Seven male Himalayan tahrs were strongly assumed to have accidently fed on foreign bodies in 2007. At the time, zoo caretakers witnessed missing fence padding, such as carpet, plastic awning, and ropes. The incident occurred the morning after the items had been set up to protect indigenous, wild long-tailed gorals from self injury caused by head butting the steel fence. Adult male Himalayan tahrs were obviously suspected of mostly eating the paddings mainly composed of carpet, thin and long plastic awning, and ropes. Even though they had not shown digestive problems, surgery was determined necessary in order to remove any indigestible foreign bodies. Left flank rumenotomy was conducted on seven male Himalayan tahrs from April to May, 2011. After anesthesia with xylazine, rumenotomy was performed on a concrete floor, with legs and head secured by ropes. No access to water and hay prior to operation for two days was needed to make the surgical procedure done quickly. Two sheets of small hand towels protecting against inflow of ruminal contents were beneficial during surgery. Antibiotics were administered intramuscularly for seven days. No abscesses at the surgical site were found after surgery. Like domestic ruminants, wild ruminants also ingest metalic or non-metalic, indigestible foreign bodies by accident. Therefore, simplified rumenotomy must be developed to apply to those wild animals to lengthen their longevity and to advance the quality of life in captivity. This case report is the first showing how to perform rumenotomy of Himalayan tahr, a wild ruminant, in Korea.

• Yong, Hwan-Yul
• Lim, Yang-Mook
• Cho, Dong-Gil
• Bae, Bok-Soo
• Kim, Seung-Dong
• Kim, Sung-Ki
• Hyun, Sang-Hwan