We meet Flop the penguin at Dudley Zoo, who is now completely rehabilitated after being unable to walk.

Express & Star

Transcript

00:00Hello, I'm James McRaevich and welcome to Dudley Zoo. More specifically, welcome to

00:03Penguin Bay and the isolation centre where some of the younger penguins are

00:07going in here. I'm here with Nicola, she is one of the many keepers here at the

00:12zoo. Tell us a bit about what we're here for today. Tell us about Flop first of all.

00:16So yeah, you guys are here to meet Flop. She's one of the penguins we've hand-reared

00:19this year and unfortunately she did encounter a few health problems a

00:22while ago so it's just a bit of a happy story about her recovery really. I mean

00:26what was the story about, what did she get ill with first of all and what's

00:29been the sort of recovery since? So basically she started off life just fine

00:33but we've been hand-rearing for a little while and she developed a bit of a limp

00:36and then within 24 hours she was completely off her feet, couldn't move at

00:40all. Took her to the vet, she had x-rays, she had bloods and that actually

00:44identified that she was fighting an infection. So we started off on

00:48antibiotics and from then on it's basically been trials and tribulations

00:53of trying to get her to use her feet again and her legs. And it's not just been

00:56sort of one process, you've tried all sorts of different ways to get her

00:58healthy again. Yeah so originally because she was such a young bird she was still

01:01growing at the time when this happened so the first part of the battle was

01:04actually getting enough food into her that she could take her medication and

01:08she didn't get too stunted in her growth and then after that once the

01:12infection was cleared up it was a case of trying to get to regain the use of a

01:16leg so we tried, and these were all homemade, a baby bouncer, a treadmill and

01:21like a stroller that you maybe put a toddler in when they're sort of learning

01:25to walk. So we tried doing all sorts of penguin friendly versions of that sort

01:28of thing. What was the thing that ultimately succeeded? Realistically it

01:32was her and her attitude really. She never actually gave up at any point and

01:36but once she was big enough and we could bring her up here, I mean all of those

01:40things I've just listed were basically to get her to start engaging her hips

01:43and start to get her taking her own body weight. But once she could join the

01:47other penguins to an extent but getting that pool, a lot of hydrotherapy, we've

01:51also had a physiotherapist in to see her. But all in all it's been her effort. If

01:55she'd have given up at any point then you know we wouldn't have got to this

01:58point. And you've now got a happy and healthy penguin? We do and the big hope

02:01is that she should be out and all of the other boys and girls in here will be

02:05able to go out and join the colony and be fully productive in penguin society.

02:08So all in all it's a good news story for Dudley Zoo and Castle? Absolutely

02:12fantastic news for us. From something that started off at one point was very

02:15very bleak in its outlook, it's a fantastic happy ending for us. And if

02:19people want to come and see Flop, when can they do so? Absolutely, Dudley Zoo is

02:23open 364 days of the year anyway. Our grotto starts up so we're hoping there'll

02:27be lots of people coming to see us soon. Obviously she is in this isolation

02:30area but normally this door is open, they've got freedom to come and go as

02:33they please. And then hopefully we will have them out in the main group

02:36within the next couple of months. So come and see penguins, come and see Santa and

02:40come and see Flop because this is a good news story.

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