‘That spark has dimmed’
Ellie Gressman started noticing something was off back in December.

Gressman, the lead giraffe keeper at Safari West, and others were noting that Zeyna had started favoring her front left hoof. Eventually it became clear she was experiencing similar discomfort elsewhere. Her gait changed. She moved tenderly.

“She started actually holding up one leg,” Gressman said. “That is very abnormal.”

Once sassy with what Gressman described as a spitfire personality, Zeyna’s head had begun to droop.

“If you do anything she doesn’t like, she will give you a little kick, she will snort at you,” Gressman said. “She is huffy, she is sassy and I appreciate it. She will put you in your place.”

Her pain started eating away at that fire.

“That spark has dimmed a little bit,” Gressman said before the June 19 procedure.

Gressman, Safari West head veterinarian Emily Cehrs and others who oversee Zeyna’s care worked to determine the source of her pain.

But giraffes are sensitive animals. And Zeyna, even if a spitfire, is no different.

“Giraffes can be very touch-sensitive and touch-averse,” Gressman said.

She is also more than a little bit headstrong.

They worked to have Zeyna “cooperate” with her care. They wanted her to be amenable to things like X-rays and treatments, and not to view them as being poked and prodded.

“It’s cooperative care,” Gressman said. “So they can kind of help with her own healthcare, to present her limbs for X-rays.”

Eventually, Zeyna was able to submit for a limited round of images.

That led to the discovery of cysts growing next to the navicular bone in Zeyna’s hooves. The source of her pain was uncovered, but not the solution.

“The cysts are between the bones deep inside the hoof,” Gressman said. “It’s very, very hard to access it.”

And dangerous.

“You risk the potential fracture if you were to try to remove or pop the cysts,” she said.

So the team sought ways to relieve the pressure.

The team tried pulsed electromagnetic therapy. The idea was to stimulate cell repair. But that, too, required Zeyna’s cooperation.

So her handlers worked to train her – often luring her with treats – to stand with her feet on a pulsing pad for an extended period of time, long enough to see if the electromagnetic waves would work.

“We’d have her there as long as we can get her to,” Gressman said. “I think our record was like 12 minutes.”

But there was no irrefutable proof that it, or any of the other efforts, were working.

“We knew we needed to go down a more intense route,” Cehrs said.

Cehrs had been in touch with Sadler, with whom she had worked when he was with the Oakland Zoo.

“I knew I needed some help,” she said. “We have worked with Dr. Ryan when he was with the Oakland Zoo. He came up to help us with a baby giraffe. I called him and he said he was willing to help with any giraffe procedures.”

She also brought in experts from the Oakland Zoo.

From there, the idea was to bring in Steve Foxworth and his team with Zoo Hoofstock Trim Program from Columbus, Ohio, to fit Zeyna with highly specialized shoes – flat rubber urethane pads cut exactly to match the bottom of Zeyna’s hooves.

“Our goal is to take the strain off the navicular bones – the third bone that helps complete the last joint in the foot,” Foxworth said.

“It’s to help change the way she bears weight when she hits the ground and make it more appropriate so the area that was injured can heal,” Sadler said.

But to do that, Zeyna had to be fully anesthetized.

And that procedure has perils.

“We knew that there are risks. There are always risks involved,” Cehrs said. “They are one of the more challenging animals to anesthetize safely … getting the animal down safely and getting them up safely is a lot.”

“We put a team together to do it as safely as possible,” she said.

‘It’s go, go, go’
That team gathered at Safari West early in the morning on June 19. Sadler ran through the plan, going over duties and procedures down to the minute. The goal was not only to affix Zeyna with her new shoes, but to do it with her under anesthesia for the shortest time possible.

“There will be lot of talking, so everyone just kind of listen, look,” Sadler said. “Everyone kind of pay attention and we’ll move as one.”

“The main thing is once she is down and once she is stable, it’s go, go, go,” he said. “We want to make sure we are doing this as quick as possible so that she’s comfortable and stable, because the longer she’s down, the worse it is for her recovery.”

