No need to think about it; Dao Meihua directly coordinated a private family plane to send the two of them over.
Shortly after they departed, Dong Sheng and Big Tiger, who had passed the review, were each placed in a cage and took a special plane back to their homeland.
Dong Sheng’s body has recovered quite well, though the possibility of complete recovery of the hind limbs is slim, and a specially made wheelchair is expected to accompany him for life.
This time after returning, Dong Sheng will live in the Tiger Park with Big Tiger, with some exhibition responsibilities.
Tigers like them, sick and disabled, generally do not participate in exhibitions, but Dong Sheng and Big Tiger are inspirational representatives of disabled tigers. Exhibiting them twice a month will give visitors a more detailed and direct understanding of their physical condition, avoiding the influence of certain adverse media or self-media people.
Chen Ying arrived before Big Tiger and the others and went directly to the northernmost section of the forest farm.
That area borders a neighboring country and is within the range of the China-Russia "Big Cat Country" cross-border protection zone.
Upon landing, Chen Ying headed straight to the forest farm, reviewing the detailed medical records of the female leopard provided by the driver on the way.
"The left leg and tail vertebrae can be treated conservatively, with manual repositioning, medication, and acupuncture. But surgery is a must for the right leg."
Anesthesia is crucial for a pregnant leopard undergoing surgery.
"Have you contacted the anesthesiologist?"
"Yes, we have contacted a professor specialized in veterinary anesthesiology, who, along with our park’s veterinarian, formulated the anesthesia plan."
Human anesthesiologists and veterinary anesthesiologists cannot be interchanged.
Moreover, human anesthesiologists primarily study basic and clinical medicine, followed by anesthesia internships and standardized training.
Veterinary anesthetists, on the other hand, need to study veterinary medicine before undertaking anesthesia internships and targeted training, resulting in a lack of necessary professional knowledge and practical experience in animal anesthesia for human anesthesiologists.
Additionally, there are many monitoring devices for human anesthesia, and the technological methods are more diverse. However, due to individual limitations, more reliance is placed on the clinical judgment of the physician for animals, making the cultivation of an experienced and reliable animal anesthetist challenging.
The anesthetist invited by the Tiger and Leopard Park is a renowned figure in the industry, who, with age, has been more involved in teaching rather than practice for several years now.
Upon arrival, Chen Ying, unable to settle Dao Meihua, entrusted her to the park staff, while he rushed to the Beast Hospital.
Previously, he had communicated with the attending veterinarian over the phone, and as soon as he arrived, with the equipment ready, they immediately proceeded to the surgery room to start the operation.
Handling these bone injuries posed no significant problem for Chen Ying, but ensuring fetal safety was a challenge.
Several hours later, the female leopard successfully awakened from anesthesia and instinctively attempted to struggle, only to have her head and neck gently but firmly held down by Chen Ying’s hand.
"Honey, don’t move. You’re quite injured and need to rest well."
The gentle voice left the female leopard’s eyes dazed for a while, and she even instinctively licked Chen Ying’s palm.
Chen Ying chuckled and scratched its chin.
"I’m here with you, don’t be scared; it’ll get better after a couple of days."
Now, it could only lie on its side to rest, with both legs fixed, and even required special care for excretion.
Fortunately, the female leopard’s constitution was quite strong, as its belly’s little leopard was unharmed despite the ordeal.
Even though it was just a small embryo, it was incredibly fortunate not to have been bio-degraded.
For three consecutive days, Chen Ying ate and slept in the treatment room.
The place was heated, with the temperature being not excessively high, suitable for animal recuperation. At night, he could set up a camp bed to sleep and wake up at night to observe the female leopard’s condition.
It wasn’t that the Beast Hospital was overworking Chen Ying, but rather, the female leopard became restless if he was away for even a little longer.
For its physical and mental health and stable condition, Chen Ying had to endure some hardship.
However, the Beast Hospital maintained a proper attitude, delivering three meals and two snacks to the small room outside the observation room, and prepared all the necessary toiletries.
They even specifically assigned an intern to accompany Dao Meihua.
Dao Meihua wasn’t a finicky person and understood that Chen Ying had important work to do. Besides occasionally messaging him to remind him to eat and rest more, she never disturbed him unnecessarily.
After learning that the Tiger and Leopard Park had patrol teams going out for inspections, she proposed joining them to observe the growth condition of northern plants.
Her request was quite simple and wasn’t difficult for anyone. The park in charge directly signed off, allowing the intern to accompany Dao Meihua on the patrol team.
A tour would typically take about two to three days, with field station huts available for lodging along the way, offering reasonably good conditions. As long as they didn’t act independently or open windows and get out of the car upon encountering wildlife, there wasn’t much danger.
In suitable places, team members could also enjoy a bit of snow sledding; an old tire would be enough to keep them entertained for an hour or two.
"Let me tell you, I saw a Northeast Tiger here before the New Year, a wild one, probably crossed the border from Russia."
The young man sitting in the front passenger seat pointed to a dirt slope ahead, covered with thick snow.
"Let me tell you, our forest farm has discovered five wild tigers from last December to this year, three of which had never been seen before. This shows that our forest farm has good conditions and environment suitable for tiger survival. In the future, more tigers will cross the border."
Dao Meihua listened to him with a smile, having someone chat like that made the journey less dull.