The bird was found more than 3000km from its Antarctic home on Peka Peka Beach, 60km north of Wellington, last Monday. It was taken to Wellington Zoo for treatment on Friday after vets discovered it was eating sand.
Yesterday morning they removed about half of what was in its system with help from Wellington Hospital gastroenterologist John Wyeth.
Wellington Zoo spokeswoman Kate Baker told NZPA the penguin was "still looking good" this morning but had a "fair amount" of sand in its system.
"Today it will continue to be on the IV fluids...and basically we are hoping it will pass more of the sand naturally," Ms Baker said.
It was being fed a special diet of fish slurry and given laxatives to encourage it to pass the sand.
The penguin would be x-rayed tomorrow and whether it would undergo further operations depended on how much sand remained in its system.
She said an advisory meeting would be held today to decide what would happen to Happy Feet if it should recover.
Millionaire businessman Gareth Morgan has offered to take the bird home by giving it a berth on a Russian icebreaker ship making an expedition to the Ross Sea in Antarctica in February.
"Of course until that time Happy Feet will have to be cared for here in Wellington," he said.
The emperor penguin is believed to have swum about 3200km from the Antarctic home to Peka Peka. The only previous recording of an emperor penguin in New Zealand was at Southland's Oreti Beach in 1967.
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