When Memphis, one of the sandhill cranes at the Wilder Institute’s Archibald Biodiversity Centre, fell ill, there was a race against the clock to determine the cause and to save Memphis’ life.

In September, Memphis fell ill, displaying signs of rapid and progressive weakness and lack of coordination. Adding to the challenge of treating the crane was a suite of tests for common viral diseases that came back negative leaving a mystery as to why he was ill.

Transferred to the Wilder Institute/Calgary Zoo’s Animal Health Centre, zoo veterinary staff soon discovered that Memphis had become sick with avian botulism—a paralytic disease that affects wetland species of birds.

“It’s actually quite a rare disease that we see in birds. Usually, what ends up happening, it’s usually an outbreak that we see in waterfowl… and they end up usually just dying,” said Dr. Doug Whiteside, Head Veterinarian and Senior Manager of Animal Health at the Wilder Institute.

“What was happening is that the Canadian Wildlife Health Cooperative was able to diagnose an outbreak on Lake Namaka, which sits right beside where our Archibald Biodiversity Centre is.”

Dr. Whiteside said that the only time the disease is really ever treated is in human infants and in horses, but even then it is exceedingly rare and there is no commercially available antidote available.

With intensive care failing to help Memphis, the Wilder Institute reached out to their colleagues at the University of Calgary’s Faculty of Veterinary Medicine and Alberta Health Services to try and obtain a supply of the anti-toxin.

“It was a very challenging situation. We knew that time wasn’t on our side, because the disease moves very, very quickly in terms of paralyzing the bird. Basically, they lose their ability to blink, they lose their ability to end up, later on, their ability to breathe properly,” said Dr. Whiteside.

What occurred was a near miracle of Memphis, as one of the UCalgary’s large animal internal medicine specialists was visiting the Ontario Veterinary College, who agreed to sell their last and only bag of equine botulism anti-toxin to the Wilder Institute/Calgary Zoo.

That bag was FedExed to Calgary, where it was used as a first-of-its-kind treatment for Memphis.

“We’ve never used it before, so we didn’t know how the bird was going to react to it. But we obviously had to make that decision, to try to save his life,” said Dr. Whiteside.

Healing a success, and now a model treatment for other birds

He said that what people might not know about the anti-toxin was that the antibodies that are produced for human and equine use for avian botulism come from horses.

“In this case, we were using a less purified form. We were actually using horse plasma, and so that was one of the things for us is we didn’t know how it was going to work, because we’re putting equine plasma constituent of blood into a crane. So that’s what we didn’t know if it would work or not, but we had to give it a try, and obviously it was successful,” Dr. Whiteside said.

That Memphis began recovering within the first 24 hours, and then was able to be nursed back to full health by the Animal Health Team was a testament to all of the teamwork and collaborative actions taken to save his life. That included custom made slings and aqua therapy to restore strength to his body.

Memphis was transferred back to the Archibald Biodiversity Centre after two weeks of care in Calgary.

“Supporting Memphis through his recovery has been an incredibly moving experience for our team,” said Caitlin Slade, Animal Care Manager for the Archibald Biodiversity Centre at the Wilder Institute.

“It’s a powerful reminder of why we dedicate ourselves to animal care—that every action, every late night, and every bit of care we give can make the difference between life and loss. Memphis’ strength and spirit inspire us, and we’re so grateful he’s still with us today.”

The results of the treatment methodology are set to be shared widely, said Dr. Whiteside.

“When we find something like this, we do share it with our colleagues at other institutions and try to get out there into the scientific literature, so that if somebody else experiences the same issue then they have a solution that they can apply,” he said.