Both Sadler and Cehrs reminded the team of the risk that the procedure might not work or that Zeyna might struggle coming out of sedation.

“We are hoping these shoes will help, but we have no idea if they will,” Cehrs said. “We are really trying to do everything we can for her. We have no clue if this will help. There is a chance it might not.”

Just before 8 a.m., Cehrs opened the stall door slightly and shot a sedative dart into Zeyna’s side. Ten minutes later, a second dart, this one with a combination that included Ketamine, was fired into the stall.

This combination of medication would cause Zeyna to eventually drop to her knees and fall to one side 12 minutes after the second dart was fired.

“We’re good,” Sadler said, giving the signal for the team to enter the stall.

The team used straps to adjust Zeyna’s 620-pound body onto a large bariatric mattress. Her head, elevated, was resting on a headboard covered in a soft cushioning taped into place. A towel was placed over her eyes.

She was hooked up to an electrocardiogram monitor so the team could track her heart rate.

She was intubated. A large animal ventilator began to breathe for her. Her vitals were monitored constantly.

“She’s breathing great,” Sadler said at 8:20 a.m.

The stall began to smell of burning as Foxworth’s team of three began using a Dremel tool to sand down Zeyna’s overgrown hooves.

With multiple hooves being worked on at once, Cehrs and her team took X-rays of the free hoof with a mobile imaging unit.

Foxworth’s crew used a stall across the hall to cut the rubber urethane to match the outline of Zeyna’s hooves. An hour into sedation, the team began using strong-smelling adhesive to affix the pads to Zeyna’s feet.

When a shoe was on, it was wrapped in cellophane to speed the adhesion. The second shoe was on and wrapped by 9:20 a.m.

At 9:29 a.m., Sadler, monitoring Zeyna, asked about Foxworth’s progress.

At 9:36 a.m., Zeyna startled the room by moving.

Sadler oversaw the administration of more sedatives.

“You concentrate on her feet,” he told Foxworth. “She got Ketamine IV. You have time.”

Support crews began clearing excess hay bales and equipment from the stall in anticipation of Zeyna’s sedation being reversed and her need to move freely as soon as possible.

At 9:44 a.m. while Foxworth shaved excess adhesive from the sides and bottom of each shoe, Cehrs began massaging and moving Zeyna’s free legs to encourage blood flow.

Amid all of the disparate duties and movements, Sadler encouraged calm.

“Let’s keep voices down,” he said. “We are just getting into that recovery period. We want her to be chill.”

At least two hay bales were left in the stall to protect Zeyna from a potentially sharp corner.

At 9:56 a.m. the stall was largely cleared and Sadler began talking to Zeyna.

“Her eyes are opening,” he said. “Atta girl.”

She immediately tried to stand. It was a good sign. After a stumble, she was up on all four legs. At the debrief meeting outside of the barn, there was palpable relief.

‘She seems a lot brighter’
Over the next eight to 10 weeks the plan is to assess how the shoes feel and determine whether to remove and re-apply the pads.

Gressman and her team will continue to work with Zeyna in the hope that she will learn to participate in her recovery and might be able to withstand any future shoe removal and application without the full sedation.

“It’s a big ask,” she said. “That is the goal.”

Gressman is hopeful. Zeyna, one of 10 giraffes at Safari West, has become a favorite. Not least because she’s a pistol.

And Gressman already sees small but meaningful signs of improvement.

“She seems a lot brighter than she had before the procedure,” she said five days after Zeyna got her shoes. “She’s more aware. Her posture is different too.”

She is still favoring the front left foot, but overall she’s moving more fluidly, Gressman said.

“She is just moving a lot more quickly and she’s more eager to move than I have seen in awhile,” she said.

When Gressman greets Zeyna in the morning and invites her from the stall and into an area where she can roam almost free, there is a sense of her old spirit, she said.

“She’ll immediately be ready to go,” she said. “She will leave and check out, whereas before there was some hesitation. It’s been exciting to see that.”

You can reach Staff Columnist Kerry Benefield at 707-526-8671 or kerry.benefield@pressdemocrat.com. On Instagram @kerry.benefield.