Original subtitles

They say don't ever work with babies or animals.

But what if they're baby animals?

It was only born this morning.

On this all -new season, welcome back to the ever -changing world

of Taronga, where you'll witness things...

You never thought possible.

You can actually hear her breathe.

And meet new faces.

Oh, hi, buddy.

You'll never forget.

So good.

It's time to discover.

Oh, my God.

Exactly.

Who's who in this zoo.

On this episode.

Doesn't feel good. A heart -topping moment.

He's now not breathing.

Literally. I can't hear hardly.

As this majestic cat.

Keep bagging, keep bagging. Is brought back from the dead.

So that adrenaline's in.

Meet Laura and Beck.

It doesn't look like we've got any termites in here yet.

Possibly the only two humans.

It is a bit of a guessing game.

Excited to find termites. We haven't done anything like this before.

And a trip to the dentist for the world's largest rodent. They have really

incisor teeth. Really? Huh, I hadn't noticed.

At Taronga Western Plain Zoo, a wild week is nothing new.

This particular week is shaping up to be a bit wilder than usual for Taronga's

vets and nurses.

It's a pretty busy time at the wildlife hospital at the moment.

Yeah, I'm going to put three different drugs in his cocktail.

So I'm going to have a second one drawn up for the dart in case we need it.

So we've actually got two tiger anaesthetics planned, mainly to look at

dental health. And the two incoming patients are not just any tigers.

They're senior Sumatran tigers, Satu and Sakti. Satu is our eldest tiger

here at the zoo and he's just had his 18th birthday last month.

Sakti is, I guess, our spring chicken here at the tiger facility. He is

13 years of age.

Over there in Sumatra, you'd probably expect tigers to live to be

10 to 12 years of age. However, when they have a high standard of care, quite

often they can live to their late teens, even their early 20s.

For us, our main focus is making sure that our animals have a good, healthy

life.

And that's exactly what today's double tiger check -up is all about.

So I've got both pulse syringes, I've got the blowpipe.

Yep. Dart rifle.

Yep. Hand injections drawn up here. Yep.

The first tiger on the list is the eldest, Satu.

We know that he's had some dental issues in the past and he's got some canines

that have fractured and been treated with root canals. We want to make sure

there's nothing painful.

Our dental veterinary specialist, David, is flying in from Melbourne today for

these procedures.

If the dental specialist finds any issues with the tiger's teeth, that

make things a little more complicated.

Big hat.

They are prone to getting high potassium in their blood while they're under

anaesthetic, and that can be a life -threatening complication, particularly

long procedures.

We want to try and keep our anaesthetic time as low as we can, but dental

procedures can be quite lengthy. Being an older cat, there's a little bit of an

increased risk with his anaesthetic.

The high potassium can affect his heart rhythm, and in a really severe case, he

can actually have a cardiac arrest.

So we'll keep the procedure as short as we can.

Before they can begin the procedure...

They'll need to sedate Sartu.

We have got a hand injection and a 21 -gauge needle.

All right. Good luck.

Thank you.

So we're going to head in now with the anaesthetic drugs that the vets have

given us to administer.

It won't be long until they call us, I don't think, so they come up.

We'll let the vets know how his injection has gone.

All right, I'm going.

Start.

Yeah. Go ahead.

Looks as though we've got 100%. He's lying calmly on the grass.

That's awesome. Well done.

That's so amazing.

That's all gone perfectly.

With the first tiger asleep... I've checked. He's got no blink.

...the team quietly enter the den and prepare him for the move to the animal

hospital. Let me get the catheter stuff ready.

So we've got quite a big team working on Satu.

I'm getting a reading, heart rate's at 80.

We've got three vets working on him, we've got three nurses.

Psychiatrics are usually hard. We want to make sure that we do everything as

efficiently as we can.

Every team member plays a crucial role, and as they continue prepping Satu, vet

nurse Jane notices a change in his vitals.

He's got an odd breathing pattern.

Getting closer, closer, closer, then breath hold? Yeah, yeah.

How long have we been since injection?

