Samira and Chiquita - October Update

In our last update you read how Chiquita had suffered from poorly teeth and needed a lot of veterinary care - well this time it's sadly Samira's turn.



At the end of August, volunteers and staff noticed that our lovely Samira had some bad swelling on the left side of her face and neck which was growing each day and not only that, but she was starting to loose her fur in the same area. Given Samira's old age we were extremely worried and brought her in for a closer examination immediately. 

On inspection, we could see that the swelling was in fact an abcess, which we were able to drain on site. However, as Chiquita and Samira were hand-raised together on a poor diet of mielepap and dog pellets, we wondered whether Samira was also suffering from tooth problems which had perhaps become infected. We decided we didn't want to take any risks and sent her into Windhoek Animal Hospital for x-rays. 


We had to wait patiently for a whole week before Samira's x-rays came back to tell us that it was in fact an infection underneath the skin, that was causing her so much distress. Fortunately this could be medicated easily - she received a long lasting injection of antibiotics from the vet and following that we gave her tablet antibiotics on a daily basis for 1 week. 


Since then her condition has improved greatly and she is slowly growing back her fur. We're so relieved to have our happy, healthy Samira back on track!
 

   

Chiquita seems very content in her new home with Samira but still scowls at the volunteers who go in to spend time with Samira!

Over the last month we have used her to gather data for our new Footprint ID software we're developing with WildTrack. We lay thick sand out on a stretch of ground in the camp and encourage Chiquita to walk over it by luring her with small pieces of meat. In doing this she leaves footprints which we then photograph and record as part of a databse of cheetah footprints. The aim of the new software technology is to find a new method of recording cheetah IDs and the whole project is groundbreaking in carnivore research.

We are recording the footprints of all the cheetahs at our sanctuary, but like Samira, Chiquita is probably one of the easiest cheetahs to footprint - she'll do anything for food!