AssetID: 54655640
Headline: RAW VIDEO: Meet Kuvua - The Okapi With A New Skincare Regime
Caption: **VIDEO AVAILABLE. CONTACT INFO@COVERMG.COM TO RECEIVE.** Kuvua the female okapi is getting a new skincare regime - one aimed at battling her allergies and discomfort. Kuvua, who lives at the Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden in the United States, has battled her skin problems for several years. Veterinary staff and the zoo’s okapi care team have long suspected that allergies were behind her discomfort, though confirming this through testing has proved challenging due to the invasive nature of the process. “Kuvua has happily participated in many voluntary treatments that help condition and treat her skin when it becomes itchy,” said Dr Jessica Heinz, a veterinarian at the Cincinnati Zoo. “Baths, skin oils, topical cleansers, and other anti-itch treatments and medications got her through itchy spells, but this past winter nothing provided relief.” The symptoms escalated to the point where Kuvua began to lose fur along her neck from persistent scratching. As a result, the veterinary team decided the time had come for targeted allergy testing, with the aim of developing a bespoke immunotherapy treatment to ease her reactions. “This is no small task,” Dr Heinz explained. “Kuvua, and probably any animal, would not hold still for 82 tiny skin pricks for the allergen testing, so an anaesthetised procedure was necessary.” At 16 years old and weighing around 700 pounds (just over 300kg), anaesthetising Kuvua was not without risk. Fortunately, she came through the procedure well, allowing vets to carry out a full health examination along with skin biopsies, cultures and cytology to confirm an allergy diagnosis. To conduct the allergy testing, the zoo enlisted the help of Dr Joya Griffin, a veterinary dermatologist from the Animal Dermatology Clinic of Louisville. Dr Griffin prepared a panel of 82 allergens to pinpoint what might be triggering Kuvua’s symptoms – and the results were revealing. Kuvua exhibited inflammatory responses to nearly half of the tested allergens, suggesting she has at least a mild to moderate sensitivity to a range of grasses, weeds, trees and insects. “Dr Griffin will use this information to formulate a custom allergy immunotherapy treatment that Kuvua can receive on her tongue to help lessen her reaction to the allergens over time,” said Dr Heinz. “Other zoos have seen benefit with allergy immunotherapy in their okapi, so we are hopeful that it will help Kuvua. Unfortunately, it usually takes several months to see the benefits of this type of therapy so the team will continue with her other allergy treatments.” Visitors to the zoo may notice Kuvua has some bald patches and oddly shaped shaved areas on her neck – a result of both the testing and her own scratching – but staff remain optimistic.
Keywords: feature,video,photo,animals,okapi,cincinnati zoo,nature,natural world
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