We’re all heaving a huge sigh of relief, after Joe made it through his third immobilization at Gorilla Haven on Saturday, April 15, 2006. As mentioned in the last update, Joe had been regurgitating his food more frequently than ever before, so after we gathered input from a large variety of doctors, veterinarians and specialists, we decided to anesthetize Joe to try to find out what was wrong, and how we could help him. We had assembled an amazing team and were going over the final details in preparation for Saturday, when we learned that Colossus, a wonderful silverback at Cincinnati Zoo in Ohio, had died on Tuesday (April 11th), while undergoing a very similar procedure for a root canal. Learn more about Colossus here.
We weren’t sure what we’d find,
so the decision was to do a full exam in Silverback Villa, using bales of
hay and a board as a table, as we’d done in November
2004, when Joe’s canine tooth was removed. To lessen the stress on Joe,
only his two caregivers and our two vets, Dr. Rita and Dr. Francis, went to
SB for the anesthetization itself. Kelly darted Joe with the immobilizing
drug, Ketamine, as our teams stood by, waiting to move in with military
precision. At a briefing ahead of time, each doctor and their assistants
knew when they’d be working on Joe, and where all the equipment would be, so
once Joe was “down”, the radio call came and we moved up to SB villa to
prepare to get to work.
Two of our maintenance staff,
Randy and David, helped move Joe onto the procedure “table” (shown in the
photo above right, as the procedure area was getting prepared) getting their
first chance to touch a gorilla, which was a chance of a life time. Once
that was done, they left, and Drs Rita and Francis did a quick overall exam,
as the vet techs hooked up the heart monitor, ultrasound and endoscopy
equipment, at pre-determined places around Joe so no one would be tripping
over each other, in the tight quarters. Bill Campbell did a thorough
ultrasound, where he found an unusual spot in Joe’s lower esophagus, which
told Dr. Michael Galambos, where to have a closer check when the endoscope procedure
began. The section they were interested in was right between the jugular
vein and carotid artery, so when Bill stuck a needle in Joe’s neck to get a
sample of the cells for analysis, we all held our breath, even though Bill
is a great technician and we knew he’d do a great job, which he did. While
Dr. Galambos was recording the endoscope data, vet techs were drawing blood,
as Bill continued to do ultrasounds of Joe’s heart and organs, which all
looked good, thankfully. The photo on the right shows Bill doing the
ultrasound, and on the right is Dr. Galambos doing the endoscopy.
As the endoscopy was winding
down, Dr. Laura Braswell (in the pony tail in the photo on the left) started her exam of Joe’s teeth and gums, to assess
how he was doing since the last procedure. As expected, the advanced
periodontal disease had progressed, but it wasn’t anything too bad, and one
tooth which might be a candidate for a future root canal, was deemed to be
draining properly, and we could leave it alone, and just keep a close eye on
Joe, in case it warranted more work or attention. Dr. Laura took biopsies
of the area around the missing canine, which looked infected, so we’ll check
that.
Three
staff from the Birmingham Zoo, which “owns” Joe, drove to observe and help
with the procedure, so while their vet, Anna (observing in the photo on the
right), recorded the vital signs and
filled out the anesthesia records (keeping a close eye on Joe’s breathing,
watching the machines as well as his breathing, and asking for stethoscope
checks from time to time, to be sure all was ok), Bree and Beth helped trim Joe’s
toe and fingernails. Finally, Dr. Mike Zager, from another local vet
hospital, came in with his portable x-ray machine to take x-rays of Joe’s
hands and feet, thus saving us the time we’d need to bring Joe to our own
vet hospital’s huge x-ray machine, and enabling us to stay at SB villa.
Even as they tried to get Joe’s feet to lay flat, his toes would curl up
automatically, so with the x-rays we’ll have one more tool in our overall
assessment of our beloved Joe’s health condition. Dr. Zager and the portable
x-ray machine are in the photo on the left, as the x-ray machine is hooked
on Joe's brachiating bars and put into position.
At the 2 hour mark, which was our targeted amount of time to get everything done, we removed all the equipment and non-essential staff left SB villa, returning to our Gatehouse, where we’d met before the procedure, and our wonderful volunteer, JoBeth Vaughn, was waiting with lunch of hot Giordano’s deep dish pizzas, I had flown in from Chicago, especially for this occasion to thank the people who donated their time and expertise to help Joe.
