J.A.C.K.

Dear Friends of J.A.C.K,

See by yourself how  Tommy has now become an amazing acrobat! Remember, Tommy was de baby with osteomyelitis…

Today, this little ape is enjoying life in his nursery group and is a young chimpanzee like all his other friends! The footage below will show you how he’s now playing on top of the trees …. we are all impressed! Bravo Tommy! We are all so happy you are doing better!

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Dear friends,

Seki is among the young males we have in the main group. A few days ago, in the morning, his mouth was totally swollen on the upper right side. His temperature was fine, but we could see it was painful as Seki was very quiet and isolated himself from the others.

After a short quarantine and an antibiotic treatment, Seki is now feeling a lot better and was allowed to join his group again yesterday. His face is ok and once treatment is finished, we would like to sedate him to see what is going on. We believe he has had tooth infection, but only a good check of his mouth can confirm this!

Talk to you soon,

Roxane

Dear Friends,

Lynn, Tommy, Nalia and Ekolo were separated from their nursery group about two weeks ago. They were coughing, sneezing and some of them had runny noses.

No fever has appeared so far. The sneezing and coughing totally disappeared and because all five infants are now doing great again, they’ll soon join their group.

We will keep you updated soon on their return into the group.

J.A.C.K.

Hello everyone,

January is the wettest month of the year. We have had too much rain for the last few weeks and  some of the very young ones started sneezing and coughing the other day.

That’s why Tommy, Ekolo, Luna, Nalia and Lynn have been set into quarantine for better observation and treatment. No fever has been reported yet – only coughs and runny noses – and we really cross our fingers the 5 little ones will join their group soon!

I’ll keep you updated

Roxane

Remember, dear Friends, Kina had severe eye issues several weeks ago and had to be isolated to provide the needed care and attention.

Kina before

Today, as already mentioned, Kina enjoys life again in her group and her eyes are doing extremely well. The use of a particular ointment (MAXITROL eye ointment – ALCON)  donated to JACK by the World Veterinary Service ( W.V.S. ) has given excellent results.

Kina today

Many thanks to our team who followed Kina closely, to our vet Jean Claude, and many thanks too to Tessa and the W.V.S. team who sent us this magic ointment as well as so many other drugs!

J.A.C.K.

Yes, dear Friends, this is wonderful news: young female Kina who was recently suffering of severe eye infection is now back in her group which we hope will help her recover totally!

Kina isolated

Because Kina’s eyes had been terribly swollen and because she had been kept isolated in a semi-dark quarantine facility, Kina pulled away some small parts of skin around her eyes as if she had been trying to facilitate her sight. Local antibiotic ointment worked very well. Her infected eyes and open wounds were cleaned on a daily basis and the vet decided she would return into the group to make her recover more easily…

Kina back with the others!

Kina’s eyes are being cleaned every day, especially in the evening when back in the night facilities, and antibiotic ointment is still used to be sure no other bacteria might interfere in the eye recovery…

Kina enjoying enrichment

Today, Kina has a very particular look: her eyes are have now a slight pink colour where he has pulled away the skin… We really hope this nightmare will come to an end very soon because Kina has given J.A.C.K. team sleepless nights!

Kina’s new “look”

J.A.C.K.

Dear Friends,

Kina is a young female chimp  rescued in April 2007. She has never shown any particular diseases nor has she ever had eye issues before… that’s why we are extremely surprised to see how fast the eye infection progressed!

Our vet sedated her immediately: Kina’s eyes were too swollen, too infected and he wanted to check the cornea. Hopefully, her eye isn’t damaged and needed to be cleaned thoroughly…

Kina woke up a few minutes later after a local antibiotic treatment (subconjunctival injections) and a general antibiotic injection.

Today she is active, but her eyes need time to heal.  She has been isolated in a semi dark room ( she can’t stand the sun light) and we all give her the love and the special attention she needs….

According to our vet, Kina will a few days to recover; let’s hope what he says is right…

I’ll keep you updated,

Roxane

Hi All,

Most of you who are following us must still have in mind the sad story of Tommy the baby chimp we rescued in 2010 and who had had a pellet gone through the right humerus.

Papa Augustin & Tommy

Today, 2 years after Tommy arrived, his arm is doing a lot better and the bone is still recovering! Tommy is now a normal chimp again, playing and enjoying life like all the other young chimps of his age!

Tommy is a real ‘miracle’ and we are so happy for him and for Nalia, his best friend, who can’t stay 5 minutes separated from him!

Tommy (right) and best friend Nalia

J.A.C.K.

Dear All

Sometimes tough things happen in life that are so hard you can’t even talk about it. It was the case of Santa’s passing for example about which I couldn’t even speak about as it was extremely painful.

Ekolo’s story is far different from Santa’s, but it gave us sleepless nights and too many worries, believe me!

This little chimp of the nursery group got badly sick last November: although he was still eating well,  he became skinny and couldn’t even walk any more as he was weak…

No parasites were found, Ekolo had excellent appetite, but slept much….

In a few weeks time, Ekolo gained in strength, was again playful but had lost most of his hair…

Because his skin was extremely dry and because Ekolo had brittle hair, Papa Augustin patiently bathed him every day with oil of sweet almonds which helped Ekolo a lot; his skin was so dry and itchy that he was scratching his arm and legs all the time causing slight wounds…Some samples of dry skin were sent to labs in the DRC and in South Africa, and no disease was found..

Today, Ekolo’s fur is back again, he is doing great and he’s going to be reintroduced in his group since he has been kept isolated from the others since last November! I think we’ll have to work slowly by slowly to put him back with the others and I am sure Tika and Tommy will hug him immediately because they have always been Ekolo’s very best friends!

Before I end,  Franck and I wish to congratulate and thank JACK keeper Papa Augustin for all what he did for Ekolo. Papa Augustin gave the baby all his love and attention and he remained confident and positive all the time!!!

Thank you also to Dr Emma who helped us on this case. Our vet Jean Claude was on abroad at that time and he sent one of his vet assistants to help JACK..

Many thanks also to different vets who gave us interesting advice: Doctors  Christelle, Rebeca and Brett! And we are thankful to Sandrine for the sweet almond oil and to Suzanna & Gregory for the vitamins and drugs…

I hope to come back next week with a positive update on Ekolo’s reintroduction,

Have a wonderful day,

Roxane

Dear Friends of JACK,

I hope you are all doing fine.

Here, at JACK, things are ok except that Luna has started flu and that she has now been isolated from the others for about a week now.

She first had a runny nose and coughed sometimes….

This lasted  about  a few days when suddenly,fever arose and her coughing and breathing became worse. Maman Angeline did all she could to keep Luna’s temperature down: she either wrapped up Luna in a wet towel or tried to keep a wet cloth on Luna head….

… but tricky Luna rather had the cloth in her mouth! This of course seems funny, but, believe me, Mama Angeline was really upset as Luna had clearly decided she’d use all her misschief to get the cloth in her mouth and NOT on her head!!!!

Although Luna was not doing great, she was still very active and playfull. If you look on the video located on the following link (sorry, I can’t attach it as I’m not a computer professional!) you’ll see she is now healthy and running all over the place!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f_5LH8B17xI

I think that if Luna is totally fine, she’ll leave the quarantine early next week. But I’ll keep you posted as usual…

Thank you all again for following us,

Roxane