After my trip in April to visit places in Africa and meeting the Sheldrick elephant orphanage in Nairobi. I convinced them they needed to have better diagnostic equipment on hand to increase the survivability of the orphaned elephants. I had already diagnosed a Pancreatic Enzyme deficiency in one of the failing babies by the name of Kithaka whom is now a thriving naughty boy. Apparently this is a common problem in baby elephants that is easily resolved with addition of enzymes to the milk to predigest the food. Also I recommended probiotics and not the indiscriminate use of antibiotics which would destroy the bacterial flora of the digestive system of pre- ruminating elephants. They have since April been adding the enzymes to all the baby elephants and have had a tremendous increase in survivability and health, as was noted by the many keepers that send 24/7 with their appointed babies.Sheldrick put out a request for donors to purchase the equipment I recommended and incredibly after a few months later one donor gave $100 000.00 for this purpose.I immediately began researching equipment found locally and that could be serviced in Kenya. After over 200 hours of research I chose the blood machines made by Abaxis which included a full Complete Blood count machine and a Blood Chemistry machine for checking status of internal organs. I decided on a digital x-ray machine made by Diagnostic Imaging Systems in USA.After receiving the equipment in my Florida home, I spent a lot of time learning how to operate them in preparation for my November trip. These machines are relatively easy to operate and one of the reasons for their selection.Abaxis In turn after greatly reducing the sales price as I was going to a Non-Profit organization, donated over $8000.00 worth of blood tests for which we thank them kindly.After packing the machines I had some very tense moments as they were carried on board with me as excess baggage, as we were not able to insure them for the flight. Fortunately we arrived with no mishaps. The machines were immediately set up and I trained local staff to operate them. As we had no normal values for baby elephants and it was quite a chore getting blood from various babies so we had something to compare with. It’s not easy to hold down a 300 pound baby when they don’t want to be held down but we managed.On arrival I immediately started using the machines to help with diagnosis and treatment of a baby elephant named Rukinga which I will write about in a different post.Being able to follow the daily progress of the sick babies by running chemistries has been a tremendous asset and help as no more guess work is necessary. The survivability of these babies has tremendously increased.I thank Sheldricks for giving me this opportunity to update and modernize their diagnostic and treatment capabilities. They are doing a wonderful job saving these babies and reintroducing them back into the wild where they belong.
