Saliega, a female from the Cub Centre of El Acebuche in Doñana, has been subject to surgery in the past 5th of July, after being diagnosed with a mammary node during her pregnancy.
During the last cub season, Saliega gave birth to a single cub on the 26th of May – read here related news. Nearly five days after giving birth, on the 31st of May, Saliega negleted her new cub, fact which required the intervention of the centre’s technical staff.
Since that time, the cub, a female named Jaipur, has been artificially fed, while maintaining however close contact with her mother, in order to keep contact with a member of her species during what is called the “critical socialization period”.
The reasons which led to the mother’s negligent behaviour are unknown, specially because Saliega is a very experienced mother. Among the main reasons behind this, the staff at the centre highlight a group of important factors like the late delivery, the high temperatures and the amount of energy spent during the brest-feeding period.
During the gestation period, the mother was diagnosed with a mammary node. This kind of tumors, in felines, is generally a malignant one, and carries the elevated risk of the formation of metastasis if it’s not removed in due time.
In this particular case, the removal of the node had been put aside due to the birth of the Jaipur, until the cub became independent of milk to survive.
However, due to the recent abandonment of her cub and the consequent ending to the lactancy period, Saliega was subject to a removal surgery in the O.R of the Cub Centre of El Acebuche.
Saliega is currently at he recovery instalations of the centre, and under vigilance from the vet team. It is hoped that she recovers in the next few weaks with relative ease and that she goes back to share her original instalations with her cub Jaipur.
Source: LynxEx-situ
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