Malaysian tiger in Germany first in the world to get artificial hip

BERLIN: An eight-year-old Malaysian female tiger in a German zoo became the first tiger in the world to get an artificial hip.

The tigress, called Girl, who suffered from severe arthritis in her right hip, is recovering but veterinarians say that it was too soon to determine if she was out of the woods.

They and the zoo caretakers say the next six weeks were critical for the healing process.

The tigress, now in the Halle Zoo in the East German state of Saxony-Anhalt, went through a complex three-hour surgery performed recently by medical experts from the University of Leipzig.


The Operation in Progress

At one point in the surgery, her heart stopped beating but she was revived.

A representative of University of Leipzig's Veterinary Medicine Faculty told Bernama in a telephone conversation that Girl received a prosthetic hip originally designed for dogs, with some modifications.

Dr. Peter Boettcher, a member of the medical team that performed the surgery, is satisfied with the condition of the 'patient' but said that great care was needed in looking after the tigress as she now faced a high risk of hip dislocation. Female Malayan tigers can live up to 20 years.

Because Malayan tigers are considered an endangered species, there has been great public interest in Germany in Girl's recovery.

Girl's hip-replacement procedure was very expensive but because the Malayan tiger is an endangered species - it is estimated that there are only 500 such tigers left in the wild - the zoo did not hesitate to foot the bill for the life-saving surgery.

Girl’s artificial hip was originally designed by Pierre Montavon, a professor at the University of Zurich, Switzerland, in cooperation with the Swiss company Kyon.