Thai hospital performs MRI scan on tiger

Jan 9, 2012, 4:11 GMT

Bangkok - A Thai hospital performed what was believed to be Asia's first magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scan on a tiger, a wildlife rescue organization said.

The 12-year-old male tiger named Meow barely fit into the scanner at an unnamed Bangkok hospital, the Wildlife Friends Foundation of Thailand said. He was sedated for 40 minutes for Wednesday's scan, which was carried out at night to prevent upsetting other patients, it said.

'The management was very happy to help us, but they were concerned that a tiger on a stretcher, even under sedation, would scare the human patients in the hospital,' said Edwin Wiek, the secretary general of the foundation, which cares for Meow at a wildlife rescue centre in the central province of Phetchaburi.

The big cat suffered an unknown injury in his youth that gave him a lopsided walk, but a few months ago, his condition deteriorated and he could no longer stand, so Wiek, a Dutch national, searched for a facility that could conduct the MRI.

Personnel had difficulty fitting the big cat onto a stretcher and into the scanner, but the MRI, which produces detailed images of internal structures, found Meow had a fracture in his neck.

Spinal surgery was planned for the tiger at Bangkok's Chulalongkorn University. He has a 75-per-cent chance of recovery, Wiek said.

'They have done these MRI scans with juvenile tigers in the US, but it's the first time this has been done in Asia,' Wiek told The Nation newspaper.