Wildlife and Zoo Medicine: Part 2The second two weeks of the wildlife module were conducted at Perth

Wildlife and Zoo Medicine: Part 2

The second two weeks of the wildlife module were conducted at Perth Zoo and I could not have been more excited! I grew up so close to the zoo that I could hear the lions roar from my bedroom. As a child, I visited the zoo nearly every day and knew most of the animals by name - Tricia the elephant, Memphis the rhino and Simmo the croc, to name a few. My love for these animals was probably a big part of why I decided to become a vet. With that background, you can probably imagine just how excited I was to finally make it into the veterinary department of the zoo in my final year of vet school. I had been looking forward to it for nearly two decades!

One of the best parts of the zoo placement was getting my very own swipe card and access code so I could strut through all the ‘staff only’ gates and pretend I worked there. On the first day, we were given a tour of the veterinary hospital and quarantine area. I caught a glimpse of a slow loris getting a post-quarantine examination before going on display to the public. On a side note, I don’t know why they’re called slow lorises, because they are, in fact, rather speedy when they want to be. We were then taken behind the scenes with the orangutans and Asian elephants, and I could barely contain my excitement. We watched as the keepers trained the bull elephant and worked on the young female’s feet (much like a horse). 

I was involved in some really interesting cases on a variety of zoo and wild animals, including a green sea turtle that became stranded and sustained severe wounds to the flipper and plastron (lower shell), a fairy penguin with an oral lesion, orthopaedic surgery on a black cockatoo that had been hit by a car, a bandage change on a tree kangaroo with an avulsed nail, suspected lumpy jaw in a kangaroo, and and necropsies on a giant northern petrel and baby western swamp tortoise the size of a 50c piece. The highlight of the rotation was watching a dental procedure and abdominal ultrasound on a sun bear! I had to pinch myself a few times. Check out those claws!

Throughout the two weeks, we had a series of lectures on zoo-related topics, such as enrichment, nutrition, enclosure design and hand-rearing of orphaned wildlife. I also had the opportunity to brush up on my darting technique which was a bit rusty. At the end of the four weeks, we had an exam (which actually went well!) and a 10 minute presentation on an assigned wildlife topic. My topic was ‘veterinary management of ratites’, so if you ever have a ratite that needs managing, I’m your girl!

I thoroughly enjoyed my time at the zoo and learnt so much. I was reminded why young me wanted to be a wildlife vet! Even if I never end up working in a zoo, I think the knowledge and skills I obtained during the past four weeks are extremely valuable and can be applied to any field of veterinary work. After all, the ability to work with any species is what distinguishes veterinarians from human doctors!