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medical

Midnight bagels

November 22, 2019 by J.B. 25 Comments

Whenever a chimp is in the clinic for a procedure, I can’t wait for it to be over so we can put them back into the recovery room.

Drs. Zamzow and Khachatryan perform surgery on Burrito

But as soon as we get them in the recovery room, I almost wish they were back in the clinic.

Diana repositions Burrito, still under anesthesia, for x-rays in the recovery enclosure

That’s because in the clinic, we have tons of information about their vitals and far more control over the administration of analgesics, antibiotics, and other drugs that are essential for well-being and even survival. Once they’re in recovery, we have to hope for a cooperative patient. And chimpanzees are not known to be very cooperative under even the best of circumstances…

If a chimpanzee has a major surgery or shows difficulty recovering from anesthesia, we will stay with them overnight – sometimes for nights on end. We’ll monitor their respiration, give medications, and in some cases just nudge them to get up in order to promote circulation and deeper breathing. Our recent sleepovers with Burrito were actually pretty quiet, though the other chimps occasionally had something to say about the cornucopia of food available only to Burrito.

During critical recovery periods, caregivers sleep just outside the recovery enclosure to provide 24-hour care.

Some of the behaviors we work on in positive reinforcement training come in handy in times like these. While a no-contact thermometer isn’t very scary to begin with, it helps that Burrito is used to holding his temple to the caging while we get a reading.

A no-contact thermometer is an effective way to record trends in body temperature
In addition to charts for medications and procedures, caregivers maintain a log of vital signs such as temperature and respiratory rate

Administering meds is the most difficult part by far. Anesthesia and medications can make a chimpanzee lose his appetite – even a professional eater like Burrito. And some medications taste and smell disgusting. So whenever a chimp is on medication after a procedure, you will find the counters filled with all sorts of goodies – pudding, applesauce, juice, yogurt, soda, smoothie, bread, bagels, baked goods, jam, honey, syrup, dried fruit…anything that will mask the pill or liquid. And in many cases it only works once, so next time it’s back to the drawing board. But they have to take their meds, so there’s no giving up.

Burrito enjoys a midnight snack (spiked with pain relievers).

We’re so grateful that Burrito’s world-famous appetite is beginning to return and his suspicion of being surreptitiously medicated is starting to wane. In the not-too-distant future, he will be back to his old routine. And while I’m sure he’ll be thrilled to go back, I know he’ll miss those midnight bagels…

Filed Under: Burrito, Caregivers, Veterinary Care Tagged With: chimpanzee, clinic, medical, northwest, recovery, rescue, Sanctuary, surgery

Burrito and the New Veterinary Clinic

May 29, 2019 by J.B.

A while back we noticed that a black spot had developed on Burrito’s gums behind one of his upper incisors. He would let us examine the spot during positive reinforcement sessions, but because of its location we were never able to conclusively determine what it was. Unfortunately, that meant we had to get him into the clinic. This time, however, we would be using our brand new clinic in Phase 1 of the new expansion.

Any time a chimpanzee is anesthetized, we try to get as much information on their health as we can, so in addition to enlisting the help of our secondary veterinarians, Jen Wallace, DVM and Erika Nelson, DVM, Dr. Erin also invited some specialists.

Stephanie Moore, CRNA, managed Burrito’s anesthesia throughout the procedure.

Lynn Nelson, DVM, DACVIM came all the way from the Washington State University College of Veterinary Medicine to do Burrito’s cardiac and abdominal ultrasound. This was her second evaluation of Burrito’s heart.

Diane Carle, DVM, DAVDC and Sara Kessler, LVT from Animal Medical Center of Seattle and Jessica Reed, DVM from Seattle Humane came to take dental x-rays and to do a full dental evaluation and cleaning.

You’ll be glad to hear that everything went great! Dr. Erin removed a small foreign body from Burrito’s gums which should heal in no time. Burrito’s teeth look good and while we’ll have to wait for his full cardiac report, all signs were positive (for a guy of his condition and age, anyway).

