Larry Vogelnest, Head Vet at Taronga Zoo

Our male Sumatran tiger ‘Satu’ recently broke one of his molar teeth. It’s quite common in the wild, but at the Zoo we usually only see this once in a while.

As not many dentists get to treat a Tiger for a sore tooth, we called in the expert help of Dr David Clarke and his team who specialise in veterinary dentistry. Satu’s broken fourth molar was in quite good condition as we’d spotted it very early on.

Whilst people dread a dentist's visit, Satu was blissfully unaware because he was under general anaesthetic as we fixed his tooth.

The procedure went really well and at the end we capped the broken molar. We’ll keep him on antibiotics for the next few days to make sure there aren’t any complications.

He should be tearing meat off the bone within a week.

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