Each day is an adventure full of surprises. Today, Saturday, was no different. I missed morning conference at 8 AM as I overslept from having read a novel late into the night. When I got to the hospital there was a call from Stephen Brend, Project Director, Born Free Ethiopia. They are working jointly with the Ethiopian Wildlife Conservation Initiative. The story unfolds in the X-ray department.
Poachers were stopped at the border of Ethiopia and Somaliland (the upper third of Somalia), and they found four cheetah cubs about 3-months old, which the authorities immediately confiscated and took to their conservation post at Holeta, some 40 kilometers from Addis Ababa. The poachers had killed the mother and were taking the cubs to Somalia to sell to sheiks in the Mideast as they are highly desired as pets. The cubs were placed in the program of rehabilitation to be returned to the wild of Ethiopia when a carpenter doing some repairs at the conservation post suddenly hit one male cub with a large stick and broke its front leg and possibly the scapula. Their wildlife veterinarian, Rea Tschopp, bound the foreleg to the body and asked for an X-ray.
We were asked to obtain the X-ray and with Dr. Soloman’s permission a team of us, with the help of sedation, got the X-ray. The humerus was fractured and widely displaced. With Ketamine sedation in the emergency room we manipulated the fracture, applied a cast, and then rebound the foreleg to the chest.
We elected not to get a post-reduction X-ray as the veterinarian, Rea, was uncomfortable with giving him more sedation. He was a sleepy boy when he left to be returned to the wildlife conservation post. He will be given special care for the next several weeks.
Steve says that wildlife conservation efforts in Ethiopia are encouraging and the numbers of animals are increasing. However, it seems that cheetahs are a prime target of poachers, which makes them particularly vulnerable. Their speed of up to 70 miles per hour is unsurpassed in wildlife, so our little one will have to make a dramatic recovery to regain the ability to hunt in the wild again.
(See slideshow in sidebar for more photos.)
-- Don
We were asked to obtain the X-ray and with Dr. Soloman’s permission a team of us, with the help of sedation, got the X-ray. The humerus was fractured and widely displaced. With Ketamine sedation in the emergency room we manipulated the fracture, applied a cast, and then rebound the foreleg to the chest.
Steve says that wildlife conservation efforts in Ethiopia are encouraging and the numbers of animals are increasing. However, it seems that cheetahs are a prime target of poachers, which makes them particularly vulnerable. Their speed of up to 70 miles per hour is unsurpassed in wildlife, so our little one will have to make a dramatic recovery to regain the ability to hunt in the wild again.
Awwww! How sweet! Did anyone sign the cast?
ReplyDeleteGreat effort Ethiopia Project! As a conservationist and naturalist, it's great to know that wildlife is making a comeback in Ethiopia! I hope we will continue to have great success in this area. Besides sustaining Ethiopia's biodiversity, this will be a bonus for her tourism industry.
ReplyDeleteSteven Olson