Houdini, a four-year-old white rhino bull, has already lived a life marked by both tragedy and resilience. Years ago, in a brutal poaching incident, Houdini was shot through the nose.

 

He survived the trauma and began his recovery at The Rhino Orphanage in Limpopo under the watchful care of veterinarian, Dr Pierre Bester. Despite healing well at first, months later the team noticed something troubling—Houdini was struggling to breathe through one of his nostrils. Over time, the problem worsened.

 

Concerned, Dr Bester performed a nasal endoscopy and found pink coloured tissue obstructing the entire right nasal passage.

 

“For rhinos, this is no small problem”, Dr Bester says. “Unlike humans, they can only breathe through their nose. Moreover, their sense of smell plays a vital role in their interaction with the environment. For Houdini, the obstruction didn’t just threaten his ability to breathe—it threatened his quality of life. It was thus critical to attempt correcting the nasal passage.”

 

Recognizing the severity of the case, he referred Houdini to Professor Gerhard Steenkamp, veterinary specialist in dentistry and maxillofacial surgery, at the faculty's Onderstepoort Veterinary Academic Hospital (OVAH) for further evaluation and potential intervention.

 

A CT scan of Houdini’s head was performed, revealing a grim picture: the lesion was so extensive that not only was the right nasal passage completely blocked, but the growth was beginning to encroach on the left nasal passage as well. It appeared as if new bone was beginning to form in the nose where the bullet destroyed all the existing bone but these changes in bone growth inside the nose was causing a total blockage of the right nasal passage which meant that the animal could not breathe normal on that side.

 

While low-invasive laser surgery was initially considered, the lesion's size rendered this approach unfeasible. A decision was then taken by Prof Steenkamp and specialist equine surgeon Dr Elza Hollenbach to perform fully invasive or open surgery. “We knew we had to act fast,” said Prof Steenkamp. “This wasn’t just about clearing a nasal passage—it was about giving Houdini back his ability to live a normal rhino life.”

 

Houdini spent a few days recovering in the wildlife clinic’s specialised bomas from his long CT scan procedure. Recovery was key to ensure that he is in the best shape for the surgery which was expected to take several hours. Once deemed fit and recovered he was darted by specialist wildlife veterinarian, Dr Jacques O’Dell with a combination of anaesthetic drugs in the boma and then ‘walked’ to the theatre complex.

 

Performing surgery on a white rhino is always a daunting task, especially due to the anaesthetic risks involved. “These animals often suffer from severe cardiopulmonary complications under sedation—even healthy individuals with fully functional airways. In Houdini’s case, with compromised breathing capacity, the anaesthesia posed a significant challenge,” Dr O’Dell says. Despite these risks, the veterinary team proceeded with extreme care.

 

According to Prof Steenkamp, the surgery itself was challenging. “We had to access from the right on the side of the rhino’s face. You cannot enter from the top because he’s obviously got horns thus one has to surgically enter from the side just under the horns where a paranasal sinus is located to access the nasal passage,” Prof Steenkamp says.

 

Although there has been a vast body of research published on rhino anaesthesia and immobilization protocols over the past few decades, these have focussed on relatively quick field procedures lasting less than an hour in healthy animals. Thus, data from horse anaesthesia was extrapolated to this case.

 

“We know that anaesthesia lasting for longer than 2 hours in horses increases the risk of mortality two-fold, with this risk doubling for every subsequent hour,” said Dr Abdur Kadwa, specialist veterinary anaesthesiologist at the faculty who was leading the anaesthetics team during the procedure. “These risks stem from the rhino’s own body weight compressing blood supply to vital organs and muscles, therefore we had to strike a delicate balance between ensuring stability of his blood pressure and keeping a wild animal safely asleep and pain free.”

 

Ironically, the rhino had to undergo a rhinotomy (cutting into the nasal cavity), a procedure in which significant bleeding can take place. “Unfortunately, no fresh whole blood that are typed and matched were available, so we employed a technique called haemodilution,” Dr Kadwa said.

 

He explained that haemodilution involves collecting a significant proportion of the patient’s own blood which was then replaced by intravenous fluids. “Therefore, if Houdini bled, he would have lost a smaller proportion of actual blood and have had his own blood for transfusion, negating the risks of transfusion reactions," Dr Kadwa says.

 

The use of the haemodilution technique to manage blood loss in rhinos has not been reported in veterinary literature, however, it has been applied in horses, cats and dogs. As far as it is known this is the first time it has been applied in South Africa and probably the world.

 

"All in all the anaesthesiology team, including fellow anaesthesiologist Dr Chris Blignaut and resident Dr Cizelle Naude were quite thrilled at successfully keeping Houdini asleep for 5 hours and 55 minutes, without any major complications,” Dr Kadwa concludes.

 

 

After the marathon operation, Houdini was moved to a specialized boma in the faculty’s wildlife clinic where he was closely monitored for post-operative complications under the watchful care of Dr O’Dell, his colleagues and students.

 

Fortunately, the recovery went smoothly. Within a few days, Houdini was up and about, and by the end of the week, he was ready to return home where he is reportedly doing very well.

 

“Seeing him walk out of the boma, breathing freely again was an emotional moment for all of us,” said Prof Steenkamp. “He’s a fighter, and he’s earned every breath.”