At the Zoo hospital, I got an in-depth look at what it is like to be a Zoo veterinarian. Dr. Meg Sutherland-Smith let us experience first-hand many parts of her job. We got to see a procedure being done on an Angolan colobus monkey, which had been bitten by a roommate. When the keepers arrived in the morning to check the monkeys, there was blood in the enclosure and this individual was guarding his arm. When the vet who roams the grounds checked on him, the decision was made to admit him to the hospital. We saw the monkey during his suturing under anesthesia. After the operation, the vet tech had to hold up the monkey so that he could wake up without aspirating. In this procedure, the surgeon, Dr. Cora Singleton, didn’t have to wear a face mask typical of higher-order primate cases. Primates are usually treated with extreme caution because many of their diseases can be caught by humans.

Anesthesia is extremely important to an exotic animal vet. It can be given through gas mask, used mainly on the smaller and less aggressive animals, or by injection. The injection can be given in a squeeze cage through mesh or more popularly, by dart. Dr. Sutherland-Smith showed us how the darts work. Unlike hypodermic needles with their openings at the end, these needles have openings on the side that can be covered when not in use and pushed back when they hit the animal. The whole darting process is powered by carbon dioxide, and is quite an art. There are protocols in place for different types of anesthesia so that the vets don’t accidentally inject themselves with a drug that could kill them. There are different size rifles used to shoot different size darts to different size animals. One of the interns got to use the mother of all rifles as a practice on a hunting model (a Styrofoam deer). This dart rifle has a pressure that can be changed based on distance and the size of the dart and a focus to boot. The vets practice their shot, because they must be accurate. They ” shoot to survive”, if you will.

Another thing we experienced was a laparoscopy, which was skillfully performed on a green bell pepper. A laparoscopy is a tool used to see inside an animal (in this case vegetable) instead of having to open the animal up. Before the advent of the less-invasive electrophoresis, all bird sexing was done by laparoscopy. It is amazing what can be done with a couple very small incisions: one for the laparoscope and the other for the surgical tool. The laparoscope is often used in conjunction with tissue biopsy, for which the vets have a neat tool that is very long with a scoop on the end to assist them in scooping out cells.

I really enjoyed learning how to suture wounds, especially on fruit. I was given a pretty beat-up orange and asked to give it stitches. The suture and its accompanying hook-shaped needle came in a sterile pouch to ensure the safety of the procedure, especially for as sensitive an animal as an orange. I used forceps to hold the needle and skillfully hooked the needle through both sides of the wound. I pulled the suture through until there were a couple inches left hanging out on the non-needle side. The next part was the throws, which were the most difficult for me. I had to loop the suture around my holding tool and pull through to create a knot of sorts. If you want to see what a wonderful job intern Mariah and I did, check out the pictures of the experience.

Being a zoo veterinarian is a very challenging job, mostly because animals tell no tales. They can’t tell you what’s wrong, or even try to show you the problem. A lot of being a good vet is having keen observation skills and knowing the difference between a potentially critical problem and a non-critical one. It is a hard academic road too, in general taking nine years to complete. For those who have that job, it is rewarding to see animals making progress after being in bad situations. Only the well-trained veterinary eye can understand the tales that animals do tell.

Contributed by Erin – Zoo InternQuest Careers Team

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