Tiger With COVID-19 Gets Medicines From New York’s Bronx Zoo Keepers

Nadia, the tiger who tested positive for the novel coronavirus in New York, and six other big cats who developed a dry cough at the Bronx Zoo appeared to be on the mend on Monday after doses of medication and tenderness.

"A little TLC by the keepers taking care of them, some anti-inflammatory medications," Paul Calle, chief veterinarian for the Wildlife Conservation Society's Bronx Zoo, said in describing to Reuters the regimen that was helping them to improve on a daily basis.

Some of the four tigers and three lions got antibiotics. All had "mild" illness and were expected to fully recover, he said.

That includes Nadia, a 4-year-old Malayan tiger who stopped eating and was the only one tested because the zoo did not want to subject all the cats to anesthesia, Calle said. Swabs of her nose and throat and tracheal fluid from her lungs were sent to veterinary schools at Cornell University and the University of Illinois, which conducted animal COVID testing, which does not use the scarce resources for the human testing that is in demand nationwide, he said.