China: Visiting ophthalmologist removes cataracts from blind moon bear's eyes at Animals Asia's rescue centre

[Guest guest]

*Operation hoped to restore sight of rescued moon bear*

 

*Blind 'Snoopy' may see again after gift of surgery from visiting UK

ophthalmologist*

 

A blind moon bear rescued by Animals Asia in 2003 may have had her sight

restored after groundbreaking surgery by visiting UK ophthalmologist

Claudia Hartley. It is believed to be the first time this type of

cataract surgery and synthetic lens transplant has been attempted on a

moon bear.

 

Dr Hartley performed the delicate operation over four hours at the Hong

Kong-based animal charity's Moon Bear Rescue Centre in Chengdu, Sichuan

Province, starting at 8.30am today (THURS). She said that although it

will be a couple of days before she can better assess the results of her

surgery, she is hopeful that the procedure will prove at least partly

successful.

 

Animals Asia's Founder and CEO, Jill Robinson, said Snoopy arrived at

the Moon Bear Rescue Centre in November 2003, a victim of the free-drip

method of bile extraction. She doesn't know how long this middle-aged

bear was kept in her tiny cage, but it was long enough to rob her of her

sight. " Snoopy's years of poor care and nutrition on the farm could have

been a contributing factor in the development of bilateral cataracts in

both her eyes. The cataracts completely obscured her vision, " Ms

Robinson said.

 

Dr Hartley said it was the most difficult cataract surgery she'd ever

performed. " The cataracts were extremely hard because they had been

present for so long. They were as hard as boiled sweets and were

overwhelming the ultrasonic machine as it wasn't able to break the

cataract into fragments and suck them out. So we had to remove the whole

lens capsule, which contains the cataract, from the left eye; this is a

different procedure altogether. "

 

Removal of the lens does not necessarily mean that Snoopy won't be able

to see again in the left eye. In the right, she has a better chance of

good vision, as the ophthalmologists were able transplant a synthetic lens.

 

Ms Robinson said: " I don't think there will be a dry eye in the house if

Snoopy wakes up from surgery and realises that she can see. I can't wait

-- I'm only hoping that she can deal with the surprise and that we don't

see a negative reaction. One thing is for sure, that she will be

completely spoiled during the hours and days after she wakes up in the

hope that this helps her deal better with the arrival of her sight. "

 

Snoopy was frantic when she arrived at the sanctuary, desperately

rocking back and forth in her cage. This is known as stereotypic

behaviour brought on by extreme anxiety. Her head was covered in wounds

from banging against the bars of her cage in frustration.

 

" We remember with such sadness that when we put straw on top of her

cage, which we did for all the new arrivals so they could build nests,

the little bits of straw falling down on her back were making her jump

in fear, " Ms Robinson said. " Today, Snoopy loves nothing more than a

roll in piles of straw!

 

" Snoopy is truly the most beautiful specimen of a moon bear we've ever

seen -- her coat is thick, black and glossy, she has perfectly round

ears and a perfect crescent moon on her chest; and now that she feels

safe -- her gentle, fun-loving nature is shining through. "

 

Snoopy had learned to compensate for her disability, developing an

amazing sense of smell and hearing. Each morning she would sniff out new

treats (dried pineapple's a favourite) and listen to all that was going

on around her in " the Secret Garden " -- a separate enclosure for

special-needs bears.

 

However, attempts to integrate Snoopy with the other disabled bears had

not been successful, so she had been kept separate within the

special-care enclosure. She still interacted with her neighbours,

brain-damaged Rupert and elderly little Franzi and Haribo, but

essentially has been living a solitary life as moon bears do in the wild.

 

Animals Asia's Senior Vet Heather Bacon, who assisted in the surgery,

said she was thrilled by the success of Snoopy's operation. " Not only

does this mean (all going well) that Snoopy's quality of life will be

greatly improved, it also gives us hope that some of our other bears

will be able to see again. "

 

Dr Hartley visited the moon bear sanctuary late last year, examining

anaesthetised Snoopy's eyes -- and those of other vision-impaired bears

-- and gave us the great news that she thought she could restore

Snoopy's sight. She and Dr David Donaldson, both of whom are very kindly

donating their time and skills voluntarily, will be performing surgeries

on six more bears over the coming week. Both veterinarians are with the

UK's charitable organisation, the Animal Health Trust.

 

*Background on Snoopy (quotes from Jill Robinson)*

" As to whether Snoopy's restored sight will eventually encourage her to

be more sociable, only time will tell, but either way, it will be an

enormous improvement in the quality of her life.

