SPRINGFIELD, Mo. (AP) - A female giraffe at a Springfield zoo was put down this week after a two-decade-old ankle wound became infected and spread to her bone.
The Springfield News-Leader (http://sgfnow.co/1tFhTQn) reports Cheka was an important part of Dickerson Park Zoo's giraffe breeding program and gave birth to nine calves since 1999.
She injured her right front ankle when being brought to Missouri from California in 1995, damaging the hide to the point that it continued to be scar tissue.
The zoo says the giraffe underwent increasingly intensive treatment to reduce infection in the ankle area this summer and recently began having mobility problems.
The zoo says there was little chance of successful treatment after the infection spread to the bone. She was euthanized on Tuesday at the age of 21.