15 minutes.

Okay. Vet Alisa watches closely, assessing the tiger's respiration rate.

Yeah, he hasn't had a good deep breath for a minute.

If Taronga in Sydney had a prize for the most relaxed and laid -back resident...

Buddy, what are you doing?

...this guy would certainly be a top contender.

This is Carlos.

He is one of our Capybara boys.

We've got four males.

Capybaras are native to South America.

I kind of like to call them South American hippopotamuses.

They love to spend time in the water.

They do have webbed feet, just like a duck.

And they hold their breath for five minutes as well, just like you both.

It's actually their kind of safety refuge. So they do have quite a few

in the wild. And what they'll do, they'll go into the water to protect

themselves. You can see with his ears, eyes and nose, they're all in a straight

line all together.

So they'll kind of just be sitting with those above and they can see and hear

everything.

Well, Darcy, you might want to cover his ears for this next bit.

So tomorrow he's just booked in for a general anaesthetic just to make sure

all nice and healthy. Obviously, when he is under the anaesthetic, we can

actually get a good look what's going on. Like Taronga's Sumatran tigers in

Dubbo, six -year -old Carlos is also getting on a bit. Carlos is turning six

a couple of weeks.

Now, six for a capybara is actually getting quite old for them. In the wild,

life expectancy is probably about seven or eight for a male.

So much the same as our tigers, Darcy will not only get a physical but a

check too.

With capybaras, they are the world's largest rodents. So being a rodent, they

have really big incisor teeth.

growing constantly.

We give them a lot of brows, you know, branches, and that actually helps with

their dental care.

If you've ever wondered what a capybara toothbrush looks like, and I know I

have, well, wonder no more.

This is a cocus log. They'll chew on that throughout the day, just kind of

down his teeth and just make sure they don't become overgrown. With a general

anesthetic tomorrow, we can actually get a much better look at his teeth just to

make sure they're all nice and healthy and there's no issues with them as well.

Carlos is super affectionate.

He's super comfortable with people. He's very tactile. He loves pets.

You can give him a good scratch like this.

And, yeah, just really curious. When we come in, he's always kind of the first

one to come over to see what food we have or just what we're up to as well.

This trusting relationship between Keeper Darcy and Carlos the capybara

tested tomorrow when Carlos...

has to be anaesthetised. My role will be to hand inject Carlos for his

procedure.

Capybara skin is quite tough, so it's a bit hard to get the needle in. I know

he's going to do great, but I've been building up so much for this hand

injection, I want it to go smoothly.

So yeah, just thinking about that a lot, so quite nerve -wracking.

A lot of anxiety right now.

Yeah, he hasn't had a good deep breath for a minute.

Back at Taronga Western Plain Zoo.

All right, let me get you out of the way.

Aged Sumatran tiger, Satu, has just been sedated. Last time he had a 16 tube.

But he's now struggling to breathe.

I'm just tubing it.

It's not an uncommon occurrence in aged animals under anaesthetic, and the vet

team begins intubating him to assist his breathing.

Just tell me when you're ready. Yep, ready.

Hey, mate.

Have you got a visual? Not really. I can see the epiglottis.

No, we might have to change to sternal, I think. There's another flop going on.

So we're just going to have to sit him up on his tummy to get a better position

for tubing.

On three.

One, two, three. In sternal.

Leg under.

Yep.

Is that better, Catherine?

Yeah, that's heaps better.

With any older animal, there are increased risks with anaesthetic.

Just because their organs are a bit more tired, they may not be working as well.

Doing very tiny cell over us. It's all right, we'll just get him on the truck

and we can breathe for him if we need to.

With his breathing now supported, the vet team can move Satu to the wildlife

hospital to be prepped for his dental exam.

Good to go.

Oh, God, what a crowd.

Oh, yeah.

One, two, three.

Go.

You got it?

Okay. All right, so we'll get him on. Hook him up.

Yep, so we're on 4%. We are on 2%. Four litres.

Nothing like hitting the ground running.

The treatment room is packed. packed with veterinary staff.

