BELA-BELA, South Africa — “Dancing with rhinos,” the South African veterinarian joked as he supported the head of his staggering, nearly 2-ton patient, an injured rhino woozy with sedatives.
Dr. Gerhard Steenkamp’s allusion to the 1990 movie “Dances with Wolves” injected humor into the serious business of treating the 5-year-old female rhino named Hope, a yearlong saga that began when poachers darted her and then hacked off her horns and part of her face. Since then, the mutilated rhino has had at least 16 medical procedures requiring anesthetics, testifying to her resilience and the tenacity of caregivers learning about the threatened species as they go along.
Last week, veterinarians fixed medical elastic bands across the sedated rhino’s wound, a new treatment. The bands are designed for humans who have abdominal surgery. They act like shoelaces, pulling the skin on both sides closer together.
A cloth covering Hope’s eyes and cotton wool stuffed in her hair-fringed ears blocked out movement and noise that might have jolted her from slumber.
“I see she’s getting a little bit awake because she’s flicking her tail a bit more,” said veterinarian Jana Pretorius, who monitored the rhino’s breathing and blood pressure while injecting antibiotics and other drugs. At one point, workers got the rhino on her feet and steadied her great bulk as she swayed. A rhino can suffer potentially fatal muscle damage if it lies or sits too long in one position because its tremendous weight reduces blood flow.
Wildlife vets say there is an urgent need for anatomical research on rhinos, which have been heavily poached for their horns, because an increasing number survive attacks and need treatment for injuries including gunshot wounds or deep cuts.
Similarities between horses and rhinos serve as a rough guide for drug regimens for rhinos, according to Dr. Johan Marais, an equine and wildlife surgeon at the University of Pretoria who works with Steenkamp.
“We don’t even know what antibiotics to give it, we don’t know what painkillers to give it, at what dosage,” said Marais. “We don’t know the anatomy of the legs. We don’t even know the anatomy of the face, where we work.”
The facial reconstruction of Hope, whose gaping wound left her sinus cavities exposed, is a see-saw of progress and setbacks. Still, the wound has closed by about 60 percent. Hope’s veterinary team say she deserves treatment as long as there is a chance of recovery.
“There are many nights that I lie awake and I worry and I wonder, ‘What shall we do next?’ It’s probably the animal that has challenged me the most in the last 20 years of my life,” Marais said.
