Health Talk

Who doesn’t love a good story about a furry friend made healthy again?

This morning KARE published a story about Berlin the polar bear who, after a mid-October health scare, is back at the Como Zoo again.

After being found unresponsive by zookeepers last month, Como Zoo called in a team of veterinarians from the University of Minnesota College of Veterinary Medicine. Blood tests, ultrasounds, x-rays and endoscopies turned up signs of internal bleeding, so the veterinarians decided to do what was necessary to make Berlin better.

They performed an abdominal exploratory surgery to find out just what exactly was wrong and fix the problem.

“As soon as Berlin arrived at the hospital, we knew that we had to move quickly and efficiently,” said Jose Mendez, D.V.M., a large animal surgical specialist within the University of Minnesota’s College of Veterinary Medicine. “The medicine, anesthesia and surgery services worked as a perfect team to perform all the necessary diagnostic tests within one hour. Once we realized that she had evidence of internal bleeding, we took her directly to surgery. It is highly unlikely that she would have survived without surgical intervention.”

And survive she did! Berlin was given a green light by her U of M vets last week to journey back to her Como Zoo exhibit.

She is reported to be eating normally again and follow-up blood tests have shown she is making steady progress toward returning back to good health.

Congratulations to Berlin, her Como Zoo staff and her team of doctors! We over at Health Talk couldn’t be happier that Berlin is feeling better.