Binder Park Zoo is once again thankful for the important partnership we enjoy with the MSU College of Veterinary Medicine. Christmas morning, 2021, began with an unpleasant surprise when keepers found Rusty, a male African painted dog, with an enormously swollen face! Rusty was one of a litter of 11 pups born at the Zoo in 2018. Also known as painted wolves and wild dogs, Lycaon pictus are among the most endangered carnivores in Africa and an important Species Survival Plan animal at the Zoo.

The Zoo’s veterinary staff treated Rusty for a suspected allergic reaction but over the next week, a significant area on one side of his muzzle developed severe tissue necrosis. As strange as it may seem for the time of year, the most likely cause of Rusty’s lesion was envenomation, the result of a bite from a brown recluse spider or an eastern massasauga rattlesnake.

Rusty underwent surgery to remove the unhealthy tissue, which left an open wound approximately the size of a baseball. He then received follow-up wound care until the tissue appeared healthy and was healing well. At this point, Rusty was an excellent candidate for surgical closure of the defect. Dr. Maureen Jay, assistant professor for the MSU Department of Small Animal Clinical Sciences and clinician for the Soft Tissue Surgery Service, traveled to Binder Park Zoo and performed a surgical flap procedure to move a portion of skin from his cheek to cover and close the wound on his muzzle.

Rusty spent the next several weeks recuperating at the Zoo’s veterinary hospital and later was successfully reunited with his pack. Special thanks to Dr. Jay and the MSU team for their skill, healing Rusty, and restoring his “good looks!”