Vet clinic Archives - Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest

Another busy day in the Chimp House! Unfortunately, Terry had to take a trip to the clinic today for a fractured tooth.

Fortunately, we were able to have a skilled group of individuals come to the sanctuary to help with Terry’s procedure. In addition to our vet Dr. Erin and our vet assistant Sofía, we were grateful to have the assistance of Dr. Dan Whitemarsh of Cle Elum Dental Clinic and Mekenzie, CRNA for this procedure! Also a special thank you to Sofía’s aunt Maria A. Loza, DMD, MS for consulting with us about Terry’s tooth!

Through x-rays we were able to determine his canine was completely fractured below the gum line. Dr. Erin opted to extract the broken fragment and clean up the gum to where it could be sutured back together. Out of all the outcomes, this was a good one that will lead to the fastest recovery for him. If all goes well, he can go back to his group sooner! It was exciting to determine, after consulting with other veterinarians and dentists that have worked on chimps, that we could resolve the issue without extracting the entire tooth root. We will keep a close eye on his healing process and do more work if needed, but we are currently happy with the results. Since Terry was already under anesthesia, we also collected all the medical information we could. He got a full dental x-ray, body x-ray, ultrasound, and blood work profile, among other things.

Recently, we received a grant from the Ruth Foundation, a legacy of the Gary E. Millard Family Foundation, for some new medical equipment. With that money we were able to purchase a dental cleaning machine and a dental x-ray, which up until now we had been borrowing. We can’t express how amazing it was to do a full dental cleaning with our new dental machine and x-ray system. We are also awaiting delivery of a new patient monitor, funded by the same grant, which uses new technology for capturing blood oxygen saturation – something that can be difficult to capture in chimps.

Using our new Dental x-ray:

Terry getting his teeth polished by Sofía with our new dental cleaning equipment:

Dr. Whitemarsh and Sofía cleaning Terry’s teeth:

Just finishing up the teeth cleaning with Dr. Erin (left), Sofía (middle), Mekenzie (right):

Dr. Whitemarsh needed to get back to his own clinic, but with the power of technology Dr. Erin was able to consult with him over FaceTime video chat:

Dr. Erin suturing Terry up:

Dr. Erin using the ultrasound:

Caregiver Grace observing and helping out in the clinic:

Dr. Erin (left) doing an eye exam on Terry and Mekenzie (right) assisting:

Sofía doing a blood glucose test:

After stitching him up and doing as many health assessments we could, Terry was ready to go back into the recovery room. He had quite the crowd waiting for him; Terry is a very popular guy! 🙂

Mave, Honey B, and Cy watching Terry come back into his room:

Rayne monitoring Dr. Erin:

Before Terry woke up Dr. Erin was able to do some laser therapy on Terry’s mouth. Laser therapy is very cool, it can help with pain, inflammation, and healing!

Terry did great during the procedure and is recovering very well, just a little sleepy.

Sweet Terry snoozing after a long morning:

Continuing the trip down memory lane in celebration of the sanctuary’s 8th anniversary, today is all about the Cle Elum Seven’s seventh year of sanctuary.

The seventh year of sanctuary would include moving the veterinary clinic under the newly constructed pole barn…

…adding a new climbing structure to Young’s Hill. It would be the tallest structure built on the hill to date. It is comprised of two climbing towers (Carlene’s Tower and Jamie’s Lookout), which are connected by a swinging bridge…

Jamie’s Lookout

Carlene’s Tower

…and perhaps one of the biggest highlights of the seventh year of sanctuary has been the addition of Positive Reinforcement Training (click on the link to read JB’s description of PRT at the sanctuary.) I think Diana summed it up the best; “Our ultimate goal with this program is to give the chimps the opportunity to participate in their own medical care, and to make it a positive experience for them.” The information gained from these training sessions is critical to providing the best care possible for the chimps.

Click on the link to read more about Negra’s progress in the PRT program.

The chimps also had some new visitors on Young’s Hill this year, including Hank the Hawk and Bernard the Eagle.

And here are some more highlights from the seventh year of sanctuary.

Thanks to the handy work (destruction) of whom we can only guess was responsible (most likely Jamie), the chimps got a new and improved bridge in the Playroom.