Health Update: Precious (Nov 2020)

Precious arrived in sanctuary in 2018. During her exit exam from the New Iberia Research Center, her diagnostics showed that she was in the early stages of chronic kidney decline. We vowed then to offer Precious whatever she needed to be comfortable in sanctuary as her condition progressed.

We have done just that, we’ve let Precious dictate what kind of care she wants to cooperate with which has been, to put it mildly, challenging.

“I don’t want help”

See, Precious doesn’t really want our help. She is wary of anything new but equally unimpressed by routines. In order to monitor her condition, we need routine urine samples and ideally, to give her a daily oral medication to support her kidney functions. Most of the chimps here will urinate in a collection tube when asked and will take their medications crushed up in juice.

We’ve tried to increase Precious’ fluid intakes by offering her tasty liquids. We first tried upping her intake of her usual grape juice. But as no other chimp was getting extra, she become suspicious and started refusing the juice.

Then we tried just plain water but offered from the hose for extra fun – this was mildly successful until she tired of it. She wasn’t a fan of alternative juices and we tried at least ten new flavors! Precious can be very hit or miss. She does seem to enjoy having her biscuit chow soaked in water which provides at least a little extra fluids.

When it comes to collecting urine, we use a custom made pvc tub that we can hold in the urine stream from a safe distance on the human side of the mesh wall and the chimps receive a special treat when they cooperate. Precious simply didn’t want to cooperate at first. We tried all sorts of treats and a few tricks and she just wasn’t having it.

Talk to the animals

At this same time, we were approached by a student who needed to complete her sample case studies in animal communication. All she needed was a willing organization, a photo of the animal, and access to a caregiver to discuss the communication sessions. Always willing to assist with student requests, we agreed and sent her a photo of Precious.

According to this student, Precious was very fond of two caregivers, Joseph and Alan, and liked it when they gave her attention the most. Believe what you will, but we tasked Alan with working with Precious on the urination collection…and he has been able to collect her urine almost every time he has asked her for it. Finally, we could get a regular sample to monitor her kidneys!

The results are in

During a recent move from DJ&T to Cedar Tree Villa, we wanted to get a new blood sample from Precious to really see how her condition was advancing. While she continues to be asymptomatic, her kidney condition is now at stage 2 (out of 4). It’s more important than ever that we try to find a way to convince Precious to take her daily meds and increased fluids. Even Alan hasn’t been able to sweet talk her into it just yet.

What do you do with a chimpanzee who refuses to cooperate with their preventative care? Sadly, not much. We’ll keep trying new things and change it up once the routine bores Precious. We’ll keep offering her all the favorite snacks she likes and try to sneak in extra fluids where we can.

Renal disease cannot be cured

But there is no way to reverse, or cure, her condition. Renal disease is the second leading cause of death in captive chimpanzees (heart conditions being the first). It is even more prevalent in females with over 30% of captive female chimps developing chronic renal conditions in their 30s.

The only measure we can take is to slow down the decline, we can only do that if Precious will take her medications, and we cannot force her to do that. That means our time with her may be shorter than we like.

You can help us keep Precious stocked with grape juice, she likes to drink it straight up with no dilution, so we go through a lot of it!