Archives for June 2024

As Ellen explained back in April, our staff, in conjunction with our Health and Behavior Working Group, determined that Gordo should receive his first physical exam at CSNW this year. Dr. Erin went to work assembling a team of medical professionals and our Positive Reinforcement Team, consisting of Jenna, Sabrina, and Ellen, with help from the entire staff, spent the last few months working with Gordo so that he would allow us to isolate him and accept an anesthetic injection by hand. I’m happy to say that all their hard work paid off, as yesterday Gordo willingly presented his arm for Ellen and Dr. Erin.

After Gordo was anesthetized, we took a few quick chest x-rays as a preliminary cardiac screening before weighing him and then moving him into the clinic for the rest of his procedure.

In addition to Dr. Erin, the medical team consisted of anesthetist Mekenzie Kmack, dentist Cheri Bloom, sonographer Korey Krause, echocardiograph technician Amy Owens, vet assistant Krissy, and chimp house volunteer Nancy Suttles, who jumped at the chance to put her experience as a retired RN to use helping to monitor Gordo during his recovery.

Here, Dr. Bloom begins her dental exam while Korey performs an abdominal ultrasound:

Dr. Erin and Dr. Bloom prepare to take dental x-rays:

Dr. Bloom and Dr. Erin perform a dental cleaning:

We are thrilled to finally own a top-of-the-line portable ultrasound machine, which means that local technicians like Korey and Amy can utilize our equipment and the images can then be sent to specialists for interpretation and analysis. Our medical teams typically work on different tasks simultaneously to maximize the amount of information we can obtain while keeping the duration of anesthesia as short as possible.

Amy performs the echocardiogram:

Mekenzie manages Gordo’s anesthesia while keeping a close eye on his vitals:

While some additional x-rays are taken in the clinic, we are able to take many of them during the brief period after the chimps are returned to their enclosure but before they wake up:

The chimps are given oxygen and propped up with blankets to help ensure they have a safe recovery:

Nancy records vitals until Gordo is awake and alert:

Eventually, the rest of the group is allowed to come check on Gordo from a distance:

When he is ready, they are allowed to come into the neighboring enclosure, where they can check in on him and offer him reassurance:

Gordo happily put his back to the cage so he could be groomed by his family:

Dora even snuck him a little kiss:

After a good night’s rest, Gordo was allowed to return to his group. They were all happy to see him, but none more so than Willy B! Who knew?

We are so grateful to Dr. Erin and her amazing team for their work to keep Gordo happy and healthy! Here’s a word from Dr. Erin herself:

I’m pleased to report that based on Gordo’s exam and preliminary results from the imaging and labwork, Gordo looks to be in pretty good shape!  

The ultrasound, chest and abdominal radiographs will be sent out for review by a board certified radiologist.  The echocardiogram results will be sent  to our veterinary cardiologist and a report compiled and submitted to the Great Ape Heart Project.  The GAHP not only sends us a detailed report and recommendations for treatment and follow up, they have a huge database on cardiac health and disease of great apes so every report submitted adds to that body of knowledge.  

I still have labwork results to review and compare to past reports but nothing alarming is standing out so far.  

The one health issue that did need to be addressed during this exam was an infected molar. Gordo appears to have sustained some facial trauma as a juvenile that caused some misalignment in the dentition on his right side. While his teeth were still healthy during his pre-travel exam at the Wildlife Waystation back in 2021, yesterday’s exam revealed an obvious tooth infection with x ray confirmation of root involvement. While I can’t ask him to rinse with salt water, the staff is doing their best to keep him on soft foods and he will have to go without nuts and seeds for a few days.   

Gordo is a shy chimp and it’s going to take some time for me to win his trust back but I hope on some level he understands how very much he is loved. And hopefully he will feel better very soon with that infected tooth out! So grateful for the dedicated and creative staff that will find a way to get those post extraction meds in. I see a lot of pudding and peanut butter filled dixie cups in his near future!