Ricardo, the bull that rose to fame and captured hearts when he trotted along New Jersey Transit tracks in December, has been fighting an infection since Christmas, according to the animal sanctuary that rescued him, but is doing “great.”
“Ricardo is doing great, he’s on the mend and we’re waiting for the wound to be totally healed and then we’ll bring him home,” Mike Stura, the president and founder of the Skylands Animal Sanctuary and Rescue said.
In a Christmas Eve update on Facebook, the Skylands Animal Sanctuary And Rescue posted a video from Cornell Large Animal Hospital featuring Ricardo.
A voiceover in the video said Ricardo had an abrasion — described in a later post as a “half-dollar sized road rash” — on his right hind leg since they got him.
They took Ricardo to the vet, and he was put on antibiotics for the problem. At the time, he was fine, the voice said.
But on Christmas Eve, employees at the sanctuary noticed it looked “inflamed” and made the three-and-a-half-hour trip to Cornell “where they work miracles for us,” the voice said.
Cornell vets sedated Ricardo to flush out and clean the wound, the sanctuary said in a Christmas Day update. They also took X-rays and an ultrasound of Ricardo’s leg, showing the infection hadn’t spread to his bones.
The bull was given a full leg cast to keep from bending the joint too much while he heals, the sanctuary said on Facebook.
In the weeks since, the Skylands Animal Sanctuary and Rescue has been keeping Ricardo’s fans updated with pictures and videos while he recovers and undergoes more testing and wound cleaning.
Whenever they can visit, the team posts updates, ensuring followers that he has been a good boy while fighting the pesky infection.
By Jan. 14, the sanctuary said that Ricardo “seems to be getting better” “slowly, but surely…”
Stura told NBC News Thursday that the hospital “has a handle” on Ricardo’s infection and that all that’s left is “a bit of a wound.”
The employees at the Skylands Animal Sanctuary and Rescue said in an update Tuesday that Ricardo will stay at Cornell until he is fully healed.
“We will not be putting him at risk of developing another infection to save money or so I can feel happy that he is here with us,” the sanctuary said on Facebook. “Ricardo’s health comes before anything else.”
Stura said Ricardo will call the sanctuary home for the rest of his life. Once he’s cleared to return, the sanctuary will isolate him for a few days to be sure he is OK before he joins the larger group of animals who also live there.
Source: | This article originally belongs to Nbcnews.com
