How many Miracles can one bear have?

And I thought yesterday was a big day! Today we had to do an emergency GA and exploratory laparotomy surgery on one of our old girls Miracle. Miracle was aptly named as it was a a 'miracle' she even made it to our centre in the first place. She was originally snared from the wild (snare scars evident on her left front paw) and spent many years on a bear bile farm. When she was no longer producing enough bile to satisfy the bear farm owner he put her on a meat truck - destined to end up in various restaurants and traditional medicines. But the meat truck was busted en route and she ended up with us. Not long after arriving she had intensive surgery to remove her gall bladder and then again, earlier this year to remove a large mass in her abdomen.

She has been really on and off lately and this morning she was found in her den very depressed and lethargic with vomit everywhere. She wouldn't load into a transport cage so K. had to use the blowdart and dart her from inside her den (a first for me!). Once we had her sedated we wheeled her over to the surgery room to perform bloods and ultrasound. With no obvious reasons for her recent ill health we decided to open her up and have a look in her abdomen.

We took some biopsies from her intestines and bowl as they weren't looking particularly healthy. But thankfully there was no obvious tumour or mass, which was a concern before going in. So I spent the better part of seven hours staring at my anaesthetic chart, monitoring her vitals and trying to keep her stable. Every 5 minutes I check heart rate, respiratory rate, blood pressure, C02 output and alter the fluid rate and anaesthetic flow rate as necessary.

She is by no means out of the woods and we don't really know what is wrong with her yet except that she has intestinal inflammation and infection. She is currently very sleepy and still waking up from the anaesthetic. Miracle is a tough old girl who has been through a lot, but I just wonder how much more she can take...