At the mountain gorilla veterinary project, we’ve been working out ways to collect and store saliva from gorillas.  In the future, we plan to test these samples for diseases, especially the viruses that cause respiratory illness. 

Grauer's gorilla eating wild celery, a favorite food.

This study has been a good idea in our heads for some time.  Thanks to veterinary student Tierra Wilson, it’s finally underway.  Tierra not only designed the research project, she found her own funding to go to Rwanda and run it! 

Tierra harvested saliva samples by swabbing the bite marks made by the gorillas as they chewed on the celery.

Before she left, I asked Tierra what she’d remember most about us/MGVP.  Her answer: Celery… and the gorillas, of course!

Read more about the gorilla saliva study on the Gorilla Doctors blog.

Yaloda, or Ya Laoda, proved a cooperative patient (see "Pandas in Their Own Land” by Dr. Carlos Sanchez.) Once she’d taken her colitis medicine regularly in an apple for several months, her hair coat and overall body condition improved dramatically. Dr. Sanchez barely recognized her the next time he visited the breeding base in Chengdu, nor was she on the list of pandas due for diagnostic exams. Most recently--in July 2008--Yaloda gave birth to twins, contributing to the start of another successful cubbing season at Chengdu despite the recent earthquake.

After working alongside Dr. Sanchez and other visiting veterinarians from the National Zoo and Zoo Atlanta, the Chengdu vets gained new skills. Nowthey routinely perform giant panda health exams under anesthesia, complete with endoscopy, ultrasound, and analysis of blood and tissue samples.

In 2006, nine cubs were born at Chengdu, and another 24 at breeding centers around the world. Another ten cubs were born in 2007, out of 30 worldwide.

Borders Books and Music, Wisconsin Ave, Washington, DC

Ted and I gave a presentation about The Rhino with Glue-on Shoes and signed books at Washington DC's Friendship Heights Borders bookstore on July 9, 2008.

I read from the end of Mohan's story.  Next Ted and I described how we put the book together and offered a few highlights from the book. We finished with a question and answer session. 

Over a hundred people attended.  I enjoyed meeting new friends and seeing old ones while I signed books.

Ted's children, Melissa, Mathew, and Micheal were also in the audience. 

When we finally left the Borders store, close to 10 p.m., Ted and I thanked the staff.  Not only was it our first book event, it was fun!

It's been a year (June 2007) since the smallest of the two mountain gorilla orphans, Ndakasi, nearly died of pneumonia. Her story is up on the Gorilla Doctors blog Ndakasi's Fight to Survive Revisited. The slightly older orphan, Ndeze, was rescued from the forest about a month later (July 2007). I'll post the story of her dramatic rescue soon.

Ndeze (front) and Ndakasi (back), two orphaned female mountain gorillas being hand-raised by park rangers in Goma, DRC.

We continue to recommend no visitors for the orphans, although both are doing very well on their new milk and daily doses of acidophilus. There's just too much risk of human-gorilla disease transmission, particularly respiratory disease.

We did, however, make a recent exception--for National Geographic. Mapendo,a juvenile Grauer's gorilla, was photographed for a magazine story; Ndeze and Ndakasi were filmed for a television special. We felt it was important that their story be told, given the sad state of conservation in DR Congo. We made certain that the photographer and two film-makers wore masks and coveralls.

Now that The Rhino with Glue-on Shoes is in bookstores, I'll include patient updates in my blog. Here's #1:

Mohan the Rhino

Mo was recently moved to the Miami Metrozoo, where he lived before his move to Washington, DC, ten years ago. He appears content and calm in a recent photo despite his age—nearly 39-years old.

Greater one-horned rhino Mohan in September 2007 at the Miami Metrozoo. Photograph by Ron Magill, Miami Metrozoo

Mohan wore three specially made glue-on shoes on each of his back feet until they wore off. We used this technique, borrowed from equine medicine, to prevent excessive wear of the rhino's toenails, roughly equivalent to a horse hoof wall. Our goal was to help the rhino walk as he would in the wild—on his toes—and take the pressure off his cracked soles so they could heal. Other vets have tried a similar approach. One team used acrylic to build up the toenails rather than gluing on a shoe.

Mohan's glue-on shoes. Photograph by Jim Pugh (blog continues)

About half of the world's frog and amphibian species are threatened with extinction. In an effort to raise public awareness, 2008 has been named the year of the frog by Amphibian Ark.  Various zoos, aquariums, and conservation organizations have joined the effort, along with several celebrity conservation biologists, including Sir David Attenborough, Jeff Corwin, and Jean-Michel Cousteau.  Their goal is to engage the public, create partnerships, and generate financial support for projects aimed at better understanding and conservation of amphibians.