The new clinic is larger and better equipped than our mobile unit, and being just steps from the chimps’ indoor enclosures, it is both easier and safer to transport the chimps back and forth.

When procedures are done, we put the chimps back into a recovery room with plenty of blankets to keep them safe and comfortable as the anesthesia wears off. Dr. Erin monitored his heart with a bluetooth stethoscope that records to a phone so that the data can be reviewed and shared.

Curious George kept Burrito company.

Our thanks go out again to everyone who donated to our Phase 1 expansion and to the amazing group of nurses, technicians, and veterinarians who have ensured that Burrito gets the best medical care possible.

Filed Under: Burrito, Veterinary Care Tagged With: Burrito, cardiology, chimpanzee, dental, medical, northwest, rescue veterinary care, Sanctuary

Sunning, sleeping, supervising

May 3, 2019 by J.B.

This morning, volunteers Rose, Ray, and Fred set out an early lunch forage for the chimps. Negra spent much of her time on the Escher climbing structure – I don’t know if she has a special fondness for this structure or if she just thinks we put more food up there. Either way, it’s great to see Negra climbing so high and enjoying the sun.

Afterwards she showed that in spring you don’t always have to rely on humans for your food. There’s plenty of wild lettuce out here, thank you very much.

Jamie was deep in dreamland after the forage (no doubt dreaming about boots and books and books filled with boots) when she was awoken by some activity out back.

These people look like they need to be supervised.

The welders had arrived with some of the caging that is being installed next week.

While we are still several weeks away from having the new chimp areas up and running, we have already begun putting the human areas of Phase 1 to use. Here’s a shot of the foyer which houses the computer workstation and break areas. I can’t tell you how exciting it is to have so much space after working for over a decade out of a one-room kitchen/laundry/enrichment/office workspace.

More important than the new foyer is the new clinic, which has twice the square footage of our mobile unit and includes much more storage space.

Once everything is done, we’ll put together a video tour of the whole facility. And then it’s on to Phases 2 and 3!

Filed Under: Construction, Food Tagged With: addition, chimpanzee, clinic, Construction, expansion, forage, medical, Negra, northwest, rescue, Sanctuary

Jody on the mend

August 24, 2018 by J.B.

Jody is recovering right now on a big, comfortable pile of blankets after undergoing a procedure to repair an injury to her eye.

Yesterday, during lunch, the chimps got into a fight. There’s nothing unusual about that, as you probably know by now. And it’s not unusual for a chimp to get bitten or scratched during these kinds of fights either but they don’t often require much in the way of treatment. However, during this fight Jody’s eyelid became partially detached and a quick surgical repair was required.

The staff and Dr. Zamzow quickly isolated Jody in Front Room 1, our medical treatment enclosure, and prepared Jody for anesthetization. When Jody was safely under, Dr. Zamzow reattached the eyelid with a few subcuticular sutures and we did a quick health exam before letting Jody recover.

Jody getting prepped in the enclosure for an IV catheter after receiving the anesthetic:

Whenever we do these procedures, we get the other chimps out into the Greenhouse and Young’s Hill to allow the patient some peace and quiet inside during induction and recovery. By evening, Jody was starting to come around while the other chimps were eager to check in on their friend.

Jody recovering after the procedure:

Missy, Jamie, Burrito, and Foxie checking on Jody through the windows to the playroom:

When Dr. Zamzow finished suturing, Jody’s eye looked so good that I had to try to remember which eye had been injured! But the challenge in treating chimps is getting them to ignore their wounds and leave sutures in place. For the next couple of days, Jody will remain separate from the other chimps, though she can have contact with them through the caging. Foxie and Annie in particular have expressed concern for Jody and check in on her regularly.

We’ll be keeping a close watch on Jody’s eye as it heals and hoping that no follow up procedures are necessary. For now, she’s happy being catered to and seems to be really enjoying some quiet time on one of the largest nests she’s ever built.

