Eddy aint no quitter

Sometimes you just get lucky.....



Tuesday I didn't expect my boy to live, just in time, the drip seemed to blow life back into his tiny, fading, little spark. Yesterday he was gaining strength but still not very active, still laying down to sleep, still snoring like a drunken sailor, which we now think was some fluid in his lungs from drinking with his trunk. We now know that very young elephants have little control with their trunks and frequently send fluids into their lungs, and that's a very bad thing.  So for now he gets 100% of his fluids by bottle to keep water out of his wind bags.  

This is Eddy at about 4pm today falling asleep on my hip, he sleeps better when he's connected to someone.

The wet spots are from ointment we are putting on his skin in a few places to  heal scrapes and sores. Think of him as the guy who has just emerged from the ICU, banged up, bruised, sore, weak, BUT out of ICU.  We were instructed by Eddy's remote medical team in Knysna to get him on animal Gatorade for 24 to 36 hours and try and get 8 to 10 liters a day in him, yesterday it was 6 liters, from 11pm last night till 5:30pm today, when I left, it was 9.25 home and dry. Yippppppeeeeeeeeee!

He started leaning into me later this afternoon and flapping his ear, I finally got the message, "scratch my ear ya dip@#$%!"  I did as instructed, which prompted the very low frequency rumble he makes when he talks to me,  I think of it as a cats contented purring....

Eddy likes his Gatorade.....We are using bottled water, bottles from the restaurant and hotel at Epako , they're as sterile as we are going to get and the 500ml size is perfect for a single sitting feed.

Just after this last feed at 5:15 today, before the night shift relieved me, Eddy took another nap, this time as you can see putting his complete trust in my hand, sleeping like the baby he is.



I want to thank all of you in the outside world who are pulling for Eddy, AND it is, clear around the world.  I also cannot thank the folks in Knysna enough for their incredible support, Greg, Lisette and Dr. Debbie you saved Eddy's wrinkled ass. 

We are optimistic at this point that Eddy's going the right way, he's getting transitioned out of the Gatorade mix into a soya based milk product tonight,  Eddy has already made it very clear he doesn't like the new @#$% much, what is it about kids and softdrinks?

Most of the afternoon I kept telling him to stop his nonsense and drink his milk or I was sending him to his room.  It's a war of wills at the moment and his is getting stronger by the minute.  

We are all blessed,  Eddy got his bucket of mojo and I could feel the tailwind picking up this afternoon....

More soon.

Chris