Episode 4 - Messy the Western Lowland Gorilla

Messy’s general healthcheck revealed signs of a possible abnormality in her lungs which worried the vets, who did not want to move her unless she was completely healthy. A gorilla’s lungs are very similar in structure to human lungs and so the vets decided to invite human imaging specialists, Anthony Gough-Palmer and Caroline Allum from the Royal Free Hospital, to radiograph and conduct ultrasound scans of Messy’s chest.

Anaesthetising a gorilla

Anaesthetising Messy was a concern because, despite having recently lost weight on a new healthier diet, she was still quite overweight. To ease the trauma of any necessary veterinary procedure, Messy’s keepers and the vet team had been working with her, encouraging her to present her arm for hand injection, which is much less stressful than darting her for both the animal and the people caring for her.

To keep her clam and enable the vets to use less anaesthetic, Messy’s keepers first fed her a yoghurt which had been mixed with her pre-medication which would calm her and make her anaesthetic smoother. Messy then presented her arm and allowed Zoo vet Tai Strike to hand-inject her. Within ten minutes Messy was anaesthetised and could be moved by the team from her den to the treatment room. The vet team and the Royal Free imaging specialists worked together to radiograph Messy’s chest from several different angles, before beginning the ultrasound scan.

The radiographs and the ultrasound revealed no signs of abnormality. The Royal Free specialists found what they believed to be pads of fat within Messy’s chest, which are not found in humans and could be specific to gorillas.

Messy’s move

Once the vets were satisfied that Messy was fit and healthy, she could be safely moved to her new zoo in the Czech Republic, with her fellow gorilla and friend, Minouche.