The Princess and the Pea:

 

Filed Under: Jody, Sanctuary, Veterinary Care Tagged With: chimpanzee, Jody, medical, northwest, Sanctuary, surgery, veterinary

Jamie’s exam

October 2, 2015 by J.B.

A while back, Jamie developed an abscess on her swelling that would not resolve. Thanks to our positive reinforcement training program, Jamie was letting Diana flush the wound twice a day with an antibiotic solution, but unfortunately it still wasn’t healing. So today, with the help of our wonderful vet, Dr. Erin Zamzow, and the long-distance support of board member Dr. Mensching, we decided to anesthetize Jamie to get a better look.

To say that Jamie was cooperative would be an understatement – it’s more like she’s a part of the veterinary team. We always have to isolate chimpanzees prior to anesthesia so that we can make sure they have an empty stomach and most chimpanzees quickly figure out what’s in store for them. As you can imagine, that can be quite stressful and scary. But Jamie spent the entire morning playing with her caregivers, seemingly without a care in the world. When the time came to induce anesthesia, she willingly presented her arm to Diana for injection.

Along with Dr. Zamzow, we were so grateful to have help today from Dr. Fuller of Ellensburg Animal Hospital, who brought a digital x-ray machine so that we could determine the extent of the wound and ensure there wasn’t a foreign body inside.

All in all it was good news: the injury wasn’t as extensive as we feared, and the x-rays all looked good. Dr. Zamzow was able to sterilize the wound and Diana will continue with the cooperative treatments until Jamie is fully healed. Right now, Jamie is enjoying some quiet time by herself in a room filled with blankets, with waiters on hand to give her sips of Gatorade whenever she desires.

When we are done with procedures, we position the chimps in a way that protects their airway as they recover, and to facilitate this we lay them on a couple of scarves with the ends passed through the caging so that we can gently roll them back into position if they slump over the wrong way. As soon as Jamie was up and about, she put a scarf right back to use as a fashion accessory. You can tell she’s feeling better already.

Jamie_recover_scarf_drink_gatorade_FR1_jb

 

 

Filed Under: Jamie, Veterinary Care Tagged With: care, chimpanzee, Jamie, medical, northwest, rescue, Sanctuary, vet, veterinary

Positive Reinforcement Training

May 1, 2015 by J.B.

We’re really excited to be embarking on a new program here at Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest. Thanks to a generous grant from the National Anti-Vivisection Society Sanctuary Fund, we recently began a Positive Reinforcement Training (PRT) program with the goal of teaching the chimps to participate in cooperative health monitoring.

Many of you reading this are probably familiar with PRT – it’s the “clicker training” that you see used everywhere from teaching dolphins to do flips to teaching your own dog to come when called. It uses positive rewards (usually food) and a “bridge” (a clicker, whistle, or even the word “good”) to reinforce particular behaviors. PRT is a tool, and like most tools, it can be used for good and for bad. So while it may unfortunately be used to teach animals to perform tricks for people’s amusement, it can also have a positive effect on the welfare of chimpanzees in captivity.

In their many decades in different laboratories across the country, the Cle Elum Seven chimps were darted with chemical anesthetics so that the labs could carry out experiments, treat wounds and illnesses, and perform routine physical exams. In some cases, the chimps were forced into small cages and surrounded by technicians with syringes, each one waiting until the chimp moved close enough to the caging to jab them. It’s hard to imagine how terrifying that must have been. And it happened over and over again – for some, well over a hundred times.

Thankfully, life in the laboratory is behind them now, but sanctuaries also have to collect information on the chimpanzees’ health if we want to provide the best care possible. What if there was a way to gain the same information without anesthetizing them at all? And if they did require anesthetization, what if they could learn to willingly participate in the procedure and avoid the pain and trauma of being darted? That’s where PRT comes in.

PRT has been used successfully in zoos, labs, and sanctuaries to teach chimps to cooperate with a host of health monitoring procedures: presenting different body parts for examination, sitting on a scale to be weighed, urinating into a cup, allowing their temperature to be taken, presenting an arm or leg for injection, and even allowing their blood to be drawn.

