A Houston Flood Leads to A Displaced Tiger | The Vet Life | Animal Planet

A tiger found roaming in the streets of Conroe. Police say it's dangerous to have these animals in city limits. The question officers are asking today is how did she get here? Dr. Ross, I have a tailor on the phone calling for you from animal control. She says it's urgent. All right, pass her through. Along with owning Cypher Animal Hospital, we also manage Conroe Animal Shelter. Here at Conroe Animal Shelter, we formulate a relationship with animal control. And animal control calls us personally in cases of emergencies. ACL Little, what's going on? Hey Doc, Mindy asked me to give you a call. She picked up something kind of odd today. Okay. She's gonna bring in a tiger. A what? A living, breathing tiger, like you find in the jungle. She found one and she's bringing it into the shelter. Who finds a tiger? You don't find a tiger. You sure it's not a big cat? No, sir. It is definitely not just a big orange cat. The collar and the leash was still attached to it. She thinks that it got loose from all the flooding, but we're not 100% sure on that yet. Okay. I know that you're really, really busy, but we need to get this tiger checked out. Dr. Blue is with a patient. I'm gonna go grab Dr. Levine and we'll be down there ASAP. All right, that sounds good. What up, bro? Hey, what's up? Where y'all going? We'll see you later, huh? Where y'all going? I'm about to ride with Mike. Where you going? To the shelter. For what? Gonna see a tiger. A real tiger? Yeah, a real tiger. You're making it seem like a tiger is a thing that you see. We do now? Yeah. So are you prepared to see a tiger? It's a cat. We see cats all the time. You know what to do with a cat? I know what to do with a cat. I know what to do with a cat. Are y'all messing with me right now? Oh, for real? I do, man. So hold her down, all right? Can I go? No. Sure, sure. Hey, Doc. Hey, C.L. Little. How's it going today? This is insane. I can't believe you picked her up in a neighborhood. Let's go. Dr. Levine and I are going to examine a dangerous animal. We're concerned about our safety as well as her well-being. It's a delicate balance. Oh. I told you all. She's beautiful. She looks like she's about four or five months. Probably weighs about 100 pounds. Yeah, that sounds about right. She looks pretty good, though. I mean, looks like somebody was taking care of her. I think she was someone's pet. I really do. I believe the tiger was kept in a small, confined area, and she wanted to get out and roam. With all the rain, with all the floods, the tiger could have jumped over the fence. We really don't know. It's very unfair for a tiger to be in a suburban area where it's not able to thrive. That's a wild animal. Who has a pet tiger? Want to get her out of the dock and start this exam? Yeah. Come on. Come on, mama. Come on. This way. Come on. Let's go. All right. That is all you. All right. Put her on the table. Want to just go ahead and sedate her? Yeah, we might need to. She's getting a little. Cut that out. She's trying to fold laundry. Yeah, right now, Nala, she's young. She's kind of playful. But you never know when that play is going to escalate to aggression. So we definitely want to sedate her because we still don't really know how she's going to respond. Come on, mama. I got it. She's good. She say, hey, you that boy that just stuck me. Put her on the table. All right, get the back of you. Get the front. One, two, three. All right. She looks pretty good, granted she got out in that storm. All right. Ears look really good. No signs of bacteria. No otitis in there. She definitely have her claws. But good thing she's not using them. She's got a strong femoral pulse. Perfect. Everything looks good. All right, you want to get her temp? Yeah, I get the thermometer. Ready? She's not going to like this. All right, good girl. Temperature's normal, 102. So I'm going to give her a feline distemper. Feline distemper is a combination of viruses that cats could get. Cats are prone to different upper respiratory tract infections. We want to make sure that Nala is safe while she's staying with us here in the shelter. Regroup. Oh, she didn't like that at all. Hey. We got to get her rabies, doc. Oh, she's starting to wake up from the tranquilizer. I don't think I want to give her any more, though. We can just do this one on the floor. OK, perfect. All right, just a real one poke wipe. I'm going to come on that side of you. I got her. All right. That's how I should do it. Perfect. I'm going to give her a clean bill of health. Do you think, you know, we dewormed her? We gave her all her vaccinations? You should get a fecal on her, though. What? We can wait till she volunteers a sample. I think we did all we can do today. Now I just got to find her a place to live. I think the best thing for her is to go to an animal sanctuary. Definitely. I'll start making some calls. All right, let's get her back in her cage and go rub it in Blue's face. It's been a few days since the tiger got turned into the shelter, and the owner still hasn't come forward. So we decided to go by and check on her. It's perfect timing because the storm kind of cleared up for a minute, and it's nice outside. So we're going to let Nala get outside and get a little fresh air. Get some vitamin D. You're good. Come on. Oh, yeah. All right. That's a big old litter box you got there. So if nobody claims her, then there's some sanctuaries that we could probably get her to. Yeah. We actually know someone at a sanctuary, so we'll go ahead and get that to you. Yeah, that sounds really good. She needs somewhere where she could really, you know, have the space and everything and the right environment to be in. She needs to be in the jungle. Yeah, really. Exactly. Not in the suburbs. Right. She just needs to run and play. Right. It's a shame that