Zoo's oldest resident treated for asthma

Janie the chimp at Auckland Zoo. Photo / The Aucklander

Janie, Auckland Zoo's oldest resident and one of the world's oldest chimps in captivity, may soon be sniffing through a modified inhaler to treat her worsening asthma.

The 57-year-old chimp has been taking oral medication with her food daily for years but her asthma has been getting worse.

Zoo senior vet John Potter said they were looking at a better way of getting the asthma drugs directly into her lungs.

She did not like the hissing noise an inhaler made and they were now developing a version where the gas was in a plastic chamber and Janie breathed it through a metal pipe.

"Everything is looking quite encouraging."

He said she may never use an inhaler directly but if she could be trained to suck the gas through a pipe, it would have the same effect.

Dr Potter said they were also encouraging Janie to lean against the bars of her cage so they could listen to her lungs through a stethoscope.

He said that despite her age and ill health, Janie was still very strong and her keepers did not go into her cage because of the potential risk to their safety.

Dr Potter said that Janie lived alone in her cage because she had been conditioned to human companionship from tea parties when she was young and efforts to re-introduce her back into the company of other chimps failed.

"We just don't take that risk with her. They are tremendously strong, even though she is an old lady now."

Dr Potter said Janie still enjoyed her food and zoo staff were doing their best to make her life comfortable.

"She has got television, she has got radio, she has toys so she doesn't live a bad sort of life."

- NZPA