Swimming with our biggest gator for the first time!! In the water with Dino, our 11’4” gator! check out the rest of this 20min interaction posted on my GatorChris channel!! When we first caught Dino he had a horribly infected leg & was largely unresponsive, which after multiple vet visits we learned he was also suffering from lead toxicity due to a lead fishing weight being stuck in his GI tract with a hook. After a lot of care, and a lot of moments thinking he wasn’t going to make it, and a lot of moments of him trying to kill me as we pulled him out for treatment, he’s doing much better! We still need to do chelation therapy to remove the lead trapped in his tissues, and surgery to remove the lead weight, but for now we’re just trying to get more weight on him to be able to survive the treatments. We’re giving him thiamine in his food to prevent the uptake of the lead currently in his system. If you’d like to learn more about the treatment plan and all the details, check it out on my GatorChris channel on the “main video app” I can’t name because of the algorithm. ~~~Our rescue gators are wild caught nuisance gators that would’ve otherwise been destroyed. The state of Florida destroys 8,000 “nuisance” gators annually, but we don’t have a nuisance gators problem but rather a nuisance HUMAN problem. 1k people a day move to FL, unsustainably developing the land, and a lot of ignorant people making a nuisance out of themselves. NEVER feed a wild gator, never have kids or pets near the water, and never swim in gator habitat! And of course, never attempt anything you see in my videos!If you would like to donate to the care of the sanctuary animals, we greatly appreciate any support!! You can make a tax deductible donations directly through our website bellowingacres.org #animaleducation #Rescue #AnimalRescue #AnimalSanctuary #ExoticAnimals #Animals #Animals #CuteAnimals #educational #Gator #Alligator #crocodile #nilecroc #nilecrocodile #reptile #scicomm #rescuegator - @gatorchris1