It's inevitable when you work closely with animals that certain cases or characters will interest you more than others, and some will steal your heart. It was a post-monsoon day like any other in India when the rescue vehicle pulled up at the hospital and unloaded a few dogs with maggot infested bite wounds, a calf who had been lying down in a gutter for four days and a baby langur monkey. He was in a sorry state having been hit by a vehicle on what the locals call Snake Mountain, named after the twisting road that winds it’s way over the hill between Pushkar and Ajmer. There were no visible wounds but he was paralysed from the waist down, confused and very depressed. He was still quite young, and could easily be cradled in my left arm whilst I worked.
We gave him steroids to reduce the inflammation, and some pain relief. As there were no obvious fractures to treat it was a case of hoping and praying that the paralysis was a temporary disability caused by swelling and bruising around the spinal cord rather than trauma to the nerves themselves.
He was an instant hit, everybody wanted to come and see him. I drip fed him water from a syringe to keep his fluid balance stable and left him overnight to rest as much as possible. It’s very tempting to continually visit the cute patients and see how they are doing, but this wee guy needed rest more that than anything else.
The next day he was still off balance and face down, badly concussed but if he was held upright and supported he would eat a very little banana if it was squashed and put in his mouth. I took him outside and gave him a gentle bath, cleaner his soiled hindquarters, drying him in the sun and lightly grooming him to keep the tactile contact that baby monkeys thrive on. By the next day he would lick food when you smeared it on his lips. Another day later and he opened his mouth ready for it. Little by little he was trying to move, becoming aware of his surroundings. On day five he put his hand out to try and grab at the fruit I was feeding him whilst he was bathed.
As he began to bite and chew we were able to feed him apples and papaya as well as bananas. I made a special feeder for him to encourage his co-ordination and reduce his dependence on humans. It was a dangling bottle with holes cut in it – he had to put his hands in the holes and pick out what he wanted to eat. As he got stronger and more independent we pulled back from handling him so that he did not regard us as his family. His recovery was going well.
My own less so – I was struck down by a virus that knocked me off my feet and had me hallucinating and fevered for two days. I was brought to by a phone call from the compounders – Monkey wasn't eating. I was worried, he had been doing so well when I left, but perhaps he did not like being cared for by the male nurses? I peeled myself off the sweat dampened sheets, got washed and dressed, and called for a driver – I was in no fit state to make my own way 7 miles into the desert. On the way I stopped at the fruit stall to buy fresh apple, banana, bitter melons and the local biscuit – Parle G (like Nice biscuits) I arrived at the compound in a cloud of red dust, and using a stick for support made my way to his kennel. The men were sad, shaking their heads and telling me that they had tried but he would not eat for them and monkey love only me. I tried to ask what they had tried to feed him and he had responded. After some painstaking translation by Siteram, it turned out that the hospital had run out of apple and banana and the monkey had only been offered papaya for two days. He considered this unacceptable, and had gone in the huff! I sat down beside him on the concrete floor, and opened the Parle G biscuits. A small black hand came up through the bars, trying to grab hold of the sweet biscuit. He ate two, and then made a start on the fruit.
After a two week stay at the compound the monkey was fit, healthy, and ready to be released, much to the dismay of the volunteers who had fallen in love with him! I made myself busy elsewhere so I didn’t see him leave. The rescue vehicle took him back to the exact spot where he was found and released him back into the jungle. His family came bounding down out of the trees to greet him, and carried him home.
