Flop the penguin who lost her waddle is recovering thanks to unique idea from Dudley zookeepers

A penguin at Dudley Zoo which developed a limp has found her waddle again after zookeepers helped to rehabilitate her using a homemade baby bouncer.

Flop hatched back in April, but shortly later her mother passed away and her father started to leave the nest for long periods of time, forcing zookeepers to step in to rear her.

However, after moving to a juvenile isolation area to continue her development, she developed a limp.

She was seen by the zoo’s vet and started on pain relief and anti-inflammatories, but within 24 hours she could no longer support her own weight and was rushed back to the vets, where blood tests revealed a reaction to an infection and she was given further medication.

Within a matter of days, her appetite was decreasing and she became withdrawn and the zoo was worried for her survival.

Zookeepers got their thinking caps on and came with the idea of a baby bouncer to help keep her upright.

Dudley Zoo said: "Penguins are generally gorge feeders, eating large amounts in small numbers of feeds. However, as Flop now couldn’t stand, all of her weight was on her front which made consuming and digesting large volumes of fish likely very uncomfortable for her.

"Keepers began giving Flop lots of feeds with smaller quantities, which meant coming back to the zoo around 10pm each evening to give her the final feed of the day. They also had to resort to force feeding her to ensure she completed her course of antibiotics and any weight loss was kept to a minimum.

"In a bid to try and take the pressure off her internal organs, which would aid her digestion and get her standing upright, staff came up with the equivalent of a baby bouncer, which they handmade for her.

"Every morning keepers placed Flop into the bouncer to be fed, allowing her feet to just touch the floor. They hoped this would get her used to being upright and start to engage her feet and hips, leaving her in it for supervised periods of time, while they fed the rest of the hand-reared youngsters."

Those looking after Flop also constructed a tailor-made treadmill by adapting a baby walker for her.

Soon she started to use her feet to try to push herself up, but she still couldn’t lift her head, instead lifting her hips to slide on her tummy across the floor.

After getting advice from Toronto Zoo in Canada, who had a penguin with a similar condition, zookeepers were able to provide even more more support for Flop. She began to gain weight and the team moved her back to the isolation area in Penguin Bay for small supervised periods so she could try to swim.

This helped her recovery hugely and within days she started to lift her head and began standing upright without additional support. The bird team was also given a series of exercises from an animal physiotherapist so they could help her build strength.

Just over a month later, the little penguin was able to spend her first whole day by herself in the isolation area with the other baby penguins.

She's currently still there before she and the other gradually rejoin the main colony.

Dudley Zoo said while she's back on her feet, there will always be signs of the problems she's been through. They explained: "She will always be smaller and lighter than the rest of our penguins, and the slight hunch in her back will probably never completely disappear.

"But thanks to her determination and the dedication of our bird keepers, Flop, our very special penguin has found her waddle and we can’t wait to watch how she adapts to any challenges that come her way in the future."

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