And there's also a crowd gathered to watch not one, but two tigers making a

visit to Dubbo's Wildlife Hospital.

Yes, everybody, this is David and Tracy.

Thank you.

Left side.

Yep. The 201's missing.

Yep.

202 has three millimetres all round and abrasion.

So we're very privileged to be welcoming veterinary dental specialist David to

Dubbo. He's actually come here all the way from Melbourne. Okay, gingeritis of

one, calculus of one.

And David's one of a handful of veterinary dental specialists in

has the skills and the knowledge and experience to do this type of procedure

a tiger.

So this is a tiger that I looked at in 2011 and also in 2019.

And he fractured these canine teeth, which are the big fang teeth.

And I did what's called root canal procedures on them.

And I'm back here today to take some x -rays.

We'll have to leave in a minute.

Okay, I'm ready when you are.

Clear.

While dental specialist David works his way through the necessary x -rays. One

done, looks good. X -ray again.

Vet Alisa monitors a sample of Satu's blood to check how he's responding to

anaesthetic. So we've just done his first lot of blood tests and we've got

baseline potassium, which is something we've got to monitor really carefully

through his procedure. So his baseline is four, which is perfectly normal, and

our intervention point is if it increases by one.

Satu's blood potassium levels are good, which means there is little risk of

damage to the tiger's heart.

But if the levels were to get too high, it could cause a cardiac arrest.

Jane, you got a blood pressure there?

Yep, got it.

Everything needs to be considered.

116 over 58.

The team are constantly balancing the tiger's surgery with the clinical

realities of sedating such an aged animal.

We are seeing some of the kidney values a little bit on the high side and we

want to make sure that we're not making anything worse. So we're watching his

blood pressure really closely. His heart may not function as well. as a younger

cat, we may have some issues underlying with his kidneys and we certainly don't

want to make those things worse while he's under anaesthetic. With Sartre

older, a low blood pressure event during anaesthetic, that can actually push

them into kidney failure.

He's a bit nervous.

Darcy's big surprise.

I think he definitely knows something is happening.

But just how will Carlos react?

Feeling a little bit nervous about it all.

And... One, two, three.

Double trouble.

Some tough decisions ahead.

He's not particularly stable.

For Beth, Alisa. We're in the danger zone.

Here's a quick echidna quiz.

How many termites do you think these spiny anteaters devour each day? A few

hundred? A few thousand?

Nope. Each echidna in the wild would eat about 10 ,000 termites a day.

That's more than a few.

So if you had to rustle up that many, you might need to get a little creative.

Think outside the box.

Yep, this box.

What we're doing here today is a little unusual.

I'm here to find some termite mounds, set some traps and hopefully be

some termite to bring back for the echidnas.

I've chosen this location because we believe it may be an active termite

It is experimental, no guarantees that we're going to be able to collect

anything, but we're willing to sort of do a bit of trial and error.

Laura has travelled to some local bushland.

to try out an interesting termite trap technique.

I've got a bucket here. It's got some holes drilled in the bottom. What I'm

going to do is...

Pop down next to the nest.

Its scientific name is a termite bait station.

Going to collect up some soil from nearby.

Basically, it's a bucket full of tasty termite treats. A little bit of leaf

litter as well.

Here's some wood that I've collected from nearby. It looks like it's already

some termite activity on it. What I'm going to do is I'm going to pop it in

bucket here to try and encourage them to enter this one and start to eat this

wood. I mean, it looks.

Pretty enticing, right?

I just want to get the bottom of it just below the surface level here, so the

holes are just in the soil. A little bit of water will just create a moist

environment and encourage them to move in.

And really, what self -respecting termite wouldn't want to move in?

The last thing left to do is just pop the lid on it.

We'll see if some termites have moved in.

Hmm. They termite or they termite not.

We'll have to wait and see.

Back in Dubbo at the Taronga Wildlife Hospital.

We just need to radiograph 404 and 104.

Not one, but two aged Sumatran tigers are each booked in for a thorough dental

check -up. and health assessment.

