Rare white alligator at Audubon Zoo is first gator in U.S. to get cataract surgery

NEW ORLEANS (WGNO) — A rare white alligator from the Audubon Zoo is now making history, being the first alligator in the United States to undergo cataract eye surgery.

Victor, the 7-foot-long, 15-year-old, blue-eyed white alligator a the Audubon Zoo’s been having trouble seeing.

“He was having trouble eating and had a cloudy eye,” Dr. Renee Carter with the LSU School of Veterinary Medicine said.

When zookeepers tried to feed him with tongs he couldn’t see the food in front of him.

“We noticed that when we were trying to feed him with the 3-foot tongs with pre-killed prey like rats, quail and rabbits, he wasn’t able to grab the food like other alligators. He would follow shadows to get his food,” Ashley Rabenau, Zookeeper at Audubon Zoo said.

So when that’s when Zookeepers took Victor to the LSU School of Veterinary Medicine where they took a look at the visually-impaired gator.

“We ended up doing cataract surgery on his left eye,” Carter said.

According to the zoo, this is the first time in United States history that an alligator’s undergone cataract surgery.

“We had to approach the surgery a bit different. We kind of had to strategize and work with his eye to see how he’d respond to medications,” Dr. Hannah Gafen at LSU School of Veterinary Medicine said.

“Alligator eyes are on the top part of their skulls, so when they are submerged in water they can still see above the water. For us as surgeons it made it tricky to access the eye, positioning him was difficult,” Carter said.

After a successful surgery Victor’s now doing well and can finally find his food again.

“We wanted Victor to go back to normal Victor behavior, that, as surgeons, make us the happiest.”

LSU veterinarians said that they even had to put special tubing in, so Victor could get his eye drops post surgery.

Victor has leucism, which is partial loss of pigmentation. He is mostly white, but has a few green spots. Albino alligators have lost all pigmentation and have pink eyes.

Only in Louisiana would an alligator need cataract surgery!

The Audubon Zoo also has another alligator named Two Spots.

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