Vets perform delicate eye operation on rare lion

By Ed Chatterton

Brave vets carefully carried out a delicate operation on a sedated lion at a U.K. zoo after an old injury left him with a painful eye condition.

The rare Asiatic lion named Sahee is recovering after successfully undergoing the procedure to fix the issue with his eyelid at Hertfordshire Zoo.

The 10-year-old male — weighing an impressive 167 kg — underwent the specialist operation last Thursday (Aug. 14) after keepers spotted the wound was causing persistent irritation and discomfort to his eye.

Several years ago, Sahee sustained an injury to his eyelid which, despite initial healing, caused the lid to turn slightly inward.

As a result, hairs along the eyelid were continuously rubbing against the surface of his eye, scratching the cornea.

The zoo brought in specialist veterinary ophthalmologist Dr. David Williams, associate lecturer in veterinary ophthalmology at the University of Cambridge in a bid to resolve the issue.

During the nerve-wracking operation, Dr. Williams carefully removed a small section of Sahee's eyelid, repositioning it so the hairs no longer touched his cornea.

Dr. Williams said: "This was a fairly simple procedure; the only difficulty was doing it in a lion, and not your regular moggy."

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The veterinary team used the time to conduct a comprehensive health check as opportunities to safely examine a fully grown Asiatic lion under anesthetic are extremely rare.

The team gathered blood samples, took swabs and carried out X-rays to obtain valuable data on Sahee's overall health, to avoid the need for future anesthesia.

Tyler Whitnall, managing director at Hertfordshire Zoo, said: "Sahee's well-being is always our top priority.

"Although the eye procedure itself was relatively simple, putting a large animal like Sahee under anesthetic is not a decision we take lightly, as it is not without risk.

"We therefore took the opportunity to carry out a full health check while he was safely asleep.

"Sahee and our female Asiatic lion Sonika are an incredibly important pairing within the international breeding program, helping to safeguard the future of this species, so we're delighted that he is recovering well."

Following the successful surgery, the anesthetic was reversed and Sahee woke under the close supervision of the veterinary and keeping teams.

He has since been reunited with Sonika, in the zoo's Lions of India habitat and has made a full recovery, with his eye healing well.

With only a small population of Asiatic lions remaining in the wild, coordinated initiatives such as the European Endangered Species Programme (EEP) are critical to maintaining a healthy, genetically diverse population in human care.