Tempesta - April 2007

Greetings from Namibia! Quite a lot has happened since your last update:

In mid-February, Tempesta, along with the rest of our resident cats, underwent her annual physical exam. As part of an ongoing study of gastritis (inflammation of the stomach lining) in captive cheetahs, several gastric biopsies were taken using an endoscope. This year for the first time, staff and volunteers were able to see inside of the esophagus and stomach via the endoscopic camera using a monitor. She was also given her annual vaccines against rabies and other feline diseases and Frontline was applied to help control flies and ticks. Tempesta weighed in at 37 kilograms (81.4 pounds), down 1 kilogram from when she was last weighed in July.

In the weeks before the exams, CCF staff noticed that the hair was missing from the neck behind her right ear. There was a hole in the middle of the bald spot, with some scarring around the hole. Since it didn’t seem to affect her health at all, we decided to leave it until the exams and work her up first. When we got her on the table, we could see that the hole was probably caused by a thorn of some sort. The veterinarian cleaned the wound, although by that point, it had pretty much cleared up on its own. When a gastric biopsy, or endoscopy, is performed, we always inject antibiotics as a standard procedure, so a further dose was not necessary. Other than a bald spot that will soon disappear, she has had no effects from that injury. Cats in general are pretty immune to infections and Tempesta demonstrated that very well.

She is back in Bellebeno, spending more of her time with Samantha. This is expected, since they came to CCF at around the same time, with Cleo and Luna joining them later. They are both three and a half years old, born in July of 2003. Tempesta is starting to get bold and assertive, fending off the older and more dominant Nina and Solo to get a spot near the gate during feeding time.

Thank you again for sponsoring Tempesta and we hope that we can count on your continued support in the future.