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In this Episode:
Series 1 Episode Guide:
Super Vets
Polly the toco toucan, a resident at London Zoo, one of two living collections owned by the Zoological Society of London (ZSL), needed a liver biopsy to establish whether she was storing excessive amounts of iron in her liver.
Polly arrived at London Zoo as part of a HM customs seizure, which means she was caught in the in the rainforests of either Brazil, northern Argentina and Guiana and smuggled back to England. As a result it is difficult to determine her age.
Polly has a history of gradual weight loss and ZSL vets have recorded an increased number of monocytes, a type of white blood cells, in Polly's blood. The vets suspected Polly was suffering from iron storage disease, a disease toucans are particularly prone to, but the only way they could be sure was to take a liver biopsy: a blood test cannot give this information.
If iron storage disease is diagnosed early enough the vets can stabilize the levels of iron in her liver or even reverse the disease, and thus prevent liver failure.
Polly was caught by her keeper Adrian and brought to the animal hospital for treatment. Once ZSL Head Vet, Wayne Boardman had administered gaseous anaesthetic, Polly was intubated and attached to monitors to measure her heart rate and breathing. Like most birds, Polly has a high metabolism and feeds constantly, in order to prevent her blood sugar crashing she was also given fluids containing glucose.
ZSL vet, Tai Strike , prepared Polly for surgery during which she removed a small piece of liver to establish the extent of the damage to Polly's liver and how high her iron levels were. Tai had to ensure that Polly was kept warm and that the procedure was as quick as possible. The sample was sent to the laboratories at the RVC to be analysed using the J Patterson-Kane computer programme which assesses the amount of iron in tissue.
The surgery went very smoothly and Polly made a good recovery, feeding as soon as she woke up, an important sign that she was on the mend!
The biopsy revealed that Polly had mild to moderate iron storage disease. Though the diagnosis was not as serious as it could be, the level of iron in Polly's liver was beginning to cause disease. The vets are now able to treat Polly's condition and prevent any serious damage to her liver.
Polly is already on a low-iron diet and will now be treated with an iron-chelator, a human drug which will bind the iron in her bloodstream. This will in turn encourage her body to gradually draw the excess iron out of her liver. The tablet will be given to Polly via a tasty treat each day. There has been some success using this drug to treat toucans suffering from this disease in the past, the vets will need to carefully monitor Polly's progress and give her a second biopsy in six to eight months.
