Salt Lake City seal gets eyesight saving surgery
SALT LAKE CITY — Cataract surgery is routine, unless the patient happens to be an adult harbor seal.
Nika, a longtime resident at the Hogle Zoo’s Rocky Shores exhibit, started developing cataracts months ago, and her keepers noticed she wasn’t seeing their hand gestures as well as she usually did.
The Zoo invited two world-class experts in seal surgery to remove the cataracts from the 13-year-old seal’s eyes.
Dr. James Bailey, an anesthesiologist, and Dr. Carmen Colitz, a veterinary ophthalmologist, are old hands at this kind of procedure, according to Hogle Zoo Veterinarian Dr. Nancy Carpenter.
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