First up is 18 -year -old Satu. And while the dental examination is quite

routine, it's the side effect from the general anaesthetic.

that's keeping the vet team on their toes.

We may have some issues with his kidneys and we certainly don't want to make

those things worse while he's under anaesthetic. Low blood pressure can

push them into kidney failure.

And it's not just low blood pressure that they have to monitor.

The drug combination he's had does tend to keep their blood pressure a little

bit high, so we want to make sure that that's all fine.

Blood pressure is 102 over 58, mean of 73.

So at the moment his blood pressure's really good.

Entitled, stable. Everything's stable, though. If we're seeing trends that we

need to intervene, then we've got everything ready to do that.

The team are allowing a three -hour window to keep Satu anaesthetised while

specialist David examines and addresses any issues with the tiger's teeth.

Was this the one that's got the fracture?

But should there be any concerning signs that Satu's health is at risk?

Vet Elisa will stop the examination immediately and the tiger will be

to its den to recover.

The throat pack's out and his pharynx is clean.

Did we take photos, David? Yes.

Great.

I've got pictures of his teeth.

Yeah, that's all. We don't have to do any treatment on this side. We just need

to take some radiographs. Okay.

X -ray. X -ray again. Just step back a meter and that should be good.

Oh, his respiration's got up a tiny bit.

Oh, that looks good.

Excellent.

His mouth is perfectly fine, so he's got wonderful oral health for an 18 -year

-old tiger.

We are done.

Oh, look at you go.

So the rest of the teeth are good? Yeah, perfect.

That's what we want to hear, David.

While the dental exam has concluded, the vet team are still performing their own

assessment of the aged tiger.

All right, let's go.

So I'm just taking the opportunity while he's under anaesthetic to give him a

full thorough examination.

So I'm like you would take your cat to the vets once a year for a check -up.

We did find that he's got some arthritis in his joints and we've had a good look

at his foot pads and we found that his toenails are a little bit long, his

claws.

Look at that one, that's got to trim that one, that's going into his core.

So we wouldn't normally cut a tiger's nails.

But we're just noticing because he's getting a little bit older, he's not

wearing them down as much like your pet cat does as well. No -one anticipated a

tiger manicure today, but the team came prepared for anything, though nailing

this part is a bit more time -consuming than expected.

So we've been monitoring him very closely, obviously, the whole time he's

under anaesthetic.

We've just noticed a couple of little parameters are changing.

CO2's gone off a bit.

His respiration rate's just gone a little down.

He's not taking nice, big, deep breaths.

He's looking a bit paler than before.

How long are we at? So it's been nearly two and a half. I think we probably need

to quit while we're ahead.

Stretcher must be outside. I'll grab it.

We've decided the best thing today is probably just to be grateful of all the

information that we've got. We've checked his teeth. We've done all the

important things.

We're not going to push it too much. All right, should we disconnect this?

We're going to get him back straight away to his enclosure.

One, two, three.

We'll go off that way.

Even though the check -up finished slightly earlier than planned, this

tiger appears to be a picture of health.

All right, I'm giving you three verses. So I'm going to give him one and a half

mil. One and a half mil.

Okay, that can go out.

I'm just going to pull that tube now.

For an 18 -year -old cat, I think he's looking really good.

So that's one tiger down.

Right, folks, if we can get the stretcher carriers, please.

And one to go.

On three.

One, two, three.

Next up is 13 -year -old Sakti. Recently, keepers have noticed that he's

having a little bit of trouble eating and chewing when he eats his food.

So the first thing we're going to do is open his mouth and just see what's going

on. You can see the tooth is broken off. It should be as long as the lower one.

The other side fits as bad.

Oh, God.

At Taronga's Wildlife Hospital in Sydney, the vet team are preparing for a

excursion. Just make sure you've got surgical prep stuff.

Today we're going to be anaesthetising a capybara called Carlos and we're going

to be doing a thorough health check on him.

Vet Adelaide and her team will be examining Carlos from tooth to tail. Liz

McConnell to capybara keeper.

