Today Andre & Arthur Tigers Had Root Canals

Dr Michael Peak, who is known as THE Pet Dentist in Tampabay, came to complete the root canals Big Cat Rescue started a long time ago on Andre Tiger and to do two root canals on his brother, Arthur Tiger.

Find out more about Dr. Peak here:  http://www.thepetdentist.com/

Back in February Big Cat Rescue had Dr. Peak attempt to repair Andre’s broken teeth, but Andre had died under anesthesia and it took 5 vets to bring him back from the light.  At his advanced age and having suffered from rotting teeth poisoning his system for the past eight years, Andre proved to be just too weak to endure the life saving dental work he needed.

Andre had broken off all four canines back in 2003 when he was rescued from NJ and sent to TX.  While in TX he never did receive any dental care but when he arrived at Big Cat Rescue in September 2011 he was in no condition to have surgery.

Find out more about these tigers:  http://bigcatrescue.org/tiger-rescue-2/

Big Cat Rescue waited until he was stronger and gave it a try in February 2012 but Andre obviously just wasn’t ready yet, given his age (16) and reaction to the anesthesia.  Today he had a pretty rough time keeping his blood pressure up, but thanks to Dr. Peak, Dr. Wynn and Dr. Boorstein he was able to have the root canals finished.  Because he had been only lightly sedated, he woke up very quickly afterward, with no ill effects.

Andre Tiger had shards of materials, probably from inappropriate toys he had been given before coming to Big Cat Rescue, deeply embedded into two of his canine teeth.  Dr. Peak was able to perform successful root canals on both of those teeth.  Like Andre, Arthur struggled a bit to keep his blood pressure up, but he is stronger and fitter than Andre and did quite well.

Big Cat Rescue spends 250.00 incl shipping to give their 100+ big cats the Indestructible Balls because cheaper toys are dangerous.  Most facilities do reckless things, such as giving their big cats tires and even milk jugs to play with.  Says Jamie Veronica, President of Big Cat Rescue, “We have had cats come here who have ingested pieces of such things, only to have them cause major trauma or death later on.  We just aren’t willing to gamble with a cats’ life.”

Big Cat Rescuers stayed with the tiger brothers until they were stable enough to walk around their enclosures without danger of drowning in a water bowl.  They are kept away from their pools for 24 hours  to make sure they don’t fall asleep and drown there.  If you are a supporter of Big Cat Rescue; THANK YOU for enabling this level of care for the big cats.  If you haven’t donated yet, it can really make you feel good to know that you are saving big cats and we make it easy at the Donate button at the top right of the page.