by Amanda Hara
NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Veterinarians at the Nashville Zoo are in charge of caring for hundreds of animals, but when it came time to perform a potentially life-saving surgery on an ape, they went looking for outside help.
Veterinarians knew an 8-year-old male ape suffering from an undescended testicle was at high risk for testicular cancer.
"We were concerned for two reasons one the testicle that remained within his abdomen was more at risk for cancer, and that was a genetic trait," said senior veterinarian Heather Robertson said. "We don't see this that often we don't have that many apes here at the Zoo."
Instead of navigating an unfamiliar operation on her own, Dr. Robertson called on a colleague, Dr. Thomas Landon.
"I've [operated on] hundreds and hundreds of humans. This will be my first ape," said Landon, a urologic surgeon for humans at Summit Medical Center.
Thursday, his patient just happened to be an ape.
He said the anatomy is similar enough to humans that it made sense for him to perform the routine surgery – one that would have been unfamiliar to zoo veterinarians.
After a quick 45-minute long surgery, both testicles were removed. The ape Ape is expected to return to his friends in the next day or so.
Had doctors not performed the procedure, the ape would have faced a big risk for cancer.
Email: ahara@newschannel5.com