somebody would just take her out of her natural environment just for their own selfish reasons to try to keep her as a pet. You know, this is stuff you see in the movies. Yeah, it is. Look at Dr. Levine. Look at him. I think he's having way too much fun. I want to play. I want to play with her, but I don't want to play that rough. Let's just let her stay out here and chill out. She can enjoy the sunshine. Yeah, she looks like she's soaking it in. I know. She deserves it. Bless her heart. Keep an eye on the weather, though. If it starts raining, bring her back in. Bye-bye. Breaking news out of Conroe. The owner of that tiger found wandering the streets has now come forward. Tiger was running loose on the streets of Conroe, a dangerous animal. Judge Michael Davis says the owner of Nala the tiger abandoned her and wasn't taking proper care to make sure she didn't get out. He ruled the animal will stay in the custody of the city of Conroe and move to an exotic animal sanctuary. What's going on there, Doc? What's up, man? You saw the news alert? No, I didn't get a chance to see it. So did the judge make a ruling? Yeah, they're not giving the tiger back, luckily. And the tiger needs to be somewhere where it's got more space. Definitely. I mean, it doesn't need to be in a residential home. Tied up in a backyard. Right. Yeah. City of Conroe's got custody of the tiger temporarily. I feel bad even that we got it in the largest cage possible. Getting this tiger to the sanctuary is imperative at this point. She needs a lot of space to grow and to roam around. And, you know, if somebody keeps her confined, I'm afraid that she could become hostile. That sanctuary right outside of Fort Worth, they have availability. We'll finalize that and activate it on as soon as possible. Let's get that going. All right, I have that for you today. All right, cool. All right, bro. Hey, Sharon. Morning. What's going on? Hey, Doc. We have an issue at the shelter. We were broken into. Pretty sure they were here to steal the tiger. Is the tiger OK? Nothing's missing? No, sir. Just a lot of damage. Cut locks, cut chains. Really? Yes, sir. Mindy's contacting the police department now. Where'd they break in? In the back. They busted the glass on that back door back there. People are really losing their minds behind this tiger. I know. Were you able to see anything on camera? You can. It's a gentleman, but he's got a full face mask, gloves, hat. He means business. He's got bolt cutters in his hands. Go ahead and call the sanctuary and then let animal control know. We need to get that tiger out of there as soon as possible. I'm at the clinic right now. And Blue and Ross are both kind of stuck because all the road closures, all the streets are flooded. Don't wait for us. Let's just go ahead and get the tiger out as soon as possible. We'll get ready to move. Someone broke in trying to take the tiger. When I got here this morning, we knew somebody was here for the tiger. I think that because she was announced on the news yesterday to be leaving this morning, that it was a last ditch effort to get in there and get her. He doesn't come back in. And this is 624. And I got here right after that. Well, that's what happened. That's what happened. You spooked him and he just went out the back. So who the hell is he? Hey, baby girl. Road trip. Come on, baby. Come on. We're going to go a different way. It's time for her to go. She's been locked up. She is very confused. She's very nervous all the time. She doesn't belong in a cage or in a house. For me, it was an honor taking care of her. But I couldn't be happier that she is now on her way to a sanctuary to where she can be a tiger. I know. Bye, beautiful. All right, we're going to set up this call with Nala. Someone broke into the shelter that we managed while we were caring for the tiger. And we're pretty sure he was there to steal her. Luckily, our staff moved fast and we were able to get Nala out safely. What are you doing? I'm trying to figure this out. So today, we're going to video chat with the International Exotic Animal Sanctuary to check on Nala at her new home in Boyd, Texas. The fact that we can talk to people across the internet machine is an amazing thing. I love it. I think it's ready. We just got to hit the button. Hey, hey, hey, hey. What's up, boys? Bring the boys to look at the tiger. Give me some. Want to see a tiger? We'll let the kids see the tiger. You ready to see the tiger? All three of the kids? You ready? Sounds like a tiger phone. There you go. Hello. Hey. I'm going to show you where we're going to see Nala. We'd love to see her. She's in this quarantine area. Can you all see Nala laying there? Oh, yeah. She'll get up. Come over here in a minute. She's just trying to see. That's what I said. No, she was just playing possum trying to figure out what we were doing. See the tiger? How's Nala doing since she's been there? She's doing very well. She's got about 3,000 square feet that she's got access to at the moment, and also a night house that's heated in our condition. Yeah, it's definitely glad to see she's in a much better environment. I know tigers are solitary animals, but do you ever let them interact with each other? No. Unless they're raised with them from birth, it's really difficult to make them live together. So since she was raised in captivity, she really can't be released into the wild, right? No. She never was taught to hunt as a baby. Then all the prey animals are basically gone from the wild. We got so many poachers now. Her life expectancy in the wild probably wouldn't be but 12 to 15 years. But in captivity, she's probably going to make it 20 to 25. Well, we want to thank you so much for taking out the time for us today. I'm really happy that she's doing well and she's in good hands. We really appreciate that. All righty. Say bye, guys. Say bye to Nala. Bye, Nala!