Hot hair.

 Second day of work. After some general feeding duties, the veterinarian, technician and I got some supplies and hopped in our large,white clunker of a van. We drove through back gates of the zoo, appearing on the opposite side of what the public sees. We had arrived at the foxes enclosure. Our fox is an old fellow, fifteen years old to be sure, and he had cloudy, cataraced eyes, and a slow gait. Over the winter, he got quite furry, something which is not conducive to the incredible heat here. It was time for intervention. Without removal of this excess fur, the old guy would get very overheated. So he got groomed this morning.

Later today, we checked on a meerkat with a hurting leg. How interesting it must be to be a zoo veterinarian. I've only been exposed to practice in a way that you can feel and examine your animals. In the zoo, diagnoses are made from afar. It is only under what appears to be a serious condition that an animal would be anesthetized to be examined. The veterinarian had to look into an enclosure with about 20 meerkats scampering, their dark eyes looking curiously around, and he somehow watched and determined that there was no swelling in the animal's hurt leg.


We also checked on a tomato frog with an ulcerated eye. Apparently, it is a condition that many tomato frogs get. It was cloudy and streaked and the stitch had to be removed. We decided to continue treatment.

There were a few other minor cases and more cleaning and preparation to be done through the day, but those were the main events. I wasn't very instrumental in any procedures, other than taking notes and cleaning. However, I learned much and enjoyed the day.