|
|
|
|
 When
little Wendi
first came in, we
prayed that she was at least a few days old, and not absolutely newborn
without having benefited from her mother's first milk which is crucial
to trigger the action of the immune system. Unhappily, it
appears that this was not the case, and she was, in fact, a brand new
Colostrum Deficient baby. With one ear deeply folded, we think she
may even have been a twin, the weaker of the two, and that could be the
reason she was left where she was.
Initially, we had to resort to oral Sulphadimidine to stem the
enteritis, then injectible antibiotic to control the threatened
pneumonia when fluid began to drip from Wendi's trunk and her breathing
became laboured. We had experience of this with Seraa, so
again, hindsight was on our side. Now, it was time to do
something radical for the immune system, as we had done to save Imenti.
We chose Thoma. She was anaesthetized out in the bush, surrounded by her very concerned little Nursery friends, so that about 2 pints of blood could be drawn from an ear vein. As she lay unconscious, all the other Nursery babies fondled her, but at the same time, since she was with her Keepers, they understood that she must just have been asleep. All this took about 15 minutes, and Thoma was woken up, much to the relief and joy of us and her friends, because anaesthetizing an elephant always carries some risk. The blood then had to have the plasma separated centrifugally and the next day it had to be dripped into little Wendi's ear vein whilst she, too, lay unconscious and still.
© The David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust |
|
Wendi's Diary
|
 |
The
absence of the
Colostrum Milk manifests itself early on initially with severe enteritis
and bleeding from the rear, followed by other infections such as
pneumonia. When Wendi had these symptoms, we knew we had
another real challenge on our hands, but we had the benefit of hindsight
for we had managed to retrieve Imenti from the jaws of death under
similar circumstances. What did it for him, was plasma taken
from the blood of Malaika. (Imenti is now 8 years old,
having arrived newborn in the foetal membranes). 
For a day or two later, she was very wobbly, and sleeping a great
deal, but she is now becoming stronger and even attempting to play. So, now it is Fingers Firmly Crossed, and a great deal of
t.l.c. (tender love and care) which
she can certainly be assured of. With the concern and
prayers of all her foster-parents, we HOPE that little "HOPE"
will make it and grow up to be as fit and strong as that other Colostrum
deprived baby that we battled so hard for - Imenti the Brave.
