Get all your news in one place.
100’s of premium titles.
One app.
Start reading
Daily Record
Daily Record
National
Sean Murphy

UK’s first diabetic giant anteater at Edinburgh Zoo fitted with monitor usually used for humans

The team at Edinburgh Zoo have come up with a novel idea for helping one of their adorable animals. Nala the giant anteater was recently diagnosed as having the first reported case of diabetes in the captive species.

And vets are now managing her with a blood glucose monitor usually used on humans, after she appeared on the BBC Scotland series, Inside the Zoo, earlier this year exhibiting the same symptoms as people do before being diagnosed with the condition.

Dr Stephanie Mota, resident veterinary surgeon at RZSS said: “Keepers first discovered something was wrong when Nala was losing weight despite eating the same amount, or sometimes even more, than usual. We carried out a full health check under general anaesthetic, running lots of tests and found that Nala has type 1 diabetes.”

While the condition is known to occur in domestic cats, dogs and in tamandua in the wild, no other cases have been reported in giant anteaters.

The blood glucose monitor (RZSS)

“Our keepers did an amazing job quickly training Nala to take an insulin injection every day," Dr Stephanie added. "but the challenge for us was how to continuously monitor her blood glucose levels to ensure she was receiving the perfect dose.

“Taking bloods daily was not an option, and we did initially start monitoring the levels through urine samples but we decided to contact some companies who produced human glucose monitors to try and streamline the process and find a way which would be the least invasive for Nala.

“Dexcom, leading providers of this technology, kindly donated the monitor to our charity and we were able to apply it during one of her training sessions, which now allows us to check her blood glucose levels through an app remotely.

"Due to her lovely personality, Nala is the ideal candidate for this technology which helps us, and her amazing team of keepers, manage her condition in the best possible way.”

The RZSS team recently won a bronze award in the British Association for Zoos and Aquariums (BIAZA) awards for their efforts in animal husbandry, care and breeding for their work in managing Nala’s condition.

The wildlife conservation charity also works internationally with Dr Arnaud Desbiez from the Wild Animal Conservation Institute (ICAS) on the Anteaters and Highways project for the protection of giant anteaters in Brazil against road traffic accidents which pose a serious threat to the species’ long-term survival in the wild.

Don't miss the top culture and heritage stories from around Scotland. Sign up to our twice weekly Scotland Now newsletter here.

READ MORE:

Ancient trap once used to snare humans stolen from historic Scottish abbey

Seven fun days out in Dumfries and Galloway Scotland's 'most popular holiday destination'

Warning over using metal detectors at protected Scottish sites could lead to large fines

Sign up to read this article
Read news from 100’s of titles, curated specifically for you.
Already a member? Sign in here
Related Stories
Top stories on inkl right now
One subscription that gives you access to news from hundreds of sites
Already a member? Sign in here
Our Picks
Fourteen days free
Download the app
One app. One membership.
100+ trusted global sources.