UWEC Day 7

Today proved to be a very busy day here. I arrived bright an early at the hospital and was met by Hameed. The Animal Department needed to have their Monday morning meeting. a representative keeper from each area (birds & reptiles, primates, mammals, and carnivores & hoofstock) had to attend to the meeting to discuss anything important that may have happened to an animal over the weekend. This was especially important if any veterinary treatment was needed. The meeting also allowed the keepers to voice any concerns with their area that needed attention.

DanInject CO2 Dart Rifle

Once the meeting was over, our first job of the day was to prepare for working on one of the waterbuck calves. She was unthrifty, and was being picked on by the other waterbuck, especially the male. He had killed other animals in that enclosure in the past so it as important to determine what was wrong with her so the same would not happen. Hameed and I prepared the drugs to be used to immobilize her. For her, a combination of a sedative and a very powerful opioid, called Etorphine was used. (FYI: Etorphine is roughly 1000x more potent than morphine. Because of this, extra care must be undertaken when handling this drug. There always has to be a reversal agent present in case of accidental human injection and gloves need to be worn when drawing the drug from the bottle. Remember, this stuff is used to knock down an elephant, so imagine what it can do to a human, just with a prick) 

Hameed taking his shot

We loaded the dart with the drugs and then prepared the CO2 rifle. Once we gathered all of our equipment, and we got a driver, we headed to the enclosure. We found the calf we needed and Hameed proceeded to fire the dart at her. A clean shot right into her rump. Some time had then passed, a little longer than would usually be expected for the drugs she was given. One of the keepers, Alex, went out to retrieve the dart and he noticed that only a small portion of the liquid had expelled from the dart... So she did not get the full dose she needed to go down. This was a bit of a problem. First, she was not sedated enough to stay still and at least lay down and allow us near her. Second the male, being the jerk that he was, kept chasing after her, most likely to kill her. 

With her semi-sedated we tried to work on her as best we could. I checked her temperature, gave her some antibiotics and dewormer. Barbara tried to get a blood sample from her without much luck. Quite hard on a waterbuck. She was starting to be uncooperative because she was so lightly sedated so Hameed just gave me the reversal agent to give to her. The challenges of working with wildlife.

Taking blood from her ear vein

Giving her some antibiotics, while Jenny and Barbara
hold her down

She was extra friendly today, and I got to give her a little
head rub

Later, we headed to the Kidepo exhibit where the giraffes, elands, and cattle were. We were going to try again to treat that stubborn cow. We were more successful this time around but it still took a while to get close enough to her to spray. As we were with the carnivore and hoofstock keepers, they combined their morning feeding with us doing treatments. I was able to help with the feeding and give some more banana treats to the giraffes. 




Towards the end of the day, we had a few more donkey hoof trimmings to help Mr. Takahashi with. It was very hot this afternoon, and this made it challenging to restrain the stubborn donkeys. Fortunately there were enough of us to take shifts. When I got my break I just relaxed with the camels. The female was much more friendly than the male. She kept following me around... I think I made another friend.