Tusko the elephant was swollen and sore, but recovering at the Oregon Zoo Sunday after a dangerous surgery to remove his infected tusk.

Oregon Zoo

Veterinarians work on Tusko the elephant during surgery to remove an infected tusk.

“He’s doing very well, we took the time for this interview [with KGW] because we wanted everyone to know, ” said zookeeper Jeb Barsh. “This story of Tusko has gone around the world, according to my Google investigation, and we wanted everyone to know he's fine.”

Slideshow: Tusko's surgery, step-by-step

Slideshow 2: Tusko roams the Oregon Zoo

 VIDEO: RAW: Zoo veterinarians operate on Tusko

 VIDEO: KGW report on Tusko's surgery

More: Complete coverage of Tusko surgery

Tusko has been eating a lot of hay and fruit since he first woke up from his five-hour surgery which started Saturday Morning.

A team of vets took turns drilling, cutting and sawing to remove a massive piece of ivory, which was badly infected. Without this surgery, that infection would have likely killed him, the zookeepers said.

“It was a lot of work. It was about 9 inches of solid ivory we had to drill through and it was more work than we could accomplish with one anesthetic,” said lead vet Lee Finnegan.

The vets ran out of time and had no choice but to leave a small piece of tusk inside Tusko. They said it may eventually fall out. If not, Tusko may have to go through the surgery all over again someday.

“He's draining a little bit, he's had a tooth extraction. If any of you have had one, it leaves a hole that more or less weeps and that's what's happening with him,” Barsh said.

Tusko was a bit confused right after surgery, so he was isolated after the operation.

“He had a bit of fog confusion there and overcame that within the hour and today he was a perfect gentleman during procedures with him to clean him up,” Barsh explained.

He added that Tusko’s recovery was going so well, zookeepers plan to let the elephant outside for public viewing sometime on Monday.