On July 17, 2011, four former Poetry lions named Aramis (m), Aurora (f), Layla (f) and Eva (f) were rescued from Poetry Texas and rehomed at In-Sync Exotics. The owner of the lions passed away earlier this year and her family wanted the animals to be placed as soon as possible since there was no one capable of maintaining and caring for the animals on a permanent basis.
Even though the lions were not housed together at their former residence, we believe they can be integrated and eventually live together as a lion pride.
Our first step was to ensure the females were spayed before their introduction to Aramis, so there will be no future offspring. We learned Aurora was spayed years ago, so we only needed to spay Layla and Eva.
Yesterday, Layla voluntarily entered the transporter allowing us to take her to the vet without sedation. Like any surgery, spaying a cat has its medical risks, and sometimes it can be life-saving. In Layla’s case, her veterinarian discovered that Layla had about five cysts, a lot of fibrosis (formation of excess fibrous connective tissue in an organ or tissue in a reparative or reactive process) and she was diagnosed as having pyometra. Pyometra is an infection of the uterus found in unspayed cats causing a variety of clinical and pathological signs related to genital and systemic disease. Layla’s vet removed the cysts and medically treated the pyometra by removing her extremely infected uterus. A sample of her uterus was sent to the Texas Veterinary Medical Diagnostic Laboratory (TVMDL) to check for any signs of cancer or other health-related problems.
Today, Layla is recovering at home with volunteers watching over her 24/7 to ensure she does not pull out her sutures. Layla is on antibiotics for the pyometra infection and will follow-up with her vet to ensure she is okay to mix and mingle with the other three lions once healed.
Eva’s spay will be next week and we pray that her surgery goes smoothly!
Spaying a lioness can be a bit more expensive than spaying a domestic house cat. It costs about $2500 per lioness (not including the treatment of other health related issues discovered during surgery) and a lot of round the clock care for several days to make sure the surgery is a success. If you would like to contribute towards Layla and Eva’s spays, please visit our donation page!
We are looking forward to the day when the lion “family” is finally reunited together in the same play area!
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