WICU12

A team of veterinarians have finished the medical exam on the Erie Zoo's gorilla, Samantha.

And it's good news. The zoo says, so far, she's recovering well.

The tests took the top-notch medical team, about two hours.

The good news is they didn't find any tumors, and overall, Samantha is in pretty good health.

WICU 12News cameras were the only ones there, when Samantha was brought into surgery Friday afternoon.

Samantha has had abnormal bleeding for the past several weeks, which was thought could be a tumor.

A team of veterinarians and doctors from the Cleveland Zoo, Ohio State University, the Buffalo area, as well as Erie, all performed Friday's two hour-long exam.

During the exam, veterinarians did sonograms, x-rays, and pelvic exams.

Again, they didn't find any tumors, but they took blood and urine samples. Those results should be back next week.

But right now, doctors believe the bleeding was pre-menopausal bleeding.

The zoo was worried because they had to use anesthesia, and because of her age, that was potentially dangerous.

And although she is recovering well now, Scott Mitchell, with the zoo, says she's still not out of the woods, "The first sigh of relief is that she made it through the anesthesia okay, that was a high hurdle, and so far so good. We're still not out of the woods. But we're feeling real good about the fact that there was nothing that was really imminent, that she's not on a crate right now, on her way to Cleveland. That really makes us feel a little better."

A local dentist removed 4 teeth because of a gum disease. Samantha hasn't had her teeth examined for for several years, because they didn't want to put her under anesthesia. So, they took advantage, and also took care of her teeth.

The eye doctor also found slight cataracts in her eyes, but the zoo says it's really nothing to be concerned about, because of her age.

Friday night, Samantha was awake and recovering in her bedroom. Her keepers will keep a close eye on her as she recovers.