Thunder 2 ManiPurr
April 22, 2016
The staff at Turpentine Creek does their best to prevent emergency vet visits for the animals that call Turpentine Creek home. They watch their behaviors and as soon as someone notices difference in their behavior the senior animal care staff tries to find out what is causing the issue. Recently, the staff noticed that Thunder 2 was favoring a paw and was limping slightly. After careful observation, they decided that the issue was caused by his claws.
Luckily Thunder 2 is much more reasonable when it comes to sedation than other unnamed cats. A few chuffs between staff member and tiger, a little distraction here a little sneaking there, a quick poke of the pole syringe, and 20 minutes later Thunder 2 was curled up in a corner napping. Which did pose a bit of a problem, since it is not easy to move a 500lb tiger away from a wall so you can properly take care of him, but with 4 staff members they managed.
They double checked that the tranquilizer was in full effect and then entered his night house. It took some effort pushing, pulling, and struggling for a bit before the staff members eventually managed to maneuver the huge tiger away from his fencing so that we could fully access his paws.
Once they had the chance to truly check his paws we confirmed their suspicions, some of his front claws were overgrown and pushing into his paw pad. With how they were ingrown there was no need to call in a vet, TCWR had all the tools necessary here to preform the “Manipurr” on Thunder 2.
It took a little time but they managed to trim all his claws, do a full inspection of the large tiger, and even groom him a little big before the tranquilizer began to show signs of wearing off. The staff quickly cleaned up their supplies and after hooking Thunder 2 up to two fluid IVs backed out of the night house and secured the door behind them.
Thunder 2 napped throughout the rest of the day and is doing well. He might be a bit grumpy for a while, due to the forced nap, but he will be much happier without his sharp claws poking into his pawpads.
The staff hopes he will finally learn to spend some time doing self “Manipurrs” by sharpening his claws on trees and benches in his habitat. But, since this is not the first time they have had to give Thunder 2 a “Manipurr” they have the feeling this will not be the last “Manipurr” for Thunder 2 or many of our other cats.