As some of you know, I’ve been putting together a website, and the story of Freya’s heal

As some of you know, I’ve been putting together a website, and the story of Freya’s health issues that she suffered in the 80′s was written on her bio page, but I thought I’d share it now as the deceased orca pages are much smaller and less detailed, so I’m not sure if all this info will fit on there in its entirety, so here it is…..

In 1986, a routine monthly blood test showed an anomaly with Freya’s white blood cells. Another blood test three days later indicated that Freya had the beginnings of an infection somewhere in her body. She was immediately put on a course of Amoxycillin antibiotics, but these had no affect, so the vets tried other antibiotics Caphalxin, Bacampicllin, Lincomycin and Doxycycline all of which proved ineffectual at treating the whale’s rapidly worsening infection. Freya began to appear listless and would only pick at her food. Over the next few weeks, her appetite dropped to almost nothing and she developed ‘peanut head’, a dip behind the blow-hole that is an indication blubber is being drawn away from that area due to starvation.

Freya’s condition was reminiscent of other captive whales that had died of chest abscess, so Marineland’s vet, David Taylor, suspected an infection in her chest or lungs. At the time, portable x-ray machines were not powerful enough to penetrate a whales thick blubber, so the Director of the park at the time, Michael Riddell, persuaded an aircraft company to lend them a new x-ray machine used to find faults in airplane engines. The machine, powerful enough to find a hairline fracture in a block of steel, proved useless and nothing could be seen on the images it produced. However, a week later, Freya developed a radiation burn, an inflamed circular patch of skin appeared on her right side where the powerful x-ray machine had been focused. The damaged patch of skin later fall out and formed an ulcer which took over three years to heal, although the white patch on her side remains to this day.

Freya stopped eating completely, lost even more weight and started to go into kidney failure and she was sequestered to the medical tank.
The Director got in touch with an electronics company that helped the French Navy develop their Sonar technology and they agreed to bring one of their portable sonar machines to the park to test out on the whale a week later. In the interim period, Freya was fortified with vitamin injections and hormone supplements.

A week later and with Freya looking “worse than ever”, the medical pool was emptied of water and the sonar machine set up. During the probe, Freya seemed uncomfortable and annoyed, “quite probably she could hear the irritating whine of the machine in a way that we could not.” She may have been able to feel the vibrations too, but the scan was a success and the inside of the whale could be seen. Freya had a raging infection and lesions between her ribs and on the outside of the right lung, and she had “chronic pleurisy.”

Freya was immediately put on a course of Erythromycin (a drug commonly used to treat legionnaires disease), and Cortistone injections. Over the next two weeks Freya’s appetite began to improve and “she started to swim around the hospital pool instead of hanging forlornly in one corner.” The sonar test was repeated which showed the lesions were starting to break up. In time Freya was allowed back into the main pool and rejoin in some shows.

David Taylor said “we continue to check the killer whale regularly and I still don’t consider her to be be absolutely one hundred percent normal, the healed scars in her chest cavity probably niggling her from time to time.”

Sources,

Vet on the Wild Side, by David Taylor

Confirmed by ex trainer at Marineland who worked with Freya (not Hargrove). Private conversation.

Photo of Freya having one of the x-rays is by Marineland Antibes (David Taylor is the man on the left in the grey)