Every few weeks, Mauri and his wife Rita make their way from Waco to Fort Worth where Mauri undergoes chemotherapy.
They enter the medical facility and greet the receptionists, then wait for the doctor to arrive. As Mauri gets taken out of the room for his treatment, Rita becomes anxious.
“When they knock him out, you know he’s kind of drunk,” says Mauri’s doctor, Carlos Rodriguez. “He’s walking around with his little flippers down and he’s like a tragic old man. When we take him away Rita’s incensed. There’s drama and squawking.”
Mauri and Rita are penguins, and they’ve traveled from the Cameron Park Zoo to the Veterinary Specialists of North Texas for an experimental melanoma treatment intended for humans.
The two penguins are what’s known as a bonded pair, whose chicks and grand-chicks live with them at the Cameron Park Zoo. Rita’s 19 years old and Mauri’s 30.
“It’s a bit of a May-December affair, but they’re birds, so it’s whatever,” Rodriguez laughs. “They’re in love. Who are we to stop them?”
Mauri and other members of his colony were transferred from the Fort Worth Zoo when Cameron Park opened its new penguin exhibit. Just before that transfer, Fort Worth zookeepers identified his melanoma.
They arranged for Rodriguez to provide Mauri’s care after he identified the experimental new chemotherapy as a possible treatment for the bird.
The penguins travel to help reduce the stress of being separated and Rita is a fantastic partner. She’s protective, and while she doesn’t like her mate being sedated, she displays behavior indicative of a healthy bond.
Once the birds are situated in the exam room, the penguins are released to explore. After a few failed attempts at getting his weight, the team decides to sedate Mauri before taking his vitals and measuring the growth.
Rodriguez is excited: Mauri’s gained some weight since his last visit.
Rita is less amused: She circles a now-fully sedated Mauri and displays protective behavior. When he’s carried from the exam room to the procedure room, she calls out for him in deep brays.
One of the birds’ keepers stays behind to console her.
A little bit of paperwork later, and it’s time for Mauri’s chemotherapy to begin.
He’s receiving a medication developed by Privo Technologies. The company’s CEO, Manijeh Goldberg, developed PRV-PETRA to treat cancer in humans. The developers tout the medication as being tough on cancer, but easy on patients.
While the chemotherapy is awaiting FDA approval for use in humans, Rodriguez saw an opportunity to try the medication in animals.
Mauri was the perfect candidate.
“So far, his response has been amazing,” he said. “His success on the drug could lead the medication to be used in more animal species because it does such a good job of attacking the cancer while leaving all the healthy systems more or less alone.”
The side effects are minimal, too.
“Within a day he’s back to normal. He spends the rest of his day a little groggy but he’s ready for fish the next morning,” says James Kusmierczyk, the Zoo’s staff veterinarian.
Because the medication is experimental, the cost is considerably defrayed and the vets are treating Mauri at a reduced price.
Rodriguez prepares a syringe with chemotherapy and injects the medicine into Mauri’s beak. Kusmierczyk listens closely to Mauri’s breathing to ensure he’s not becoming too congested.
He steps back as Mauri regurgitates a slimy, neon-green mixture of bile and saline. The vet team places a suction down Maui’s throat to clear his airways before continuing to slowly inject the medication.
Once he’s finished the vile, Dr. Rodriguez places a patch over Mauri’s beak and applies saline to activate additional medication. Ten minutes later, the medication penetrates Mauri’s melanoma.
Kusmierczyk flips Mauri onto his back exposing a white underbelly that shines under the fluorescent lights.
“Look at him laid out like that,” Rodriguez says. “A gentleman of leisure.”
After a patch of feathers along Mauri’s belly is flushed with saline, he’s injected with a melanoma vaccine and a tiny, insulin syringe of reversal medications starts to wake him up.
Kusmierczyk wraps Mauri in a towel, making a “bird-rito” to keep Mauri calm as he gains consciousness.
Back in the exam room, Rita waddles to Mauri, looks him over and assesses her mate’s condition. Once he can stand, Rita herds him under an exam chair. In the wild, African penguins seek shelter in bushes and burrows when they sense they are vulnerable. Once she’s content with Mauri’s positioning, she stands in front of him looking between her mate and the vet team.
Within a few minutes, Rita, satisfied with Mauri’s condition, leads him out towards the caretaker. Once their carrier’s open, they waddle right in and begin nesting.
In a few weeks, they’ll do it all over again.
“Mauri’s on treatment three of four today,” Rodriguez says. “After that, we’ll assess next steps. But we’re happy so far.”
Now that Marui’s on the road to recovery, the zoo hopes his story will inspire humans to be proactive in their health care. While Mauri’s melanoma wasn’t caused by the sun, the Zoo wants to use him as an ambassador animal to encourage humans to check their skin regularly and use sun protection.
When looking for the warning signs of melanoma, the Skin Cancer Foundation suggests using the ABCDE method: New areas of pigmentation should be assessed for Asymmetry, uneven Borders, Color changes, growing Diameter and Elevation from the surrounding skin. Any changes should be documented and reported to a dermatologist for further evaluation.
It will be a few more months before the specifics of Mauri’s prognosis are clear, but the team at VSNT is hopeful he has many more years with Rita ahead of him.
