A Sad Day as Little Fighter, Phabeni Passes Away at 11 Months Old

By Adine Roode: https://herd.org.za/blog/a-sad-day-as...

We were thinking of ways to celebrate Phabeni’s one year in July. Little did we know that he would never reach his first birthday. For the past 7 months, it has been an up-and-down struggle with Phabeni, gaining weight, losing weight, taking bottles, leaving bottles.

For the last week, Phabeni skipped either his 8, 10, 12 or 2 o’clock bottle. Sometimes it was one bottle, sometimes it was two bottles. It was either 10 or 20% of his daily intake that he did not take.

I noticed that his energy levels were not good at all and he was listless. He had puffiness in his face. I contacted Katie Rowe from Reteti for advice, as Phabeni had been on goat milk for just more than a month, and he took to it well, but he did not gain as much weight as I thought he would have, and as he needed. At least he was taking his bottles. I thought it would take some time for him to put on weight as his digestive system needed to adapt to the new milk. I checked with the pediatrician who said it would take quite a bit of time. After about two and a half weeks he started gaining weight, but he never reached 170 kgs.

I asked Dr. Rogers to give him a vitamin booster and vitamin B12 to increase his appetite. Dr. Rogers suggested that we give it intravenously to reduce the stress of darting him, so we put Phabeni on a drip for this. Even though it was mild, he perhaps did not take the sedation too well as his front legs battled to hold his weight so I laid down and he rested on my legs, with his full weight. We gave him 3 bags of fluids plus a good dose of vitamins and minerals. We wrapped up just after 4 pm and he took his 4 pm milk bottle without any problems. At 6 pm he finished the bottle easily, as well as the 9 pm bottle.

Just before 11 pm, Ruan from Jabulani lodge knocked on my window to tell me the carers needed me as Phabeni was not doing well. The signal was not great, and they couldn’t get hold of me. I rushed up to the orphanage and saw Phabeni swinging from side to side, unstable on his feet. I sent Dr. Rogers videos of this and called him just before midnight. He answered immediately and asked if he should come out. I confirmed that I thought it was needed. It felt like ages before he arrived. Time stood still.

I suggested that we try his midnight bottle at 11:30 pm, which he didn’t take. However, he did lift his head high in the air with his trunk folded upwards, and opened his mouth as if to get milk. He would shake his head as if there was something in his throat he wanted to get rid of. I was scared he might choke on the milk and suggested to Stavros that we stop. I got Phabeni to lie down, and he fell asleep.

Minutes ticked by, and it sometimes felt as if he couldn't breathe and as though he was afraid that he couldn’t get air in. I think it might have been anxiety. I counted with him, as we did breathing exercises, breathing in and out, in, out. He got up for few more times and staggered around, chasing Lammie and Spotty, Stavros or myself. We got him to lie down with Stavros’ hand on his eyes and lying behind him, and me lying on the other side, helping him to breathe. He screamed a few times. In the end, he fell asleep.

By 5 am I told Stavros I would go and make us coffee.

Godknows came by to check on us, and when I arrived with coffee, he came out and said, “Phabeni is still sleeping.” We chatted about the plan for the day. It was during this stage that Stavros came out and told me that Phabeni was dead. Godknows and I rushed in to find Phabeni not breathing, just still and warm.

Dr. Rogers joined us at the orphanage to carry out an autopsy. It was hard on the team, but the results showed acute enteritis. While this could have been caused by something that Phabeni ate, there were multiple challenges that Phabeni had been facing for several weeks. His body was continuing to go through bouts of infection, which we would treat and clear through antibiotics. The cause of the infection was not removed and so the infection continued to return. If this was due to the broken bone in his hip, caused by the dart used to tranquilise him during his rescue, Phabeni was never strong enough for us to perform the operation to remove it.

On top of this, he cut his first tusk the week before he passed away, and his second tusk was swollen and red, ready to erupt. I know that during this stage of teething, we have battled every time with the orphan calves. Statistics show that most babies are lost during the teething period.

It will take time to heal from this. Phabeni was lucky in that he was able to find support from his own species again, and the imprint he leaves on the herd is obvious. He changed Setombe for the better, as the older female opened her heart to a calf who was not her own.

Phabeni's little heart will stay with us eternally. Thank you for loving him, learning from him, and letting his life matter.