Recovering Chilean flamingo defies odds

A Chilean flamingo from the flock at Washington Wetland Centre has defied odds after undergoing medical procedure.

Our team of keepers alongside WWT veterinarian, Julian Keleş, noticed during a routine check that 'TAX', a 40 year old Chilean flamingo, had some sort of abnormal growth on her bill. Julian and his team acted quickly, sampled the growth and sent it away for further testing to see if it was anything serious.

The tests revealed the mass was a melanoma - a type of aggressive skin cancer. As a team, keepers and vets at WWT decided to investigate the extent of the cancer, to determine the best course of action in terms of flamingo TAX’s welfare. In order to do this, it was decided that a CT scan would be carried out - something you definitely don't see every day!

The local team at Dragon Vets put us in touch with the team at Westway Veterinary Centres who had a CT scanner ready to go.

Vets at Westway successfully anaesthetised the flamingo and performed the scan - the team were fantastic and it was a smooth process from start to finish. The bird was back with her flock within a few hours!

Scan results revealed excellent news - the tumour had locally decreased in size and no obvious signs that the cancer had spread were found, something which was definitely not expected.

Keeper, Rhys McKie commented,

The flamingo is still doing great and has settled back into the flock very smoothly.

The initial prognosis wasn’t great and the bird is doing much better than expected. We are cautiously optimistic and think this case study would be a very interesting one for further research and study!

Our Chilean flamingos can be seen in their aviary daily when the weather is good, so keep an eye out for TAX and the rest of the flamboyant gang.

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