Frogs, in particular, suffer from multiple problems, including habitat loss, water pollution, climate change, and chytridiomycosis, a skin infection caused by a fungus.  Scientists discovered this organism on frog skin about ten years ago.  The first studies found the infection only in parts of the U.S. and Australia.  Since then, the disease has been diagnosed in frogs worldwide and implicated in the decline or extinction, dating back to the mid-70s, of several frog species.  Initially, the fungus was thought to be a secondary invader, a problem only in frogs whose health was compromised by other variables, such as environmental degradation and global warming. 

I recently returned to the US for a break from work in Africa and am enjoying access to fast Internet--it makes keeping up with the latest news much easier! One story caught my eye immediately: "First Reverse Vasectomy Success in an Endangered Species at the National Zoo."

A team of vets--many of whom I've worked with in the past--succeeded in reversing a vasectomy in a Przewalksi's Horse. They worked with physician Dr. Sherman Silber, a pioneer in the development of reverse vasectomies in humans, a technique that requires microsurgery. Dr. Silber had previously worked with vets at the St. Louis Zoo to develop a technique for this procedure in South American bush dogs, also an endangered species.

The first surgery on the P-horse (I'll call him that for short) required six hours and didn't work, apparently owing to scar tissue from the original surgery performed in 1999 at another institution. The team discussed their options. Dr. Silber felt the animal's positioning was the key. After more planning and discussion, the team repeated the surgery with the P-horse on his back. It took just one hour, and this time it worked.

This case is a great example of medical cross-over. Extrapolation is the rule rather than the exception in zoological medicine. We often apply medical techniques developed for humans and domestic animals to endangered animals. Success depends on teamwork, persistence, and, to a certain extent, trial and error.

I also appreciated Dr. Silber's comment that he'd always dreamed of helping wildlife. He may never have imagined using his skills to operate on a bush dog or a P-horse. But now he's become a world-reknowned expert, and I've no doubt he'll be asked to help additional species and to train other doctors in the procedure.

Media interest has begun to build in Ted's and my new book, which goes on sale in a few weeks. Mohan, the rhino with glue-on shoes is one of my most memorable cases--his story gives the book its title. But I have a few more. One reporter asked me to share another. I chose Persephone's story. Here's the short version with a few links to more information about giant otters and Guyana.

Persephone's Case

Several years ago, I helped treat a wild giant otter with a fishing arrow stuck in her neck—via patch radio from several thousand miles away. The otter, Persephone, had been orphaned as a cub and then rehabilitated to the wild by Diane McTurk, a world-renowned giant otter expert. When Diane found Persephone badly injured with a metal arrow sticking out from her neck and the barb lodged right next to her jugular vein, she coaxed the otter back to her ranch, started her on antibiotics in fish, and managed to get a message me in Washington DC for help.

Giant otters Persephone, (front, right) a young female rehabilitated by Diane McTurk at Karanambu, and Zhivago, a wild adult male, in Guyana, South America.

I made a dozen phone calls to friends and contacts in Guyana to rally the support, funds, and airplane flight to send a local vet, someone

I recently ran across an updated research article about infectious facial cancer in Tasmanian devils, also known as devil facial-tumor disease, DFTD.

Devils are the marsupial equivalent of hyenas--noisy, aggressive, smelly carnivores who are also scavengers. Of course, their reproductive biology is completely different. Female devils gives birth to 50 young, which then crawl into her pouch and vie for one of four nipples--meaning that only four of the young survive.

The spread of tumor-like facial lesions in this species was first noticed in 1996. The tumors are transmitted via bite wounds sustained during fights. Not only do they cause permanent damage to the animal's face, the disease is eventually fatal. Many devils lose their teeth and starve to death. Though the total population of this species is estimated to be in the tens of thousands, the mortality rate from this strange cancer has been as high as 100% in some populations. In May 2008, the Australian government announced the Tasmanian devil as endangered.

I searched the Web to review photos of this condition and found one of a devil being examined under anesthesia by Dr. Peter Holz, one of the vets who contributors to our book! (Peter wrote about Patch, the hobby falcon.)

After Molly’s story made it onto UTube, several friends emailed me the link.  Unfortunately, I cannot get the video to run here in Rwanda.  The little icon on my computer for internet signal never gets above 48 Mbps!

I’ve read about the pony online, however, and it’s a great vet story: Molly the pony receives a prosthetic leg and becomes a symbol of hope post-Katrina.  

http://www.lsu.edu/highlights/2006/10/molly.html http://www.snopes.com/photos/animals/molly.asp http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/us/2008/05/31/vo.la.three.legged.pony.wwl

Molly's story has universal appeal.  As vet stories go, it’s unique in some ways but not in others.  There are elements of it in three of the stories in our new book: