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A FEW weeks of intensive care could restore full mobility to Kirikou the otter being cared for at the sanctuary. Tony Nevin, an animal osteopath who has travelled widely to help animals great and small, spent Easter weekend with us to assess Kirikou .
Jan and Pete have been caring for her since Christmas Eve, encouraging her to use her back legs and tail, which were completely immobilised after an encounter with a pet Labrador.
Jan contacted Tony Nevin after she heard about his work with creatures ranging in size from small birds to African elephants and giraffes in the hope that he could give his expertise in this area.                                                                                                           

Jan tempting Kirikou with fish while Tony gently encourages her to push up with her back legs.

After examining Kirikou, Tony said: “The good news is that she can use her hind legs. The difficulty is making her use them all the time, because she’s got used to not using them. “The task now is to use exercises and therapy to re-educate her to move as a normal otter would. In theory it’s feasible, it’s a question of harnessing that potential.” Tony had never worked with an otter before, but he had been successful using the same techniques on a badger, which belongs to the same family of mustalids as otters, ferrets and polecats. During his stay he manipulated Kirikou’s legs, tail and back, manoeuvred her legs in a bath and sprayed her with a hose to encourage more movement. “By the end of the weekend she was using her legs and tail more than when I arrived, so we have made some progress already,” he said. “The hard work now rests with Jan and Pete who will have to keep up this level of therapy. Hopefully within the next few weeks Kirikou will have got used to using her hind legs and she will take over from there.”

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Jan said: “It has been great to have Tony come to Shetland and show us what we can do to help Kirikou. “We were feeling that she could do better, but we felt we had reached a plateau with her and needed more expertise to help us. We’re hoping that what Tony has shown us will do the trick.” Tony said the level of care Kirikou has received means that she will never be released back into the wild, but if she recovers she could become part of a breeding programme for young cubs that could go into the wild.   The picture shows Tony demonstrating how to encourage Kirikou to be aware of her back legs. The constant cry is " Leggies up Kirikou!"

A big thank you to Tony for his wonderful talk on Saturday afternoon and all his practical help and advice.

Tony has not only helped Kirikou he's now seen otters in the wild and has fallen for Shetland!  Hopefully he will be back.

Kirikou climbs out onto the rock looking for her fish.

A week later Jan is delighted to say that Kirikou’s legs are gaining strength daily and we pray that this continues and she becomes more and more aware that her back legs do work! Meanwhile we’re shattered!   The picture on the left shows Kirikou doing her back leg push ups. The picture on the right shows her pushing really hard now with her back legs.

click here to see Kirikou experience water and eat her first whole fish

click here to see Kirikou with Simon King

click here to see Kirikou as a baby
 

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