My Diary
7th August - Bibi slips away from us
On Sunday we were all excited about Bibi's slow recovery - her stools were beginning to gel and this was a great sign. The vet came again to check on her and gave her the green light to go out into the field with the others that day. Just after lunch that day we got the call that she had deteriorated. The exercise seemed to be too much for her so we brought her back in. The vet suggested we give her another drip and again we went through the nightmare of having to administer the drip. After just over 30 minutes she was reunited with Tosha and seemed to have more energy. She drank nicely and her recovery seemed to be on track again.
Bibi has a carer all night and on Monday night the volunteers took turns to look into how she was progressing through the night. Whilst she did not drink as much as we would have liked from mom, she was lapping at her electrolytes and there seemed to be no cause for alarm. Tuesday started as usual with a handler-meeting beside Bibi and Tosha. Bibi was perky enough to begin playing with Tizayi and this really encouraged the team. However, as the morning progressed the team keeping vigil worried that she was not drinking enough from mom. The stats of her time drinking from Tosha were definitely down from previous days. Her energy levels were dropping and we called the vet in again.
For the rest of Tuesday we kept her inside the Boma with mom and maintained the schedule that saw her recovering in the past. Whilst she had low energy we believed she would pull it together again, and this seemed to be the case when she played a little with the keepers on Wednesday morning. Later that morning her energy levels dropped rapidly. Bibi was separated from Tosha and placed on a warm mattress with blankets. She was given warm water bottles and a slow drip was administered. The team settled in beside her for what they thought would be a long night; everyone hoping and praying that Bibi would make it. The drip was slowly pulsing life into her as she lay with her head on a keeper's lap, everyone praying in their own way for her recovery.
At around 02h40 on Thursday morning, she slipped away from us.
We are trying to piece together the details of what happened. How can we learn from Bibi and ensure that we are better equipped in the future? Was the diahorrea masking the real problem, pneumonia? If we had detected the pneumonia, we would have been able to treat her differently! Would this have saved Bibi? Every bit of our own diagnosis and the vets all pointed to a stomach issue. No-one detected the real issue – pneumonia.
Every move a baby makes at KEP is recorded. Every drink is timed and every poo and wee recorded. Their sleeps are timed and the weather conditions of that day are recorded. We have noted the cold days that we had shortly after her birth and will see how these cold days coincide with the runny stomach coming on. This however will not bring little bouncy Bibi back ….
We will be posting a four minute tribute to Bibi on Facebook for those of you who have shared in her short life. She was the third elephant born at the Park. Her half sister and half brother still enjoy life at KEP.
1st August - Not feeling too well
I was really enjoying life until a couple of days ago. Man have I been feeling rotten. Not sure if you two legged beings get the runs, but if you do, then you know what it is like!
I felt like the life was taken out of me. I stopped playing with my friends and could hardly move around. Thank goodness they let mom back into the barn. It was warmer there as well.
The only negative thing was that a whole group of people pitched up, separated mom and I and this guy with a green overall (he smelt weird) stuck something sharp into me. I'll remember him, don't you worry about that.
They held me down for what seemed like ages. They spoke of a drip and me getting enough liquids. Well I mussed up some of the energy I had left and screamed for my mom. I knew she was not happy because she screamed back. She did tell me not to worry and that they were trying to help me. I thought mom would sort them out, but as she said, they are trying to help. She held no grudges and allowed them to come in and clean our area and give her food. I must admit, when they pulled the sharp thing out of me I did feel a lot better. Had more energy but the runs remain with me.
It is really weird, every time I make a poo, albeit a runny one, someone runs to pick it up and put it into a thing. These guys are obsessed by my movements. Mom says that they just care and that they are working to help me get better. She says I have a virus and that is why they took blood from me, to find out exactly what I had. I just know that when that guy in green comes around it means getting pricked. I will never forget him.
22nd July - Life is so cool!
Moving around is becoming much easier than before, so now I get to run around quite a lot and check things out. It was really frustrating before when my legs didn’t want to work properly. The only mechanism I am struggling with now is this damn trunk utensil. I get it right some of the time, but it doesn’t want to do what I want it to do. Mom said there’s about 100 000 muscles in my trunk that I have to learn to control. Oh dear I’ve got my work cut out for me! Things are going to be GREAT though when I learn to master this utensil entirely.
My life at the moment is ruled by human animals and my fellow non-human animals. The human animals are really strange and they check me out and coo and aah at me most of the time. My fellow ellies are really cool, except for Thandi. I think she is jealous that she is no longer a baby. If I get near her she kicks me - little cow! I hear that she was the first born at the Park and for that she has been spoiled. Mom said she’ll give her a smack if she does it to me again! But there are two little elephants that seem very nice, especially this one little girl called Tatho. She is friendly to me and seems to want to play. I hang out with her from time to time, but Mom is not so keen that I go too far.
The thing that really amazes me is how much influence I seem to have over the human animals. If I act crazy they laugh and go on as if I am some kind of clown. Even if I lie down they coo like a bunch of broody mothers. Mom says I should just humour them cos they play an important role in our lives. There seems to be two types of human animals, ones that do not get close to us and then the cool ones that I can play with. The one guy I play with is a real gas. Mom likes him as well and is pretty relaxed when we play together.
