After an appearance on national television, Molly the giraffe, currently housed at Tufts' Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine, is milking her brief time in the limelight for all it's worth.
Molly, born last week at Southwick's Zoo in Mendon, Mass., is receiving special care because her mother Mauzy did not produce enough milk after giving birth. Veterinarians at Cummings' Hospital for Large Animals expect to return her to Southwick's tomorrow, barring any new developments or health problems.
In the meantime, though, Molly is already capitalizing on the university's alumni network: Meredith Vieira (J '75) interviewed the giraffe's handlers live for yesterday's "Today Show."
As Molly gets used to her celebrity status, Tufts specialists are working to keep her healthy. Specifically, they are concerned with staving off infections because Molly did not get the antibodies she should have from her mother's milk.
"[Mauzy] was a first-time mother, and she was a little young," Peter Brewer, a 1998 Cummings School alumnus who serves as Southwick's chief veterinarian, told the Daily. "She was underweight, and she didn't have enough milk. I did not think she was strong enough to nurse."
When zoo officials noticed that Mauzy did not produce her first milk, which is called the colostrum, they tried substituting bottled cow milk, but the infant giraffe's health deteriorated. Her white blood cell count was low, and she had trouble standing.
That's when Tufts veterinarians took over. "There was concern that she might be fighting off an infection, which was an especially acute worry because she did not receive any antibodies," Tom Keppeler, the associate director of public relations at the Cummings School, said.
At Tufts, veterinarians have provided Molly with neonatal care. They are also keeping her under a close 24-hour watch and giving her intravenous fluids. "We want to make sure she has a full course of a broad spectrum of antibodies," Keppeler said.
While the Hospital for Large Animals deals almost exclusively with horses and alpacas, experts there are confident in their ability to treat Molly. The giraffe's doctors told the Daily on Monday that she is almost ready to return to the zoo.
"She is doing very well aside from still requiring antibiotics," Daniela Bedenice, an assistant professor of clinical sciences at the Cummings School and the doctor in charge of Molly's care, said. "We expect her to go home fairly soon. We are anticipating Wednesday. However, we are still waiting for a repeat blood count to make sure it is in the range it is supposed to be."
Still, if it were not for yesterday's snowstorm, Molly might have been ready to be reunited with her mother even earlier. "It's the New England weather," Brewer said.
It is currently unclear how Molly's complications will affect her long-term development, but Keppeler is optimistic.
"We expect her to live a perfectly normal giraffe life due to the care she received both here and at the [zoo]," he said.
But Bedenice noted that while Molly may not suffer any physical problems in the future as a result of her current ordeal, she could experience some behavioral issues.
"With bottle-raised animals, you want to make sure you do not create behaviors," she said. "We want to make sure she does not become too attached to people. It is not that big of an issue with [small] animals, but it would become troublesome when she gets larger."
Brewer also had a mixed outlook. "There is always that possibility that things can go wrong. As a rule, if she fights off this infection, I think she will be fine," he said. "But I never say never."
Molly, currently around 86 pounds and over five feet tall, is a reticulated giraffe. Indigenous to Ethiopia, Somalia and northern Kenya, the reticulated giraffe has large polygonal spots on its coat which are outlined in white.