 

" I'll never forget her arriving on the truck -- she was beside herself

with fear, banging her head repetitively against the bars of the cage,

with wounds on her head from where she had been self-mutilating. She was

also ignoring the food we offered, which seemed strange at the time as

most of the bears have been deprived of food and water on the farms and

are ravenous when they arrive.

 

" It occurred to us that apart from the fact that she was a bile farm

victim, there was something else not quite 'right'. As I was holding a

piece of apple near her nose, she began turning her head frantically

towards me and lunging out at the fruit, but missing -- and I suddenly

realised that Snoopy was blind. It was one of those horrible moments

when I realised that although we may be able to heal her battered body,

there was probably little we could do to restore her sight. Little did I

know then ...

 

" As we offloaded her from the truck she was clearly terrified -- not

able to distinguish us from the farmers who had hurt her so badly

before. When we settle the bears into the quarantine area, we often

place straw on top of their cages, and they learn to pull it through and

make a nice, comfy bed as a buffer against the unrelenting cage bars.

 

" Sadly with Snoopy, this gesture went horribly wrong. Placing the straw

on top of the cage, small pieces of straw naturally fell through onto

her back, causing her to become even more stressed by something which

was touching her body, something she couldn't see. I'll never forget the

sadness of that moment, realising that something we had done out of

kindness had caused her so much stress. " Still, over the next few days

and weeks she slowly began to trust us, and we began to prepare her for

surgery. "

 

Snoopy was a " free-drip " bear, where a fistula (or hole) has been gouged

into her abdomen and gall bladder. On arrival, she was leaking blood,

bile and pus from this horribly infected wound and needed major

abdominal surgery to remove her gall bladder and repair the damage.

 

" As ever with these bears on the operating table, the surgery took

several hours as our vets not only removed the damaged gall bladder, but

also cut away old scar tissue and tidied up the mess left behind from

the previous crude surgery on the farm. "

 

 

 

--

* Angela Leary * Media Manager Animals Asia Foundation Tel: + (852) 2791

2225 Fax: + (852) 2791 2320 Website: http://www.animalsasia.org/ Keep up

to date with our recent rescue of 13 more bears from bile farms in

China. Think before you print

 

 

 

[Guest guest]

Dear Jill,

 

Keep-up the good work! My heartily whishes!

 

 

Regards,

Nilesh Bhanage

Founder - PAWS

www.pawsasia.org <http://www.pawsasia.org/>

 

 

Angela Leary [aleary]

Thursday, March 19, 2009 7:32 PM

aapn

China: Visiting ophthalmologist removes cataracts from

blind moon bear's eyes at Animals Asia's rescue centre

 

*Operation hoped to restore sight of rescued moon bear*

 

*Blind 'Snoopy' may see again after gift of surgery from visiting UK

ophthalmologist*

 

A blind moon bear rescued by Animals Asia in 2003 may have had her sight

 

restored after groundbreaking surgery by visiting UK ophthalmologist

Claudia Hartley. It is believed to be the first time this type of

cataract surgery and synthetic lens transplant has been attempted on a

moon bear.

 

Dr Hartley performed the delicate operation over four hours at the Hong

Kong-based animal charity's Moon Bear Rescue Centre in Chengdu, Sichuan

Province, starting at 8.30am today (THURS). She said that although it

will be a couple of days before she can better assess the results of her

 

surgery, she is hopeful that the procedure will prove at least partly

successful.

 

Animals Asia's Founder and CEO, Jill Robinson, said Snoopy arrived at

the Moon Bear Rescue Centre in November 2003, a victim of the free-drip

method of bile extraction. She doesn't know how long this middle-aged

bear was kept in her tiny cage, but it was long enough to rob her of her

 

sight. " Snoopy's years of poor care and nutrition on the farm could have

 

been a contributing factor in the development of bilateral cataracts in

both her eyes. The cataracts completely obscured her vision, " Ms

Robinson said.

 

Dr Hartley said it was the most difficult cataract surgery she'd ever

performed. " The cataracts were extremely hard because they had been

present for so long. They were as hard as boiled sweets and were

overwhelming the ultrasonic machine as it wasn't able to break the

cataract into fragments and suck them out. So we had to remove the whole

 

lens capsule, which contains the cataract, from the left eye; this is a

different procedure altogether. "

 

Removal of the lens does not necessarily mean that Snoopy won't be able

to see again in the left eye. In the right, she has a better chance of

good vision, as the ophthalmologists were able transplant a synthetic

lens.

