My dog recently got some stitches in his tail, and had to wear a cone for a week. This made me think: what do zoos do when their animals have surgeries? How do they keep their animals from harming themselves by picking at their wounds or by pulling out their stitches? Do they have megafauna sized cones, for bears and big cats to wear? That sounds implausible I think I did read a while ago about a zoo that had to do an operation on a gorilla, and they painted her nails so that she would pick at the nail polish instead of at the site of the surgery. But if anyone knows of any other examples / strategies that zoos use to deal with this issue, I would love to hear more about it.
Not large animals, but interesting examples nonetheless: Wellington Zoo tied a yellow bandage around the tail of a capuchin, following an operation on his arm. Like the nail polish used on great apes, the purpose was to distract him. A study also detailed how head caps were successfully applied to macaques to prevent them from picking at cranial stitches. If they can’t be physically prevented from removing stitches, then distraction appears to be the main technique with notes of increased enrichment. Isolation from cage mates is preferable, but not always advisable in social species - especially those with a hierarchy.
I know of a chimpanzee who had his ear ripped off, an attempt was made to glue it back on but in the end he picked at it so it was removed entirely.
Wellington Zoo have a female chimpanzee named Cara who contracted an ear infection many years ago and responded by jamming sticks down there to relieve the pain. Needless to say that only made things a whole lot worse. An initial surgery saw them put a protective plug over the ear drum, but Cara promptly removed it and the infection returned. The decision was made to close off the outer ear, which successfully cured the infection. Her daughter Chima donated blood prior to the surgery, should Cara have needed it. Wellington Zoo chimp Cara may not hear after second ear blocked off
There are several instances of Great Apes picking at wounds longterm, particularly on the feet and toes in gorillas it seems, but also on the stomach sometimes too. An Orangutan at Twycross named Trudie picked at a self-inflicted wound so badly that she was removed from being on show to the public. A while later she was euthanased, which I suspect was related. A gorilla in a private holding(?) in the USA, I think it was 'King', similarly used to self -mutilate.
