How New Technology is Aiding the Treatment of Injured Animals at Chicago’s Shedd Aquarium

() The Shedd Aquarium in Chicago is now equipped with an on-site CT scanner to help diagnose and treat the aquatic animals in its care.

On Tuesday, the Shedd Aquarium announced that its CT scanner will be a permanent fixture in its state-of-the-art, full-scale animal hospital, which oversees the care of 32,000 animals. The aquarium said it has become one of only a handful in the U.S. with this technology. Previously, the aquarium relied on 2D X-ray images, ultrasounds and sometimes transporting animals off-site for scans to examine their internal anatomy.

“We’re evolving what’s possible in aquatic medicine and setting a new gold standard of care for every patient,” said Karisa Tang, the aquarium’s vice president of animal health. “By having this tool at our disposal, it expands our capabilities to deepen our understanding around health, anatomy and biology for the care and conservation of aquatic species.”

The aquarium said “significant investments” were made to keep the CT scanner, which was initially on loan from Antech, a global veterinary diagnostics company.

The technology enabled the aquarium to capture the first known CT scan of an adult beluga whale. In July, the scanner played a pivotal role in forming the diagnostic plan to treat a 12-year-old beluga whale named Kimalu, who required the removal of a network of cysts near her blowhole. Kimalu has since become the first known beluga whale in the world to recover from general anesthesia.

“Even beyond helping the animals in our care, we plan to share these scans to provide baseline data on what a healthy population looks like to advance knowledge in the zoological and aquatic veterinary medicine world,” Tang said.

To keep patients comfortable whether they’re sea urchins or critically endangered zebra sharks modifications have been made to the CT scanner, the aquarium said. These include waterproofing precautions, as many of these animals require water or moisture while briefly away from their aquatic habitats.