Drs. Rita and Francis stayed near
Joe, giving him more oxygen and making sure he was breathing well, before he
came out of the anesthesia – the trickiest and scariest part of most
immobilizations, since this is the time so much can go wrong. As Joe lay on
his side, and his breathing became more regular, the intubation tubes and
oxygen were removed, and the villa was cleared out of most people, to create
a quiet environment as Joe regained consciousness. After removing the board
we’d used as a table, we then used the several bales of hay to cover the
floor around Joe, so he wouldn’t knock his head on anything, and Pete and
Kelly and the vets monitored his recovery for the next hour or so. The
final photos here show Pete in with Drs. Francis and Rita on the left and
Kelly, making notes and watching on the right.
By 3 pm, Joe was wobbly but
walking around, with that poor, pitiful look on his face, like he’d been
through the ringer, which he had, poor dear. By 6 pm, Kelly and I were
trying to get Joe to eat some watermelon, a trick we’d learned from previous
immobilizations when we worried about him getting dehydrated – he adores
watermelon and we hoped he’d go for that, if he refused other offers of
beverages. But Joe didn’t want anything but to be feeling better and left
alone. We said goodnight and Joe purred, which nearly got me to cry, since
it meant he’d forgiven Kelly for darting him already and he was feeling well
enough to communicate the sweet message of affection a purr represents.
Easter Sunday, Joe wasn’t 100%, but he was definitely much better, and very happy to have access to all his cages as well as the outside habitat, where he spent a good deal of the day soaking in the warm weather. The regurgitating was still continuing, so Pete was taking extra time to feed Joe smaller bits of food over an extended period of time, so the food had a better chance of getting and staying down. He’s on antibiotics and ibuprofen for pain, and just to be sure he’s getting enough calories and nutrition, he’s getting Ensure as a supplement, which he loves, so he’s quite happy with the arrangement. A male visitor Joe loves visited and Joe rumbled his sexy rumble at him, making us all laugh and know he was definitely on the mend – behaviorally, at least. Once biopsies are back and we know more, we’ll post it here. Meanwhile, initial blood work test results are back and everything looks good, so that's a good sign. Joe's on some medicines for acid reflux too and his regurgitation has reduced in the past couple of days, which is a good sign. He's been a little stand-offish, probably since he can taste all the different medicines in his food and treats and is suspicious, but he's got a very good and loving relationship with both Pete and Kelly, and with patience, Joe's eating and getting his meds and soon, we're hoping, he'll be feeling better and ready to enjoy the lovely weather outside.
Meanwhile we’re preparing for our next gorilla resident, who should be here soon. We’ll put an update up about him when he’s here, since we don’t want to jinx anything!
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Cincinnati has some of the best gorilla caregivers and medical staff around, and Colossus was three years younger than Joe, so his death on April 11th, which would have been hard on us all anyway, was even more dramatic, since it underscored the inherent dangers in anesthetizing great apes under the best of conditions. Colossus, like Joe, was one of the gorillas caught in the wild and brought to the USA to be on show. Photos of Colossus below were are Copyright © 2006, Cincinnati Zoo.
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Jim Davis, our friend and someone who keeps an unofficial studbook of all gorillas, wrote this email about Colossus’ past from his recollections on 05Aug04: Colossus was first named Tony. He was exhibited in a Circus Wagon-type enclosure at Benson Animal Park in New Hampshire. I never heard the story behind his name change but I think they got their idea from the stories of 'Gargantua The Great' of Ringling Brothers fame. The Director of Gulf Breeze Zoo (Florida) was also the owner of Benson Animal Park - Pat Quinn. Last time we visited The ZOO at Gulf Breeze, Pat Quinn was still there and still active with the running of the Zoo. He told me that they traded Colossus to Cincinnati Zoo for Rwanda (female) because he knew that Colossus would never breed. Hopefully Ron and everyone at Cincinnati (those young female gorillas included) will make him regret that statement. I am quite certain that Colossus never, ever got close to 800 lbs. Maybe around 500 at one time. I know that Ron has all available numbers since Colossus has been at Cincinnati. That's the best I got without a little research. |