 

Ms Robinson said: " I don't think there will be a dry eye in the house if

 

Snoopy wakes up from surgery and realises that she can see. I can't wait

 

-- I'm only hoping that she can deal with the surprise and that we don't

 

see a negative reaction. One thing is for sure, that she will be

completely spoiled during the hours and days after she wakes up in the

hope that this helps her deal better with the arrival of her sight. "

 

Snoopy was frantic when she arrived at the sanctuary, desperately

rocking back and forth in her cage. This is known as stereotypic

behaviour brought on by extreme anxiety. Her head was covered in wounds

from banging against the bars of her cage in frustration.

 

" We remember with such sadness that when we put straw on top of her

cage, which we did for all the new arrivals so they could build nests,

the little bits of straw falling down on her back were making her jump

in fear, " Ms Robinson said. " Today, Snoopy loves nothing more than a

roll in piles of straw!

 

" Snoopy is truly the most beautiful specimen of a moon bear we've ever

seen -- her coat is thick, black and glossy, she has perfectly round

ears and a perfect crescent moon on her chest; and now that she feels

safe -- her gentle, fun-loving nature is shining through. "

 

Snoopy had learned to compensate for her disability, developing an

amazing sense of smell and hearing. Each morning she would sniff out new

 

treats (dried pineapple's a favourite) and listen to all that was going

on around her in " the Secret Garden " -- a separate enclosure for

special-needs bears.

 

However, attempts to integrate Snoopy with the other disabled bears had

not been successful, so she had been kept separate within the

special-care enclosure. She still interacted with her neighbours,

brain-damaged Rupert and elderly little Franzi and Haribo, but

essentially has been living a solitary life as moon bears do in the

wild.

 

Animals Asia's Senior Vet Heather Bacon, who assisted in the surgery,

said she was thrilled by the success of Snoopy's operation. " Not only

does this mean (all going well) that Snoopy's quality of life will be

greatly improved, it also gives us hope that some of our other bears

will be able to see again. "

 

Dr Hartley visited the moon bear sanctuary late last year, examining

anaesthetised Snoopy's eyes -- and those of other vision-impaired bears

-- and gave us the great news that she thought she could restore

Snoopy's sight. She and Dr David Donaldson, both of whom are very kindly

 

donating their time and skills voluntarily, will be performing surgeries

 

on six more bears over the coming week. Both veterinarians are with the

UK's charitable organisation, the Animal Health Trust.

 

*Background on Snoopy (quotes from Jill Robinson)*

" As to whether Snoopy's restored sight will eventually encourage her to

be more sociable, only time will tell, but either way, it will be an

enormous improvement in the quality of her life.

 

" I'll never forget her arriving on the truck -- she was beside herself

with fear, banging her head repetitively against the bars of the cage,

with wounds on her head from where she had been self-mutilating. She was

 

also ignoring the food we offered, which seemed strange at the time as

most of the bears have been deprived of food and water on the farms and

are ravenous when they arrive.

 

" It occurred to us that apart from the fact that she was a bile farm

victim, there was something else not quite 'right'. As I was holding a

piece of apple near her nose, she began turning her head frantically

towards me and lunging out at the fruit, but missing -- and I suddenly

realised that Snoopy was blind. It was one of those horrible moments

when I realised that although we may be able to heal her battered body,

there was probably little we could do to restore her sight. Little did I

 

know then ...

 

" As we offloaded her from the truck she was clearly terrified -- not

able to distinguish us from the farmers who had hurt her so badly

before. When we settle the bears into the quarantine area, we often

place straw on top of their cages, and they learn to pull it through and

 

make a nice, comfy bed as a buffer against the unrelenting cage bars.

 

" Sadly with Snoopy, this gesture went horribly wrong. Placing the straw

on top of the cage, small pieces of straw naturally fell through onto

her back, causing her to become even more stressed by something which

was touching her body, something she couldn't see. I'll never forget the

 

sadness of that moment, realising that something we had done out of

kindness had caused her so much stress. " Still, over the next few days

and weeks she slowly began to trust us, and we began to prepare her for

surgery. "

 

Snoopy was a " free-drip " bear, where a fistula (or hole) has been gouged

 

into her abdomen and gall bladder. On arrival, she was leaking blood,

bile and pus from this horribly infected wound and needed major

abdominal surgery to remove her gall bladder and repair the damage.

 

" As ever with these bears on the operating table, the surgery took

several hours as our vets not only removed the damaged gall bladder, but

 

also cut away old scar tissue and tidied up the mess left behind from

the previous crude surgery on the farm. "

 

--

* Angela Leary * Media Manager Animals Asia Foundation Tel: + (852) 2791

 

2225 Fax: + (852) 2791 2320 Website: http://www.animalsasia.org/

<http://www.animalsasia.org/> Keep up

to date with our recent rescue of 13 more bears from bile farms in

China. Think before you print