It’s not every day that a hospital that treats humans is called in to help deal with a veterinary problem. But medicine is medicine, and when a group of stumped wildlife experts asked to borrow fancy equipment, one hospital in central Taiwan was happy to oblige.
Leopard cats are an endangered species in Taiwan, but unfortunately, they are often hurt in road accidents and other incidents involving people. One of these tiny wild cats has spent the past ten months recovering from injuries at Taiwan’s Endemic Species Research Institute. But it hasn’t gotten much better, with recurrent infections.
And with only an x-ray machine on hand, caretakers at the institute have been unable to tell what’s going on. Finally, the time came to call in some bigger guns. Wildlife experts convinced a hospital to lend them a…wait for it…a CAT scanner.
The CT scans helped uncover a fistula in the poor kitty’s nasal cavity. With the problem identified, the institute can now work out a course of treatment, bringing this little cutie one step closer to recovering its health and returning to the wild.