My human animal friend always leads us when we walk to places. Walking to places is a real serious process. All my elephant friends get in a straight line and then we walk somewhere. No place in particular just somewhere. The other day we were at a place and I got a whiff of some really delicious stuff. The challenge was to get my trunk to pick this stuff up and put it in my mouth. Man what a task! By luck I got some in. Then I heard a new response from the fragile human animals. ‘Aagh sis, dung!’ they said. That was a perfect ready made meal for me and they say sis! They were disgusted and there I was ecstatic that I got a taste of something that I plan to get more of! At the time I had a little of the runs (my stomach that is) and after eating that nice smelling stuff, my runs disappeared. Mom says it is good for me because it has a whole lot of goodness in it that she has left behind for me. So it seems that she takes some goodness and leaves some behind for me to take whenever I want.
There is a whole world out there that I am really enjoying. And I would enjoy it a whole lot more if I just got an opportunity to grab with my trunk utensil! I get so frustrated sometimes; the other day I even just knelt down to bite bit into what mom left for me. Again, ‘Aagh sis’, they said!! What a weird bunch of two legged animals!
I want to get out a little more and play with my friends. Mom groans a little if I venture too far, but she is starting to get more relaxed about it. So, until next time enjoy doing whatever you do!
5th July – OK, so now I've mastered this drinking thing from mom.
Luckily I seemed to have grown a bit too so that I don’t have to stretch to a nipple that is out of my reach! Or maybe I’m just getting the knack of stretching now …. It’s so tiring all the drinking and stretching and keeping up with mom … Man that first sleep was a blessing. It was hell standing and sleeping against mom's leg. Then she moves a little and my dreams are popped - "Bang I fall on my face!". The process repeated itself for ages before mom seemed to give in to me having a little Zzzz laying in the soft woody stuff.
So just when I had mastered drinking and sleeping, the humans rattled my entire world again by deciding to take me outside (I heard them saying it’s very important that we join the rest of the herd. That I assumed meant all my other ellie cousins and aunts and uncles I had also seen sleeping close by). Man, you have no idea how hard it is to walk a whole long way literally two days after being dropped into this world. Me getting used to mom, mom getting used to me and then, trying to walk outside with her. Where do I go, next to her, behind her, underneath her? It is all so difficult – I fall over my own feet or bump into mom’s big legs! It was so much easier in that warm place I was for my first few days …
And then, to top it all, when we join the other ellies, they all start trumpeting and screaming. You’d swear it was the first time they saw me! I mean, surely they saw me! Mom just said they were super excited I was out in the field with them. Great; just like mom’s excitement when I was born - I got kicked around again from side to side! The only safe place was under mom, which was really difficult as she was not standing still! I need a drink mom! It really helps to calm me down! But no ways - this whole social greeting thing meant that drinking from mom had to take a back seat for a while …. Luckily things settled and I managed to sneak a suck or two.
It was really nice meeting my aunts and cousins properly. They all had good things to say … except for the little 'cow' that they referred to as the first born at the Park. Talk about being jealous. Man! At every little chance she would give me a little kick or punch with her trunk. Wish she would go and pick on someone her own size!!
I must say I was very pleased when we were taken home again to that nice warm place. No wind, no fuss, mom's quiet and stands still SO THAT I CAN DRINK!!!!
We stayed inside for some time because of what everyone called the bad weather. It was rather cold outside, some of the ellies even said there was stuff on the mountains called snow, which meant it was very very cold. I heard that we would all go out once the weather got warmer again. Must say, I’m enjoying being cosy now, but I am looking forward to going out again. So many new things to see and explore!
20th June – The day I came into the world
I came into the world at about 09h30 on the 21st June 2009. It all happened very quickly. I landed with a thud and luckily it was on a nice bed of sawdust. Not sure who got the biggest fright - mum or the human that was staring at me. I’m sure that he was not expecting my quick appearance because he grabbed this object and started screaming into it. Other humans soon came into the room and all started talking very gently to my mom. At stages they were a little worried that mum was being too rough with me, but what a relief - mum thumped me in all the right places and soon I was ready to check this world out.
I was so thirsty, but you have no idea how difficult is to stand when you have been in mum's tummy for over 22 months. Oh man I needed a drink of that special stuff mum gives when we baby ellies hit the big world! But this gravity thing was really working against me – my legs were wobbling so much that I just kept falling over!
Soon I managed to wobble around a bit more successfully. I just wished mum would stand still long enough for me to get a grab at her nipple! Two hours seems an eternity when you are dying for a drink! Some guys started talking smoothly to mum, giving her lots of extra food and she started to relax, just enough for me to latch and drink. Man it was good! It was amazing to hear the humans on the outside reading my thoughts – they seemed as happy as I was!
After so much effort to just stand upright and drink, I got very very sleepy. But every time I lay down she just lifted me up again! Man I’m exhausted, but I guess mum must know something that I don’t if she feels I can’t yet lie down and sleep ….
Well I guess I am going to have to grab a little shut eye by leaning against her leg...
