on her lunch break.  Gale asks me to come talk to her first.

 

When I get there we have a good cry