We’re back with news of the past few days. Most notable was the fact that tiny Beignet Bear (if you recall, she weighed just 1.4 pounds on arrival, which was half the weight of her brother) was not eating and had stopped eliminating. This was a very serious problem, and resulted in her returning to the UT College of Veterinary Medicine. She was put in the ICU for 2 days and nights, so she could be watched closely. An ultrasound showed she had a type of colic – too much in her tummy to allow any further intake of food. After an enema to take care of that, the vets tried several different types of nipples, finally finding one that she accepted. At first, her brother Boudreaux was with her for company, but after he started crawling over her he returned to the ABR Cub Nursery.

When Beignet was eating and eliminating successfully, she was able to return to the Cub Nursery. The curators keep the cubs separate but close, so they can smell each other but fragile Beignet won’t be overwhelmed by her boisterous brother. Here is Curator Tom feeding the larger cub – he still looks pretty small to us!

Beignet snuggles into a cozy, “cubby cave” and virtually disappears. She’s really hard to see.

We are very glad that she is able to be back at ABR, and we are sure she will make great progress now – she is eating, pooping, and peeing!

A quick look at our partly-furred yearling, Hartley Bear. He is gaining strength and is eating well and sleeping a lot. Hartley continues to lose fur and we are told it will take several months for him to grow a new fur coat.

We will be back with another update tomorrow or the next day. We’re glad that all three bears are making progress.