Help Wildlife With Emergency Medical Treatment

Sometimes it is also the little creatures that count. We discovered a baby rock monitor, the sweetest little reptile about 10 cm in length. They grow to a huge size up to 1.5 meters. We have a number of these beautiful monitors that call our Nature Sanctuary home. Being part of the buffer zone of a World Natural Heritage Site – Isimangaliso Wetland Park, False Bay, means we have an ideal habitat for this species.

Unfortunately, the little monitor was injured. One of its back legs seemed paralyzed, but we hoped it would heal. We made a comfortable rehab area for it in a large basin, prepared food that it may eat, and provided a shallow dish of water for it. We kept it in its little rehab home in an ideal spot near a water pond, with partial sunlight. On the first day it was doing well, it drank water, moved around, and seemed to be settled. Yesterday however it refused to eat. We left it secluded and tried not to check too often. Eventually, we brought it inside again in the evening and decided to take it to a vet the following morning.

My night was restless, I checked on it more than once but it was moving only slightly. Perhaps it was asleep I thought, so I did not want to disturb it. I adjusted the warmer to ensure it was just right. Sadly, it did not survive but perhaps that is best as we would have not wished it to live a life of suffering. Every animal that is injured gets our full care and large or tiny we are saddened if it does not survive.  I will bury the little rock monitor near the pond where we found it.

Other news is that our vet will be attending to a wildebeest that needs to be checked during the coming week. We have encountered a giraffe that has overgrown hooves on a nearby wildlife reserve. This is a very painful condition and we will ensure that it also receives veterinary care.

A most important concern presently is that we need to move some nyala into another sanctuary as their numbers have increased. Although they are mainly browsers, grass also forms about 30% of their diet and the impact they have is growing. They may deplete the grazing and also browsing that is important for other species such as impala. Although we are just getting over the winter dry period we notice grazing lines that already show their impact.

From the largest to the smallest animal, we care immensely and your support helps us ensure that no animal suffers.

Heartfelt thanks for your help!

Although we focus mainly on medical help for wild animals if there is a need we encounter of any animal suffering we will do all we can to help it!

We recently encountered a baby donkey in the middle of the road near Hluhluwe Park. The little foal was in a terrible condition. It was fragile but trying to follow its mother and the little herd nearby. Donkeys in the area are not tame and will move away from human persons, so they are not groomed or treated for parasites by their owners who often don't even know where they are wandering.

The little foal was too weak to keep up with her mother or run from me when I tried to help her, so I gently held her shoulder and led her off the road. It was late afternoon and it was  difficult to help her as we did not have the necessary equipment with us. 

I was dreadfully disturbed and immediately alerted the local state vet department and them to please come out to help. I knew they would most probably not as we have been told before that they do not attend to donkeys as they don't have a mandate to work with donkeys in the rural area!  As expected they did not come out so I contacted the SPCA vet, but as it was dark already they could only travel the 100 km to reach our rural area the next day. 

Early in the morning our game guards and myself drove out to the rural area and began to search for the tiny foal. We asked the local rural people to assist us. Eventually just before the SPCA arrived, we found her but sadly she had lost her fight for life just a few minutes before we found her.

To our dismay, we saw another donkey foal grazing with its mother, but it was also in a terrible condition. We followed her and eventually managed to get near enough to slip a capture noose around her head. We examined her and treated her as far as possible. As she was still nursing on her mother we decided it would be too stressful to move her. With heavy hearts, we decided to leave her with her mother and prayed that the treatment would help. 

Following this we asked the SPCA to join us in a meeting with the community. We need to correlate to see if we could help them in any way to understand better how to care for their donkeys that wander around often without access to water or the correct nutrition. We were informed that they even graze poison parthenium plants a dangerous invasive weed growing in the rural area.   

We met the costs of the SPCA and their assistance. Without your support, this would not have been possible. Thank you for caring and for helping us to do the very best for the wild and any animal in critical need of care or medical attention!