The aquarium makes history in the first procedure of its kind for Kimalu, a Beluga whale

Kimalu (Kee-Ma-Loo), a 12-year-old Beluga woman, rests comfortably as a result of a historic procedure at the Shedd aquarium in Chicago. On Tuesday, July 1, Kimalu, born in Shedd, underwent leading surgery to eliminate a growing network of cysts near his breath on his head and neck. In the process, Kimalu has become the first Beluga known in the world to recover from general anesthesia. Surgery was supported by nearly 30 Shedd experts and across the country in the fields of zoological medicine, surgery and anesthesia.

Shedd animal care experts monitor Kimalu 24 hours a day while behind the scenes to ensure its well-being and well-being during the recovery process. This implies tackling your greatest comfort with antibiotics, incision site care, pain medicine, nutrition after surgery and additional attention to your care team.

The aquarium is encouraged by Kimalu’s progress so far and remains cautiously optimistic as his trip continues. Pathologists will carry out tests on deleted cysts to better understand their origin and illuminate future treatment.

“There is no gaming manual to anesthetize a beluga and take it to surgery, so we relied on our in-depth understanding of Kimalu as an individual and our incredible network of experts here in Shedd Aquarium and beyond to guide this procedure,” said Dr. Karisa Tang, vice-president of animal health in Shedd Aquarium. “Not only did we manage to help Kimalu, but we also made the story of the Beluga whales along the way.”

The experience and results of this procedure mark an important step for the Shedd aquarium, as a dedicated organization to advance the field of aquatic animal medicine and well-being. This successful result helps not only relieve Kimalu; This will change the future of beluga care around the world. Shedd plans to share his learning with veterinarians from around the world, fueling a greater level of care and well-being for this species both in aquariums and potentially for their wild counterparts as well.

The Heldd animal care team first noticed Kimalu cysts during their daily checks. After a few initial tests, and despite being weighed more than 1,000 pounds, the veterinary team decided to perform a computed tomography on it to determine the extent of the cysts and help form a diagnostic plan.

The results of Tomodensitometry indicated that surgery was the best option to better understand how the cysts have formed and offer Kimalu a better quality of life and the chances of prospering in the future.

The aquarium announced surgery last week on social networks, detailing the state of Kimalu and the need for surgery.

As with any surgical intervention, the Shedd veterinary team recognized that anesthesia posed an inherent risk. Anesthesia is particularly complicated for belugas, due to their general size and their unique physiology as aquatic mammals. This meant that even if the operation was a success, there was a chance that Kimalu would not tolerate anesthesia or may not recover when anesthesia was reversed.

“There were times when we had the impression that we all remember our breath simultaneously,” said Dr. Tang. “This experience is a memory that will remain with me for the rest of my career.”

When the time came to reversing anesthesia, the experts used several tactics to wake Kimalu, in particular by having his keepers there to speak to him and play vocalization recordings of the Pod Beluga of Sheld to hear.

Once Kimalu was awake and alert, the care team thoroughly returned it to water in a specially designed medical habitat and helped when it started swimming again. Shedd guards will remain with her permanently to monitor her recovery, provide sufficient nutrition and do everything they can to support her while she heals.

“His recovery will take time and is still not a guarantee, but we believe that this procedure has already brought a great relief to Kimalu of the discomfort that the cysts caused,” said Dr. Tang. “Right now, Kimalu can rhythm for his healing, and we will follow his example.”

The aquarium remains full of hope but kept, stressing that Kimalu’s recovery course has only just begun. Shedd will share regular updates on the recovery of Kimalu on social networks in the days and weeks that follow.

The Kimalu procedure could not have occurred without the instrumental support of the Shedd expert team, as well as several external partners and managers. These collaborators came from Chicagoland and across the country to lend their experience and their perspective and understood the Colorado State University, innovative Veterinary Medicine, The Veterinary Specialty Center, Brookfield Zoo Chicago, Seaworld, North Carolina State University, Zooradone, Indianapolis Zoo, University of Illinois’s School of Veterinary Medicine and Zoolological Pathology Program and Arthrex Vet Systems.