The ailing tiger cub ‘Juhi’, which was transfused 250 ml of blood airlifted from Borivali National Park in Mumbai, continued to be critical yet stable. According to Dr Vinod Dhoot, assistant professor, Nagpur Veterinary College (NVC), and Dr Shirish Upadhye, surgeon and deputy director (research), NVC, treating the cub under the guidance of Dr N P Dakshinkar, professor of medicine, NVC, the picture will be clear in next 72 hours and till then it will be very difficult make any comment.“The blood transfusion has helped the cub regain stability. Giving second transfusion is risky. On Monday afternoon, the cub managed to stand up for five minutes but later gave up. It also did not respond to nasal feeding of eggs and milk and was alive on saline and life saving drugs,” Dr Upadhye said. Dr Dhoot said, “All the vital organs, breathing and heart of the cub are normal, yet its condition continues to remain critical. We will take blood samples every 24 hours to know about the haemoglobin percentage, which we expect must have gone up by 5 mg. It was 4.2 gms only on Sunday. The blood report is expected on Tuesday.” The veterinarians said, the cub will need time to regain. However, some positive signs were seen on Monday with the stool colour being normal. Besides, the body temperature in the night was 98 degrees. On Sunday it was 94, which means it’s responding albeit slowly to medicines and blood transfusion. “If blood would have not reached in time, the cub would not be able to fight against the odds,” Dr Dhoot further said. Meanwhile, doctors and conservationists Kundan Hate and Laxmikant Harkare, who were near the cub till the wee hours watching how the cub reacted to the blood transfusion, on Monday looked weary but did not show signs of fatigue and were present at the zoo in the morning to treat the cub. Zoo in-charge Dr S S Bawaskar’s office has virtually turned into a dispensary with medicines lying everywhere on the table. His wife Rohini, also a vet, too has pitched in to lend him a helping hand. In the meanwhile, B Majumdar, principal chief conservator of forests (wildlife), Maharashtra, visited the zoo to know about the ailing cub at 7.30 am on Monday. This was his second visit to the zoo to know about the course of treatment being given.
Nov 1: The tiger cubs were traced near Mendki village in North Brahmapuri forest divn .
Nov 2: Rescued from villagers and brought to Maharajbagh Zoo .
Nov 3: One of the cubs, named Juhi, was treated for stress, weakness and corneal opacity in the left eye due to injury. Blood, urine samples taken and saline injected daily .
Nov 5: Cub was detected with diarrhoea, tape worms .
Nov 6-12: Treated for hypostatic congestion, hypothermia, anaemia.
Nov 13-15: Was given life saving drugs as well as saline.
Nov 16: Blood of another tiger transfused into Juhi
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