Qasai was lucky. The attentiveness of zoo staff, and the work of the Froedtert Hospital doctors who analyzed his MRI and spectroscopy scans, had ensured the brain abscesses were discovered before they killed him.
Zoo veterinarians injected the bonobo in the hip with medication to render him unconscious.
Then, Schroeder and a colleague, Kyle Bartholomew, both from the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Veterinary Medicine, injected Qasai with two additional medications, Lidocaine and Propofol.
These drugs ensured that in addition to being unconscious, the bonobo would be unable to move while medical staff sutured in place the breathing tube and inserted a catheter into his artery to measure blood pressure.
Schroeder had only received the call on Saturday, asking if she could help with Qasai’s surgery the following day.
“But this is not something you say no to,” she said. Few veterinarians ever participate in brain surgery on a primate.
On the drive to Milwaukee that morning, Schroeder and Bartholomew had confessed to each other: They felt excited, yet terrified.
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