Hey,

we're just about to leave the hospital. We're about to do a capybara

anaesthetic. Whereabouts would you like us to part?

It's exciting to do a capybara.

Yeah. Yeah. The capybaras are unusual because they are a rodent. I think a lot

of people might forget that because of their size. They're so enormous.

I sort of think of them as almost like giant guinea pigs.

I'm actually allergic to guinea pigs and goopies, but not capybaras, so... What

about candy for the procedure today?

You want to

do him in four?

Yeah. OK, cool.

This will be the first time Darcy has hand -injected Carlos.

OK, hi, guys.

So, I've got... The hand injection for you. I've popped quite a big needle on

here to get through the tough skin.

Once he's down, we'll probably just kind of get him comfortable, pop him on an

oxygen mask, and then we'll do his health check.

All right, I'll give you that. Thank you.

Feeling a little bit nervous about it all. I've only done one hand injection

before with his brother, Pedro.

Come on, bud.

You can do it. Can you come down?

He's a bit nervous.

I think he definitely knows something is happening.

Can I grab a couple of the sweet potatoes?

To ensure Carlos the capybara is kept calm, try saying that fast three times,

Darcy enters the enclosure completely alone to administer the injection.

Sorry, love.

All Jacob and the rest of the team can do is wait.

Go ahead.

I'm just coming out of the den, so I think I got it.

Cool, good job.

He's just received the injection, which is really, really great. Darcy did an

amazing job.

Now we're just sort of waiting for that medication to take an effect.

The injection, a bit of improvisation, a new spot for Carlos, but he did really

well. And it's not long before the sedative begins to take effect.

Oh, I got him. He's falling over.

He's falling over? Yeah.

Naomi, shift to Adelaide.

Go ahead.

Just so you know, Carlos is lying down now.

That's good.

It's now time to transport this giant sleeping rodent so his check -up can

begin. One, two, three.

Good job.

Okay, we'll bring him in now.

Yep. One, two, three.

At Taronga Western Plain Zoo.

18 -year -old Sumatran tiger Satu is safely back in his den after a

trip to the dentist.

There we go.

I think his eye position's changed a bit. He blinked. He blinked. So he's

starting to rail.

That means it's now time for tiger number two.

We are starting the tiger anesthetic.

Here you go, big man.

Sakti is 13 years old and recently keepers have noticed that he's just

little bit of trouble eating and chewing when he eats his food.

A tiger's teeth aren't just for chewing. They're also an important tool for

socialisation, like playing, which means they're used a lot.

They fight with one another or they just rough play with one another and then

they bite, you know, big logs, for example, and just...

Day -to -day trauma.

All signs indicate that this tiger is going to need some serious dental work.

What a good, good boy.

Just how serious won't be known until he's sedated and in the wildlife

This procedure is going to be longer than Sartu, and so we're going to have

be quite strict about anaesthetic.

Right, folks, if we can get the stretcher carriers, please.

On three.

One, two, three.

Timeline, we'd really like to be out in three and a half hours. That's for his

safety. It's not the dental surgery the vet team are most concerned about.

One, two, three.

But rather the length of time the big cat is under anaesthetic.

We're ready. We can start.

Yep, you go.

and the side effects that can cause.

I'm just organising myself to get ready to do an examination of his teeth.

The keepers thought that he might have some broken teeth, so the first thing

we're going to do is open his mouth and just see what's going on, and then we'll

work out a plan.

202 appears to be missing.

Three is one all round with abrasion.

Four, one all round, complicated crown fracture.

You can see the tooth is broken off. It should be as long as the lower one. I

think it's probably lost a good 15 millimetres on the distal buckle.

The dental work and the anaesthetic time are adding up.

The other side is just as bad.

Absolutely smashed and part of the crown is actually mobile.

In a small pocket of Sydney bushland close to Taronga, horticulturist Laura

has returned to check a termite test trap she set a week ago.

It is a bit of a guessing game. It is a little experimental. We haven't done

anything like this before.