Colossus went to Cincinnati in 1993 and for 13 years he lived with his own group of females, but (like Joe) never showed any breeding interest in them. His long time caregiver Ron Evans, wrote this on 15Apr06: It's comforting to know that there are so many of you out there that truly understand what it means to go through something like this. I hope Colossus felt the time he spent with us was the best he had, especially the last eight years or so after he warmed up to Chewie, Mara and Shanta. He played a very gentle surrogate father to them at first and later became their leader in their own family group. At about age 30, he first started making contact and playing with these girls when they were still with their mothers, which was the first positive physical contact he had from another gorilla since he was still a baby in the wild. He continued to have regular wrestling play bouts with them until his passing. He never did reproduce here but we consider him a huge success story anyway, having come so far. One interesting piece to this is our research staff was able to collect, post mortum, 11 straws of sperm suitable to be used for in vitro fertilization. There still may be a little Colossus in the future, after all. His impressive size and unique personality inspired thousands of people during his 40 years not just in Cincinnati but in Florida, New Hampshire, California and abroad. I regularly hear from or meet people that knew him from one of these periods of his life. I wish there was some way he could have known how much he did to connect people to the bigger picture of wild gorillas, wildlife and wild places. He was a larger than life ambassador for conservation and probably, when it came to the common everyday person coming to the zoo, more influential than some of greatest gorilla researchers out there. Although death is part of the animal care bushiness it certainly doesn't make it any easier. I remember when the staff from Gulf Breeze, Florida brought Colossus to Cincinnati. As we opened the truck that he was in they said "Watch out. he's a thrower", meaning that he would throw stool. And I jokingly said something like "Well in that case, just turn around and take him back." I'm so very glad that did not happen. Colossus was a silverback. an inspiration and my friend. I will always miss him. |
A Tough Week: One GH Cat Missing and Two Cats Lost to an Unknown Predator
This
has been a tough week for GH's population of rescued/stray cats. On
April 12th, Cinder didn't show up for breakfast, which alerted me to the
fact that something was wrong, so I put out a call to all staff to keep an
eye out for him, in case he got through the electric fence in the facility
and couldn't get back out. Another reliable kitty, Kelele, had gone
missing Christmas day 2005 and we still don't know where she is, but fear
the worst. The night of April 18th, as I slept and Steuart worked in
his office, I was awoken by "the Royals" - the 3 indoor dogs, Bwindi, Soakie
and Bari - asking to go outside. Steuart let them out and right away,
Bwindi, was anxious to come back inside, without doing her business. As he
always does, Steuart scanned the back yard with his powerful flashlight, and
noticed a gray form laying about 50 feet from the back deck. It was Cicero -
the last of the remaining Cabin Cats, who were at our cabin when we moved in
back in 1996. Tufts of hair and his battered body told the story that
he had put up a valiant fight, but whatever killed him, meant to do just
that - there was still cat food left over on the back deck. Steuart and I
didn't hear a thing. As we buried Cicero on the 19th, one of our staff
found Cinder's body by the tractor barn. Steuart said he had the same
marks on his side and face, like Cicero, leading us to think the same thing
killed Cinder, probably a week early, when he first went missing, based on
the decomposition of his body. Cicero, on the other hand, was found
soon after his death, as rigor mortis hadn't set in. We haven't a clue
what it is, but can rule out things like stray dogs or coyotes, since the
bodies were found inside the fenced area by the cabin, which encompasses
about 12 acres surrounded by a 5-6 foot high fence, bent on the ground to
prevent anything from digging in or out. Maybe it's a bobcat or rabid
raccoon, but the brutality and efficiency of the attacks leads me to think
whoever did it, just wants to kill the cats. Maybe it's a feral tom cat? All
three kitties, Cicero, Kelele and Cinder, were the friendliest and least
aggressive of our 20 plus cats, so if there was something new, they were
likely to go up to say hi and not take up a more protective position, like
the other cats, who are more "street wise" and wary of strangers. All
three were back deck kitties too, and now the remaining back deck kitties,
Cali Philamina and Cinder's brother, Sootie, have started sleeping right
outside our bedroom door on the back deck, as if they know that's the safest
place to be. With so many animals, it's hard to imagine how the death of a
few cats could hurt so much, but their distinctive personalities and charm
were part of life at GH and they are missed daily.
More bad news...
My first chimpanzee friends were at Ohio State University's (OSU) laboratory run by Dr. Sally Boysen. If you ever watched Scientific Frontiers with Alan Alda or the Discovery Channel and saw chimps counting and doing math, those were my friends, Sally's chimps. OSU decided to terminate Sally's study and quickly shipped the 9 chimps to a sanctuary in Texas, where a lot of people in the primate community have had a lot of concerns lately. Kermit, the alpha male of the group, died upon arrival in Texas as they anesthetized him to move him into his new home (only adding to my stress for Joe's immobilization!). Then this week, a second chimp, Bobby, died there too. The deaths of these chimps and the rationale for shipping them away from OSU without allowing any of their long time caregivers to accompany them or see them once in Texas, has caused a furor. More information on the situation is available at this website: http://www.kermitscommunity.com. Above are photos of Bobby and Kermit, taken by their former caregiver, and wonderful photographer, Kelli Barritt ... May they rest in peace.