Dottie the penguin returns to National Aviary after recovering from pneumonia

Dottie, a National Aviary penguin, has fully recovered from a near fatal bout with pneumonia.

She spent more than seven months in the Pittsburgh facility’s avian hospital.

This week, she rejoined her “husband” Stan and 16 other penguin friends in the aviary’s Penguin Point, said Pilar Fish, senior director of avian medicine.

“It took a little more than seven seven months for her to recover,” Fish said. “She’s fully recovered and this week went back into Penguin Point.”

Fish said Dottie was diagnosed with pneumonia and a lung mass in October after a full range of testing in the aviary’s on-site hospital. Staff gave her oxygen and emergency treatment to stabilize her. After that came months of high-grade antibiotics and breathing treatments.

The medical staff had to customize therapies through the different phases of Dottie’s illness. They gave the penguin antibiotics through injections and her food. They also used a nebulizer three times daily to provide medicine that Dottie inhaled through her beak.

“She had X-rays, and blood work, and cultures and a full evaluation to make a diagnosis,” Fish said. “She stayed in (intensive care). It was a long road, just up and down, up and down.”

In the end, she said, it was Stan that pushed Dottie to full recovery. Penguins, like many birds, mate for life and aviary staff began bringing Stan in to see Dottie for short visits.

“She immediately perked up her head, and she talked to him and he ran right up to her and nuzzled her,” Fish said. “When she got stronger he came to live full-time in the hospital. We saw it with our own eyes that he would groom her and sort of just talk to her. When he would eat, she would want to eat, so she got her appetite back. It was really, really touching…”

On Tuesday, Dottie and Stan returned to Penguin Point for the first time since she became ill.

“They’re really enjoying life now,” Fish said.