ANIMAL PLANET: How has Jessica's health been since the filming?

TONIE JOUBERT: Jessica, since birth, had no problems at all. She was doing very, very well. One Monday, Jessica fell gravely ill. We thought we were going to lose her.

We got a veterinarian out. He took dung samples and gave us an antibiotic to administer to her orally, which we mixed in with her coffee. She was doing from bad to worse, and by that Wednesday I was frustrated.

So I phoned the vet again and said, "Listen, Jessica is going from bad to worse. Do you have the results?" And to my surprise, and I couldn't believe it, he said "Yeah, I've got the results back. The bacteria she's infected with is resistant to the antibiotic you've been giving her." I was quite furious and said, "Why didn't you come and tell us we were using the wrong antibiotic after you got the results?"

So the antibiotic we had to use had to be administered intravenously in the muscle. I had to go fetch the syringes and the needles and stuff in town. And I said to him, "You know, these needles are too thin. They could never enter a hippo's hide." And he says, "Those can even go through an elephant's hide." I said, "OK, if you say so."

I got home and I tried the first injection in her arm. The needle bent and I had to pull it out. After more frustration, I phoned the guy again and said, "Listen, I told you these needles won't work." He said, "You don't know how to do it." I said, "Why don't you come and show me."

So he came out, and she was so weak she was actually lying down. So he tried and bent the first needle and pulled it out. The second needle he broke, level with her skin, and had to pull it out with a pair of pliers. And then he agreed with me that these needles were silly.

At the end of the process we had to use a dart gun, which was very, very traumatizing both to me and Shirley, as well as Jessica. He would shoot the dart into her... And I refused to be present. I didn't want Jessica to associate us with any pain.

So she walked off into the bush. One of our servants went to show him wherever she was, and he shot the dart into her rump — a big, pink feather sticking out of her buttock. She ran straight to me and I stood there and calmed her down, and I pulled the dart out. But it was such an ugly, big needle that when I extracted the dart, the needle stayed behind in the body. I had to get a pair of pliers to pull the ugly needle out.

So this operation had to be repeated for five days. Every day a dart in her bum. This was terrible, but thank god that she survived and is doing very, very well.

4. Is Jessica still single or is there a special hippo in her life these days?