For us, the real prize is to get a look at Burrito’s heart function using an ultrasound machine. A few years ago, Burrito started showing symptoms of congestive heart failure, and since then we have successfully treated his symptoms with medication. But we’d like to get an echocardiogram to confirm the diagnosis and monitor the disease’s progression, and we’d like it even more if we could avoid anesthetizing him for it.

The grant from NAVS allowed us to bring in Gail Laule from Active Environments for the first of many visits to help create our PRT program and train our staff. Our work with the chimps began last Tuesday, and it’s amazing how much progress the chimps have made in just a little over a week. We began with simple things, like touching a target (just a pvc tube with some tape on the end), and quickly moved on from there.

web_PRT_staff_training_GH_jb_IMG_6814

web_Elizabeth_Burrito_PRT_target_GH_jb_IMG_6825

web_Foxie_touch_PRT_Target_GH_jb_IMG_6831

There are some challenges, of course. Jamie likes to be in control, and this new program has got her quite confused about who exactly is in charge here. So for now, the bulk of Jamie’s training consists of teaching her to allow us to work with the other chimps without interference. Negra, who suffered so much in her 35 years in the lab, was scared of the sound of the clicker, so she needed to be eased into training with more sensitivity. But while that first day was a bit of a challenge for Negra and her caregivers, imagine how she would feel if we had to dart her someday when she became ill. The beauty of PRT is that you can slowly and safely desensitize the chimps to frightening interventions so that when they are really needed, they can be performed with less stress and trauma.

But there is one chimp in particular that seems to enjoy training even more than the others, and who seems to have a particular aptitude for it. Any guesses?

web Burrito outside OA greenhouse eat wrap dinner_MG_6122

That’s right, Burrito has finally found something that combines his two greatest passions: eating and playing with his caregivers. He is going to ace this program.

All of the chimps are learning to touch a target and to present different body parts for inspection – this is how we might examine and treat wounds, for example, and it also creates the foundation for more complex behaviors. To perform his ultrasound, Burrito will have to hold his chest to the caging for an extended period of time, so our training with him is also focusing heavily on that. Here’s a quick clip to show you how well our star student is doing:

We are so grateful to NAVS for providing the funding for this training, to Gail for getting us off on the right foot, and to all of our supporters who make each day in sanctuary possible for these seven chimps. We are looking forward to sharing our progress with you!

Filed Under: Burrito, Caregivers, Chimpanzee Behavior, Food, Sanctuary, Thanks Tagged With: active environments, Burrito, chimpanzee, health, medical, northwest, positive reinforcement, prt, rescue, Sanctuary, training, veterinary

More medical equipment

August 30, 2013 by J.B.

Exciting news – we received an ultrasound machine! The machine (pictured below, on the left) comes courtesy of Pacific Vascular in Bothell, WA and is capable of doing cardiac, abdominal, and, as you might have guessed, vascular imaging. A million thanks to Pacific Vascular, to supporter Karen Gates and her son Jack for making the connection and advocating for us, and to Bob for giving us a tutorial.

web_Clinic_anesthesia_ultrasound_stretcher_lamps_august_2013_IMG_3990

Providence Medical Center in Everett, WA has come through again, this time with a centrifuge (below, on the right). Thanks Dan!

web_Clinic_microscope_centrifuge_August_2013_IMG_3993

And Kittitas Valley Healthcare has donated both an endoscopy tower and a mayo stand. Thank you Judi and everyone at KVH!

web_Clinic_endoscopy_tower_jb_IMG_4004

We’re still looking for a steam autoclave, a laryngoscope, and a portable x-ray machine. And ideally, we’d love to have a second, more portable, ultrasound machine for doing imaging inside the chimp house when the chimps aren’t under anesthesia (especially for Burrito). So if you know of any companies that might be willing to donate these items, please let us know!

Filed Under: Sanctuary, Thanks Tagged With: centrifuge, chimpanzee, clinic, endoscopy, equipment, laryngoscope, mayo stand, medical, northwest, rescue, Sanctuary, ultrasound, veterinary

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