Elephant Orphan, Phabeni’s First Day | Playing in the Garden with Lammie & Herman

Little calf, Phabeni is settling in well in his new home at HERD. Lammie and Stavros kept him warm and safe during the night in the nursery, while the new morning sees an exciting new adventure: playtime in the sun of the garden.

HERD's former Ops Manager, Juan attends to the calf's small wounds, keeping them clean and spraying Cyclo Spray onto them (making the elephant look a lot like a leopard). Cyclo Spray is an antibiotic wound spray, for the treatment and prevention of superficial skin infections caused by micro-organisms. It is green in colour, helping us to see where we have sprayed it.

Out in their private quarantine garden, Lammie and Phabeni enjoy the sunny warmth, while our team cleans the nursery inside. Carer Herman is on duty and gives Phabeni his next batch of milk bottles. The little calf is taking his bottles well and his dung has been solid so far. He sure is a feisty one and gives Juan a few head-butts, letting him know who's boss.

Juan decides to wrap the calf up in a blanket again, after getting some sun on his body, to ensure he doesn't lose heat. At this sensitive stage, we prefer the orphans to use their energy to put on weight and for their body's essential needs, rather than to stay warm, since we can provide blankets to do that job. Phabeni is a little fighter and is keeping us on our toes. We hope he stays strong and keeps up that spunky attitude. We have all hands on deck to help him on this journey.

https://herd.org.za/animal/phabeni/#f...