Laura is hoping to catch, if not 10 ,000, then at least a few hundred

to help feed Taronga's echidna residents.

All right, all right. Enough of the suspense already.

What have we got?

It doesn't look like we've got any termites in here yet.

Oh.

So this is the first time I've tried setting a trap.

I've had no luck today. It is experimental, but I'm quite certain with

more goes we'll be able to capture some.

Well, it was a nice try, Laura.

Termites have better luck next time.

We've only had the trap set for about a week, so it may take a little bit more

time for them to move in and start eating the wood.

As the famous old saying goes, if you can't catch termites in a park, try a

closer to home.

Something like that.

So I'm just out here looking for some live termites for our echidna.

Enter Keeper Beck, who joined Laura on the termite trail.

Back at Taronga.

Unfortunately, our horticulture team didn't have any luck in the park.

Maybe Beck might have better luck.

Oh. What?

A little too much?

Okay, I'll let it go.

I've just found this rotten log, hoping there'd be some sort of live

invertebrates in there. Here we go.

And I've just started ripping it up to see if there's anything in here.

Yeah. The suspense.

There's other little bugs in there.

Okay, okay, but are there any tasty little termites?

Yes, I've just found some termites.

Finally, termites in the house.

What a termite -y result.

Sorry. The echidnas are going to be very happy about this, so they'll be very

excited. If they're half as excited as I am, it's going to be fun times in the

echidna habitat.

Hello.

And stand back, here they come.

They're really enjoying this. As soon as I brought this in, they all rushed over

to have this yummy meal of termites.

You can see Robbie here is getting right into that log. So they're very, very

excited.

They're using their strong claws to rip open the log and then their beak to

probe into the rotten areas.

Their very long tongue, which is about 18 centimetres long, to slurp up those

termites. And it's just amazing to watch them doing this natural behaviour.

OK, so just doing some quick maths.

Two echidnas.

That means Laura and Beck only need to find 20 ,000 more termites tomorrow.

Good luck with that.

Back at Taronga's Wildlife Hospital in Dubbo, the

Matron Tiger Thakti's teeth are much, much worse

than expected.

Not a pleasant sight.

Got lots going on. Lots.

Fractured with a root retained.

Yep. Fractured with a pulp exposure.

Uh -oh.

Gets worse.

This fourth premolar totally fractured with a mobile. Oh, wow. As well with the

pulp exposed. That would be really painful.

So there's a lot to do. A lot to do.

The good news.

Dental specialist David can help Sakti.

The bad news... It's probably about a six -hour procedure all up and we don't

want to keep him under anaesthetic for that long.

Ideally, we want to be out of here in three and a half.

We don't want to keep our tigers or big cats under anaesthetic for more than

about three and a half hours just because of increased risk with the

levels. With time against them, the vet team need to prioritise... The

extractions would probably be the best thing to do. I agree. Because they're

most painful and also they've got all infections.

Countdown is on.

Three hours to remove Sakti's three worst teeth. We'll just watch his blood

pressure. If his blood pressure's good, we might be able to get away with it.

The first broken tooth... All right. Root's coming out.

..is removed in less than an hour.

Yay, got it.

OK, so we've finished taking out the top tooth.

Yeah. So that's a good start.

Good job.

The lower one, I'm hoping, won't take as long.

You know, we haven't had a challenge like this for a while.

The second broken tooth is proving a lot more difficult.

Got about five minutes until the three and a half hour mark.

Now we need to take away some of the bone on the outside in order to take the

tooth out.

Come on, you can do it, baby.

Wow. Good job.

The second tooth is out.

Sakti has now been anaesthetised for three and a half hours, the time limit

originally set themselves.

But they're far from finished.

Has he still got another bad one on the other side? Yes, we haven't started that

one yet.

Is he responding at all at that end? Like, anaesthesia -wise, he's happy?

Potassium's 4 .8, so we're in the danger zone.

If the tiger's blood potassium levels reach five, the vet team...

will have to intervene.

What sort of time do you think on that other tooth, David?

An hour.

