A day in the life of Bristol Zoo Vet

[29/08/2013]

I decided to take Dr Richard Saunders up on his offer to do a day of work experience at Bristol Zoo. Unfortunately, our schedules did not match and he wasn’t in that day. I arrived and met their head vet nurse, who seemed really nice. As I was a bit early, she was just handling prep for the day’s cases and feeding the Lorokeets which were staying in the building during recovery. Two other veterinary students arrived, followed by Dr Michelle Burrows.

Our first task of the day was to catch the Lorokeets and give them a quick health check. They showed a surprising amount of fight considering they were apparently extremely ill the day before. Shortly after Adam; their intern arrived. We’d met before whilst at Highcroft and so it was nice to see him again. Michelle asked him to take the appointments for the day, as a baby Pudu had died suddenly and she had to do a post mortem.

Our first animal was an Avocet. It had a lump on its leg which was not hindering it when walking but the keepers wanted to make sure it wasn’t anything sinister. We sedated it, took samples for the lab to test and flushed the wound.

 

Next up was a Slow Loris. Funnily enough a friend of mine was the one who brought him in; Simon…although having gauntlets up past his elbows to protect him from the very angry Loris was not so funny….He had some dental problem, I forget the specifics, which required surgery. He was much cuter when he was asleep.

A baby Livingstone Fruit Bat was our last appointment. He’d fallen and managed to break his last digit. Adam had an idea to try and repair it and was assessing whether or not it would heal by itself before trying anything. His overall body check showed he was in perfect condition otherwise and so he decide to give his new treatment a go. The details of which I am not going to disclose, as I have no idea how it fared...

 

Highcroft Veterinary Practice Referrals Department Work Experience...gosh thats a mouthful isn't it!

August 2013

It was another full day at Highcroft Veterinary Practice working with Dr Richard Saunders. We had two guinea pigs; one in for a biopsy and one which had completely paralysed back legs, and a tortoise which had been attacked by a rat.

The guinea pig which was paralysed had been seen by more than one vet previously but due to all of the consults resulting in a recommendation to euthanize the animal, as a last ditch effort the owners brought the animal to see Richard. They owners had a lot of faith in Richard as he had previously saved another of their guinea pigs after he had also been recommended for euthanasia due to severe dental problems. As soon as we saw the animal it was clear that it had virtually no quality of life. It was trying to drag itself along using its front legs and if honest, failing miserably. Even during its time in our care, it couldn’t drag itself out of its own urine or make it to the water bottle. After tests it was decided the best thing for the guinea pig was for it to be euthanized. The owners flat out refused and said they were not willing to give up on the animal despite its quality of life being non-existent. After the owners refused to leave and we spoke to them for approx. 45minutes, Richard agreed to give the guinea pig one last course of treatment. He said that he would try an anti-inflammatory and pain killer combination and if the animal showed no improvement in a week that it would have to be euthanized. He also made it very clear that they needed to be vigilant with cleaning the animal to prevent urine scolding, and if they did not return with the animal for a follow-up, he would be informing the RSPCA as it would now be animal cruelty. The owners agreed to the treatment but said they were going on holiday and unable to bring the animal back for a follow-up. They brought the animal back about a week and a half later and saw another vet at the practice but after reading the follow-up notes it was clear the situation had worsened. The notes described bad urine scolding on the whole of the animal’s underside and another refusal to euthanize. Richard made a note on the file to call the owners to follow-up and if there was no response, to contact the RSPCA.

The tortoise named Rocky had come in with severe bites to his forelimbs and it was explained to us that he had been in a chicken wire pen in their garden and had been attacked by a rat. One of the legs was significantly worse than the other and after inspecting the depth of the wound, it was decided amputation was the best option.

Tortoise under sedation before amputation 

Tortoise wound before amputation

 

 

Flesh removed 

Limb after the amputation

The operation went very well and as soon as he came round Rocky was motoring around his incubator. We monitored him and placed him into a vivarium to fully recover before being discharged.

Weekend away during the week

August 2013

Mum decided she wanted to move the caravan from Ilfracombe to Tewkesbury and asked if I wanted to come with her and spend a bit of time in Ilfracombe as I’d only been down once before. I said yes and it turned into a bit of a girl’s weekend away which was nice.

The campsite had a farm-zoo type thing on site which to be honest impressed me a little. I mean the thing itself wasn’t anything incredible, it was just a barn that had been converted into various pens and cages but it was a lot better than I expected and there was quite a lot of variety. There was a cat and her kittens, quail, chipmunks, mice, rats, ferrets (used for racing), sheep, puppies, calves, a Shetland pony and its foal, goats, chickens of various breeds and two absolutely humungous pot belly pigs. I’m always quite critical when at any animal collection but I must say, for being in an old barn, on a campsite, in the middle of nowhere, they all appeared well looked after. The only animals I took issue with were the calves as they were clearly underweight with prominent hip bones. As the public was able to buy bottles of milk to feed them, the sheep and the goats however I wasn’t sure whether it was because they had some condition which prevented them from putting on weight quickly or whether they were relying too much on the public buying milk to feed them and not feeding them enough in general. I mean, I’m assuming a local farm gave them the calves either because they weren’t putting on weight normally but whether it was just to get rid of them (as there would be little meat value) or whether so they could be fed up and returned to the herd I don’t know but it wasn’t nice seeing them in a poor condition. Of course that just meant I needed to buy more milk to feed them up with!

Mum feeding the sheep

Me feeding the sheep 

Me bottle feeding a baby moo-cow 

Mum bottle feeding a baby-moo cow 

Me feeding the Shetland pony and her foal 

Me bottle feeding the goats 

Me bottle feeding the goats 

Mum feeding the goats

 

The next day mum asked me what I wanted to do and after some discussion we decided to make the trip to Exmoor zoo. Neither of us had ever been there so we thought we’d see what it was like. Overall it was a bit rundown in places but generally quite good. They seemed to have quite a good range of animals and it was quite funny how they’d played on the Exmoor beast and featured panthers complete with the Exmoor beast story.

 

Ring-Tailed Lemur 

Pelican 

Tapir 

Tayra 

African Penguins 

Bad photo of a Bintarong 

Caracal 

Caracal

Cougar 

Cougar 

Meerkat 

Peacock 

Panther 

Manned Wolf 

Asian Fishing Cat 

Water Monitors 

Tortoise 

Tree Porcupine







Me and my momma at the zoo

 

Before we left we went to a talk, I forget what the actual name was but it consisted of several different animals. Whilst it was directed at the general public and didn't really tell me anything I didn't know, it was nice to get up close to some of the animals.

 

Mum reluctantly holding a tarantula 

Duck 

Mum smooving the duck

Armadillo

Mum touching a skunk

 

The next day we left Ilfracombe to move the caravan to Tewkesbury but not before we had a little walk around the town...

 

 

 

 

 

...And not before stuffing our faces with homemade ice cream...

 

Overall it was really nice to spend some time with my momma and see some animals in the process. It was definitely a much needed break from the city.