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2019 Highlights continued
Layla Wellness
Rhino Check
Cutting-edge care Hudson polar bear
Layla Rhino is no stranger to “firsts.” In 2018, In April, the Chicago Zoological Society’s veterinary staff
the eastern black rhinoceros underwent the first CT used a CT scanner during a medical checkup on Hudson,
(computerized tomography) scan ever performed on the 12-year-old male polar bear at Great Bear Wilderness.
an adult of this species. The scan helped veterinarians The team acquired images of the massive animal on its CT
determine how to treat a life-threatening obstruction scanner and collected semen that is being used for assisted
in Layla’s nasal passage that was limiting her ability reproductive techniques involving two female polar bears.
to breathe. (Rhinos are obligate nasal breathers, Until recently, the CT-scan table could only accommodate
making it very difficult for them to breathe through animals that weighed 660 pounds or less. An animal like
their mouths.) The CZS veterinary team continues Hudson, who weighs roughly 1,000 pounds, was too heavy.
to provide cutting-edge care for Layla. In May 2019, But that changed at the end of last year when the zoo pur-
veterinarians used custom-built surgical instruments, chased a new table with grant funding from the Aurelio M.
produced by Zimmer Biomet, to surgically remove Caccomo Family Foundation and the Judith and Alan
part of a mass obstructing Layla’s sinuses. Veterinari- Fleisch Endowment Fund. The new table can accommodate
ans then performed a novel radiation treatment to animals that weigh up to about 2,200 pounds and it
further treat the problem. When Layla was given a interfaces with the zoo’s existing CT scanner.
second CT scan in September to monitor her progress,
veterinarians were pleased with the results.
22 GATEWAYS | 2019 HIGHLIGHTS
