NORTH TEXAS — It wasn’t the first time Dwan and Andrew Johns rescued a spider monkey. Tarrant County’s Funkey Monkey Ranch owners took in one in June. The one they got Saturday, Dwan Johns said, looked like he had special needs.
Her expert guess was metabolic bone disease. She said a trip to the veterinarian confirmed it.
“His joints are all swollen, his face and jaw is deformed, and we just knew that something was off,” she said.
“Jorgie Boy” is nearly three years old , but Johns said it looks like he’s only one. His tail is supposed to be one of his strongest features; Johns said it hangs rather than curls around her arm like the other spider monkeys in her care.
“We have to prevent him from any climbing, no swinging,” Johns said. “We have to be so careful with him that even if he reaches his hands up and wants us to grab him by his hands and lift them up like we would a normal monkey, we can’t do that because we could actually break his arms.”