A week ago Cheetah, one of the adult female chimps in Philip’s group, showed up at the dens very ill at the end of the day after having missed the feeding sessions throughout the whole day. She had been fit and healthy that morning and suddenly she was so weak that she could hardly walk, her arms and legs were stiff and uncoordinated. Over the following days she has been in a critical state, vomiting anything she has eaten and having to be sedated daily to infuse liquids and give medication. We really thought she would not make it.
Cheetah receiving treatment and comfort from Bala and Dr Rosa
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Happily, she is now showing signs of improvement. Cheetah has stopped vomiting and regained an impressive appetite, but she still cannot move properly. Her limbs continue to be very stiff instead of demonstrating the normal, easy flexibility of a chimpanzee. There is nothing wrong with her mind, Cheetah is a big girl and it is not easy to tell her what she has to do to help her recover. It’s important that she continues to move her arms and legs to regain muscle strength and control so to encourage some movement and exercise we are placing her food at a short distance so she has to make an effort to reach for it. This video clip shows her trying hard and succeeding.
Cheetah’s physiotherapy
We are very worried that this could be another case of EMCV (encephalomyocarditis virus). This disease has caused havoc over the recent years at Tacugama and claimed the lives of several of our chimps, including Augusta last year. Carried by bush rats it affects the heart and nervous system and most of the times it causes sudden death without symptoms, making it very hard to detect and manage.
Hopefully this coming month we will finally be able to vaccinate all of our chimps against EMCV. This will involve having to anaesthetise all of them to inject the vaccine and collect samples for further health checks. It will be a difficult 30 days that we are not looking forward to but it’s important for their long term health. We sincerely thank the vets at Taronga Zoo, Australia for providing us with vaccine and the Max Planck Institute, Germany for funding the whole vaccination programme.
We will keep you in touch with poor Cheetah’s progress. Our next blog will have some great images of our younger chimps benefitting from some enrichment activities that our latest volunteers, Ruud and Esther, are introducing.
Donations made here are
Mar 18th Lara B USD 10.00
12 Comments
Bala – it seems so many of our beloved apes there, at JACK, and at Lola are suffering from all sorts of viruses as of late. I hope that Cheetah’s recovery continues to progress and that she will be her same old self very soon. I am thrilled to hear about the vaccination program and would like to echo your thanks to all those making it possible.
Bala – it seems so many of our beloved apes there, at JACK, and at Lola are suffering from all sorts of viruses as of late. I hope that Cheetah’s recovery continues to progress and that she will be her same old self very soon. I am thrilled to hear about the vaccination program and would like to echo your thanks to all those making it possible.
I’m with Christine, it seems these deadly viruses are affecting all of our ape friends. At first I thought perhaps Cheetah was poisoned, so I’m glad that’s not the case.
Is there anyway to control the bush rats? I’m guessing these are not animals the chimps would be in contact with in the wild?
Great news about the vaccination program. Thanks to everyone who’s making it possible. I hope we’ll see the last of this nasty disease at Tacugama. Please give Cheetah my very best get well wishes.
s.
I’m with Christine, it seems these deadly viruses are affecting all of our ape friends. At first I thought perhaps Cheetah was poisoned, so I’m glad that’s not the case.
Is there anyway to control the bush rats? I’m guessing these are not animals the chimps would be in contact with in the wild?
Great news about the vaccination program. Thanks to everyone who’s making it possible. I hope we’ll see the last of this nasty disease at Tacugama. Please give Cheetah my very best get well wishes.
s.
Bala, I hope Cheeta recovers quickly and is back to her own self soon. I’m thrilled about the vaccine program and I also thank those who made it possible. Can PASA provide some help to find out where these viruses are coming from? We are losing great apes at a rapid rate lately. There has to be something that can be done to stop these deaths.
Bala, I hope Cheeta recovers quickly and is back to her own self soon. I’m thrilled about the vaccine program and I also thank those who made it possible. Can PASA provide some help to find out where these viruses are coming from? We are losing great apes at a rapid rate lately. There has to be something that can be done to stop these deaths.
Hi Bala, Fingers and toes crossed for Cheetahs full recovery. I hope you find out what the disease is. Dipesh did a big story in Twende Magazine this month which talks first about you and Tacugama!
Hi Bala, Fingers and toes crossed for Cheetahs full recovery. I hope you find out what the disease is. Dipesh did a big story in Twende Magazine this month which talks first about you and Tacugama!
Hi Bala, wishing Cheetah a speedy and full recovery. Sending regards to you, your family & Tacugama staff.
Hi Bala, wishing Cheetah a speedy and full recovery. Sending regards to you, your family & Tacugama staff.
Oh my I sure hope that it doesn’t get like Lola and JACK –
so much sickness and so many dying -
hard to take nd it happens so fast –
do you have access to oxygen – one blog said that helped
two chimps at Lola……..
Oh my I sure hope that it doesn’t get like Lola and JACK –
so much sickness and so many dying -
hard to take nd it happens so fast –
do you have access to oxygen – one blog said that helped
two chimps at Lola……..
2 Trackbacks
[...] It was last Wednesday that the care staff raised the alarm for Marcel and Kate, both in Joke and Mama Lucy’s group. They came into the night dens looking very weak and disoriented, much the same as Cheetah earlier in the month. We spent an anxious night monitoring them – there are no real remedies available – and were pleased with how they appeared a little stronger the next morning. Mid afternoon on Thursday disaster struck as they both started vomiting and deteriorated rapidly. The team working on the vaccinations were available to take the best possible care but despite this poor Kate quickly passed away with nothing that we could do to save her. Marcel fortunately stabilised and so far does not seem to have been as badly affected as Cheetah. [...]
[...] It was last Wednesday that the care staff raised the alarm for Marcel and Kate, both in Joke and Mama Lucy’s group. They came into the night dens looking very weak and disoriented, much the same as Cheetah earlier in the month. We spent an anxious night monitoring them – there are no real remedies available – and were pleased with how they appeared a little stronger the next morning. Mid afternoon on Thursday disaster struck as they both started vomiting and deteriorated rapidly. The team working on the vaccinations were available to take the best possible care but despite this poor Kate quickly passed away with nothing that we could do to save her. Marcel fortunately stabilised and so far does not seem to have been as badly affected as Cheetah. [...]