At Taronga's Capybara habitat in Sydney... Carlos is lying down now.

Carlos, the Capybara, has just received an anaesthetic injection.

OK, we'll bring him in now.

We're going to bring in a stretcher because he weighs over 50 kilos.

Good job.

Six -year -old Carlos is getting on a bit.

So much like those two tigers in Dubbo, he's due for a veterinary check -up.

We're going to bring him inside to the dens. That way there's a little bit more

privacy and it's a lot more quiet and calm. So we can give him his health

there. And then when he's recovering from the anaesthetic, he'll be able to

of have a nice quiet area that he can wake up in and be nice and calm.

The capybara's health check should be quite quick.

But we might just pop a towel under there.

Temperature's 35 .4.

I'm just having a really good feel of all of his joints and of his

feet as well, just making sure all his digits are moving really well.

We may start to encounter some age -related health issues, but everything

really good.

All his joints feel good, including all his little toes.

So far, so good.

But the biggest issue for the largest rodent in the world is, you guessed it,

those pearly whites.

I'm going to have a look in his mouth and check all his teeth.

That's perfect, yeah.

Let's face it, it's hard to miss those front chompers, which for all rodents

never stop growing. But the back teeth are a different story.

Just going to have a look on this other side.

Compared to a tiger's massive jaw, Carlos's is a bit more crowded.

They do store a bit of food in their mouths.

It makes it a bit trickier to properly see the teeth.

And so now that I've scraped that food out, I can get a really good look and

just make sure there's no hooks or spurs that might be causing him discomfort.

Dental looks good.

Perfect. His teeth look really good.

But no Capybara dental exam is complete without checking on those hard -to

-miss, giant, razor -sharp forefront teeth.

Beautiful. That's what we want to see. Yeah, his front teeth are meeting

perfectly. Definitely don't look like there's any problems we need to address.

I think we're done.

Great.

OK, reversal's been given. Yep.

Thank you.

Time to wake up, Carlos.

He's getting older, so it's just nice to know that everything is going well for

him. Good boy.

And in no time at all, Carlos the capybara is up and about as if nothing

ever happened.

He's bounced back really quickly.

More importantly, our relationship hasn't changed after the hand injection.

I still have really great rapport with him. He's still coming over for his

training sessions really enthusiastically, which has been really

nice that the hand injection didn't impact that at all.

What was his potassium?

Well, it's trending up now 5 .2.

Meanwhile, at the Wildlife Hospital in Dubbo... We're in the danger zone.

..Smartron Tiger Tharkti's dental surgery...

is running longer than the team hoped and has become quite complicated.

The general anaesthetic has caused his blood potassium levels to rise

dangerously high.

Can you just keep your eyeballs on the ECG tray? Yeah. Is he around?

No, his potassium's blown up. Oh.

Vet Alisa administers a medicated inhaler. All right, so he's had his

That can help bring his potassium down.

Although Sakti's time under anaesthetic is now up, dental specialist David must

finish this last tooth to avoid complications such as ongoing pain or

setting in.

We'll just do a temporary treatment on this tooth. OK.

So I've taken the piece of fractured tooth off and taken the nerve out of the

tooth, so it's now not going to be a sore, and that should be fine for a few

weeks to a month.

So, David, you're done?

We're done.

All right, let's go.

The tiger's procedure is over, at least for today.

There we go. All right, let's bring the stretcher in.

We'll come back in a couple of months once Sakti's recovered from this

anaesthetic and we'll do another procedure where we do root canals on

his canine teeth.

One, two, three.

But as Sakti is being moved, he shows signs that his anaesthetic

is wearing off.

transporting an animal that's been under anaesthetic for that long, it is always

a bit of a challenge.

Fingers everywhere.

It's a very fine line managing the anaesthetic of these dangerous animals.

Concentrate on getting drugs if we need it.

The team need to keep him sedated until he is back in his habitat.

Just giving him 10 mils of propofol.

So I've just had to give him some top -up drugs because he was getting a bit

light for our comfort levels.

But the top -up sedation comes with its own risks.

