African buffalo with a "Wooden tongue"

African buffel with a 'wooden tongue', a bacterial infection of the tongue what makes is hard, painful and swollen. This disease regularly seen in domestic cattle and is caused by the bacteria Actinobacillus lignieresii, which live naturally in the mouth. These 'natural' bacteria invade the tissue after a small wound in the tongue allow them to enter. The disease starts suddenly and affected animals are not able to eat or drink and rapidly lose condition. This buffalo was fine the evening before and was found in the morning with a hugely swolen, very hard tongue and she was not able to eat or drink anything. Without treatment this animal would get dehydrated and die quickly. Therefore the buffalo was immobilized and then treated with antibiotics, anti-inflammatories, vitamines and 36 litres of IV fluids. It took approximately 1 hour to administer the fluids and during the treatment the size of tongue clearly reduced already (see photos). The next day the buffalo was completely fine again and eating well. Before and after treatment (notice the wound on the tongue)