Alligator Dixie receives a health check

American alligator Dixie recently had a health check at our vet hospital!

The primary reason for this check-up, was that Dixie was observed swallowing a jandal in her habitat. Although after this she continued eating well, our veterinary team wanted to ensure this was not going to be a longer-term health issue for her.

Alligators can consume foreign objects because they're ‘sit and wait’ hunters. If something moves near them, they will often automatically snap and eat it. They also play with objects and swallow stones for buoyancy control. This means that in the wild, alligators can die from ingesting man-made objects.  

Our skilled veterinarians were joined by Dr Tommy Fluen, an external specialist experienced with endoscopy (where a thin flexible tube is passed into a patient’s body). Once Dixie was safely anaesthetised, Tommy was able to look inside her stomach using a small camera attached to the scope.

Every inch of Dixie’s stomach was thoroughly examined, and thankfully a jandal was not found – however we did find a lot of half-digested meat and vegetation! This means it is very likely the jandal was expelled previously. While the endoscopy was taking place, our veterinary team took the opportunity to check Dixie’s eyes and body condition, which are in great shape. 

“It would be amazing if Dixie never came across a man-made object in her habitat. Hopefully, our visitors can help us with that preventative healthcare by going home with everything that they brought to the Zoo. For many people, their trip to the Zoo is the time that they develop an interest in animals and start to care, and that's the first step on providing a better future for wild animals everywhere,” explains our head of veterinary services, James.

You can watch the full story on Wild Heroes! Watch Sundays at 6.30pm on Three or stream on ThreeNow.