Brookfield Zoo's rhino marks 8th birthday with 'cake'

BROOKFIELD, Ill. (WLS) -- After a year filled with two dozen life-saving surgeries and medical procedures, Layla the black rhino celebrated her eighth birthday at the Brookfield Zoo Thursday.

Zookeepers made her a birthday "cake" with fruits, vegetables and flavored ice to celebrate the day, one the zoo was not sure would come, it said in a press release.

Layla the black rhinoceros is moved to the vestibule of the Pachyderm House to receive a CT scan. The 2,300-pound rhino is being treated for an infection in her nasal passageway.

Jim Schulz/Chicago Zoological Society

Layla has been battling a life-threatening sinus infection since last December, and it was not until this August that she was able to comfortably breathe through both nostrils, the zoo said.

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Dr. Sathya Chinnadurai, senior staff veterinarian for the Chicago Zoological Society, stabilizes Layla, a 2,300-pound eastern black rhinoceros at Brookfield Zoo.

Kelly Tone/Chicago Zoological Society

"We are very grateful and appreciative to those who have worked closely with our dedicated staff in doing everything possible to help Layla and give her the best chance of celebrating many more birthdays," Michael Adkesson, vice president of clinical medicine for the Chicago Zoological Society, said in the release.