Vets sedate 17 stone tiger for delicate operation to remove ingrown toenail

A 17-stone tiger who was sedated so vets could carry out a delicate operation to remove an ingrown toenail is “getting back to her playful self”, wildlife park staff have said.

Tschuna, a rare Amur tiger, spent Wednesday sleeping off the general anaesthetic after having a rogue claw clipped off.

The operation was carried out after staff at Yorkshire Wildlife Park, near Doncaster, noticed 15-year-old Tschuna, who weighs around 110kg, was limping and sensitive on one paw.

Head of carnivores Bex Brown said: “She’s a great tiger, we’re able to ask her to stand up and put her paws on the mesh so we could see she’d got this issue.”

The veterinary team injected Tschuna with a short-lasting general anaesthetic to ease the procedure.

The operation, which took less than 15 minutes, involved vets gently clipping off a claw on Tschuna’s front left paw to stop the risk of infection and remove the discomfort.

“Tiger anaesthetics are particularly tricky, so it was a quick procedure to ensure everyone involved, including Tschuna, was safe,” said Dr Charlotte MacDonald, director of animals at the park.

“Tschuna came back round relatively quickly and should have a speedy recovery, though she probably has a bit of a headache from the anaesthetic.

“We’re keeping her in the house at first to recover fully and then she’ll hopefully be back to her playful self again very quickly.”

Ms Brown said: “Any anaesthetic there would always be an element of nerves, it’s something we always want to try and avoid, but trying to trim it would have caused her pain, she wouldn’t have allowed us to do that. Leaving it would have been painful and uncomfortable for her.

“Also, because we don’t sedate them often at all, it was a good opportunity to give her a full MOT while she was asleep.”

Tschuna arrived at the park in 2013 as part of an international breeding programme to help support the species, also known as Siberian tigers, which came close to extinction as numbers dwindled to around 30.

She gave birth to three cubs at the park in 2015 – one of them, Hector, has become a father at Cleveland Zoo in the US – and it is hoped she will partner with three-year-old male Altai, who arrived at the park earlier this year, to produce more cubs as part of the European Endangered Species Programme.

Ms Brown said Tschuna is “a princess”, adding: “If we present her food she often puts the food on her other paw rather than off the ground.”

Published: 29/05/2025 by Radio NewsHub