🔗 Share this article

A Wildlife Rescue Center

A three-year-old female lion saved from conflict-ridden the war zone has received critical dental surgery to extract a badly decayed canine tooth caused by an infection.

The lioness was brought to The Big Cat Sanctuary in Smarden, Kent on March 14 following a fundraising effort by managing director the sanctuary's leader, who collected £500,000 to fund her and four other rescued lions.

The Rescue Center

The procedure was carried out on last week by dentist an experienced animal dentist, who has cared for hundreds of large felines.

"When I examined the lioness's oral cavity, I could see right away the broken tooth was highly inflamed," stated the dentist.

He thought the infection was caused by a trauma experienced over twelve months back, leading to germs creating toxins inside the tooth.

"The approach I follow is non-human oral health issues should be addressed in the most predictable, the most conservative and safest way," he said.

Mr Kertesz explained that as the lioness no longer required to catch prey, removal was the most "sensible and ethical solution."

The Animal Rescue Facility

The sanctuary reported the extracted tooth was 8cm (3.14 inches) long, with the dentist having to remove a pocket of pus from under the fang and close the large wound with multiple absorbable stitches.

He additionally conducted a root canal treatment on the opposing upper canine tooth, which was also found to be infected.

Briony Smith, curator at The Big Cat Sanctuary, said the operation was a "complete success."

She said the staff had spotted "a small lump on the lioness's face" but it had been impossible to assess "how serious the condition was."

"Lira will be somewhat sore to begin with, but now that the infectious materials are out of her body, she will begin improving over the next few days," commented the curator.

The successful surgery represents a significant step in Lira's recovery after her arrival from the conflict area.