Despite an initial improvement after medication, Max continues to have a chest infection, first identified when he began to wheeze during feeding. He is now at Old Chapel Veterinary Hospital where he will undergo tests to try to establish the cause. We are all hoping it will be an infection that can be dealt with and not anything more serious.

Our veterinarian, Dr Peter Caldwell, prescribed medications twice a day, which Max had been taking. Each night we brought Max and his brother Stripes into their 4,500sqft feeding camp where we added a heater to the house and extra insulation to the platform den. We monitored the boys throughout the night using an infrared camera – our night security patrols got alerts when the tigers moved. The boys were sleeping together in the platform den. At daybreak after Max got his medication, the brothers would head out into the main Kakato Habitat.

It was a shock to see one of our powerful young animals sick, but a reminder that due to the extreme in-breeding of the animals we rescue, they are highly vulnerable to health problems even when saved at a young age. The tigers we rescued from Guatemala have suffered more health challenges than any other group of animals we have saved. Thanks to an anonymous donor, the ADIWS veterinary costs are being covered, without which we could not cope. However, there are many other associated costs including transport to hospital, dietary supplements and construction and developments to the facilities to care for sick animals. Donate here