He's now not breathing.

Quite often when animals are under anaesthetic, they stop breathing on

own. It's quite common in big cats, especially if they've been under

for a long time.

While vet Rebecca monitors his vitals, vet nurse Jodie uses a reservoir bag to

pass oxygen into Sakti's lungs.

For some reason we're not getting a pulse rate.

Why are we not getting a pulse rate?

You can hear a pulse, Bec.

I can't hear it.

You can't hear it?

Vet Catherine checks for a pulse.

It doesn't feel good.

Huh? Adrenaline? Yep.

Yep.

Adrenaline is used to stimulate and restart the tiger's heart.

So that adrenaline's in.

Do you want me to jump up?

Yeah, you jump up, Catherine.

I've got a heartbeat.

It's a heartbeat.

You got it now?

That feels heaps better now.

Yeah.

Much stronger.

24.

So we've got no spontaneous breaths?

No. Shakti needs to be breathing on his own before the team can return him to

his den and safely remove his tube.

He's not breathing, so that's not going to work.

Next.

It's one step forward.

And two steps back for Sakti.

Can you listen to the heart while I do this?

We've got no spontaneous breath.

At Taronga Western Plain Zoo, Sakti the Sumatran tiger is in crisis.

He's not breathing, so that's not going to work.

stopped beating while under sedation. I can't hear hardly.

It's now been restarted, but the tiger still can't breathe on his own.

Quite often the anaesthetic depresses their respiratory system and we'll often

have to ventilate for them.

I'll just keep him on 3%. How's his pulse going?

70. 70.

Yeah, so that's not too bad.

And so we were making sure that we were giving him enough oxygen through his

system. Just keep bagging. Keep bagging.

Heart rate's now increasing. It's going back to 73.

82. It's getting faster.

90.

Heart rate's 100.

Suddenly, the tiger's heart starts beating erratically.

122 here. I'm getting tachycardia. Heart rate's got an arrhythmia.

Pulse quality is not good.

No. It's gone into like a V -tach.

The fast, irregular heart rate is a sign the tiger could go into cardiac arrest.

Just keep ventilating, I think.

Stirring up another adrenaline.

His pulse is very erratic.

Can you get some calcium gluconate into him?

Yes, 60 mil. Can you listen to the heart while I do this?

Any reflexes up there?

Sakti's life is on a knife's edge.

He was central before.

Not like this.

Different.

Rhythm's better.

It's a normal rhythm.

Heart rate's 100.

Pulse feels better.

The combination of drugs will help stabilise his heart.

We've got spontaneous breathing.

He's spontaneous breathing.

Heart rate's about 84.

It looks like he might be stabilising.

That's a nice regular rhythm.

His heart rate's nice and steady now. It's a really good rhythm.

Yeah, colour's better than it was. It's not as good as it was, but it's better

than it was. The best thing we can do for him is get him in there and get him

off all the drugs.

Yeah, we have to wake him up.

Guys, we're going to move him.

We've stabilised him more than he was.

He's not particularly stable.

Anything can happen.

The sooner they give Shakti the anaesthesia reversal drug... Catherine's

reversal. ..the better his chances of a full recovery.

Wait for the door.

We'll just give him a half day.

Ready for a vessel?

Yep.

It's now a waiting game to see if Shakti wakes up.

Come on, dude.

Come on, buddy.

He certainly did give us all a little bit of a fright on the way back today,

especially after we'd invested so many hours into trying to give him a good

of health and look after those teeth.

He stopped breathing and for a minute there we lost his heart.

And it looked a little bit dire for a while there. We were all quite nervous.

But when he took the breath on his own and started to wake up, it was a huge

relief for us all.

Did you see that? Oh, good morning.

He just opened his eyes.

So we're incredibly relieved that he's come through this well.

Thankfully now he's stable, he's recovering, and I'm sure he'll have a

night's sleep tonight.

And the next morning, just as the doctor ordered, Sakti is looking like his old

self again. Though I don't think he or Sartu will be racing back to the dentist

any time soon.