Working at a small animal clinic

Well, I've started a new chapter in my story on becoming a veterinarian. This summer, I am working at a small animal medical clinic near my hometown. As many of you know, working inside isn't exactly my cup of tea, but I think it is also quite apparent that I love animals to death and can be quite happy with them anywhere. So, I step into something new to expand my knowledge.

I've volunteered at a few small animal clinics over the years, and worked for several months as a receptionist in one, but I have never worked as a technician. For any of you who don't know, a technician is essentially a veterinary nurse. They are the ones who talk to you about your pets problems, administer vaccines, and get temperatures and weights before the vet comes in to speak with you. I won't solely be performing this job over the summer--I will pretty much be a floater, working wherever the clinic needs an extra set o hands, but technician work will be part of it.

I've completed one week of working, and I've enjoyed myself. The clinic is a small one, with only one doctor who works there. We have a reception desk, small waiting area, and two rooms for seeing patients in the front. In the back, where only employees go, are the grooming area, treatment room, surgery room, ICU, x-ray, and kennel area. The doctor is an older gentleman, with a kind face and a bit of a blunt personality. The rest of the staff are women, most of us quite young, and it makes for an interesting environment to work in, very caring and light-hearted. Our clinic mascot is a nineteen year old cat whose thin skin and sparse hair seems tensely stretched over her old, pointy bones. She has big, yellow eyes, and a feeble but determined meow. She gets fluids given under her skin twice a day to keep her kicking, and she has an obsession with fast food. She has a tendency to be a very picky eater, and at this age, we humor that tendency. If she is not pleased with the food presented to her, she will follow the feeder around the clinic all day meowing expectantly, as if to say, "I am the queen, where is my salisbury steak?" I enjoy her immensely.

The days have not been too whirlwind yet, as the true summer busy season hasn't begun. I've given a few baths, helped with a few shots, cleaned kennels (one which I came into early morning full of explosive diarrhea--gross!), and worked the front desk. There is one particularly good story from the other day, however.

It was my first full day working at the clinic. I'd started the morning scrubbing kennels and doing laundry, and then I went out to reception when the door rang. A very kind lady had brought in a beautiful, white pyrenees mix who looked about like this, with a few light brown patches in his fur.


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He was obviously someone's pet. He had a continual smile on his face, loved people, and when asked to sit, he did so obediently. We asked him to lie down, but he didn't know that command. However, he obviously knew shake, as he kept sitting and then repeating the action over and over, especially when we praised him. He did not have a name on his collar, but did have a number on his rabies tag which would be unique to him. We put him in one of our kennels in the back, hoping to figure out who the owner was. The receptionist was unable to reach the person who could identify his owners, as they were unavailable all day, and he was not very happy being closed in for the day and continually filled the clinic with his loud barking. By the end of the day, we were still unable to get in touch with anyone. The veterinarian at the clinic would not allow him to stay overnight, and if we were to call animal control, he'd be put on a list and confiscated if he was found outside his home again. I couldn't bear that thought, and so I offered to take him home for the evening. I'd let him sleep in a horse stall in my barn and bring him back to the clinic in the morning. I loaded him up in my car , which quickly became covered in white hairs. I sat him in the back seat, hoping he'd lie down or look out the window on the drive home. He started out with his face out the window but was soon very eager to be near me, so he ambled up to the front seat, tripping over his large front feet every time I had to hit the breaks. He went between sticking his face into the wind and trying to climb into my lap as I held up my hand and told him, "No." He loved to be petted and talked to. I was very happy to have his company and was happy to be helping him out. However, after driving about 20 minutes home and getting on my street, I received a call from the clinic. The receptionist was able to get in touch with the dog's owner and they were very eager to get him home. I spoke with them and offered to meet them halfway. I turned the car around and drove right back in the direction of work. I waiting in pre-determined parking lot, petting the dog and loving on him  for a few minutes before a family of wife, husband, daughter, and friend showed up beside me, eagerly saying, "Biscuit! Oh, Biscuit!" He seemed quite happy to see them with tail wagging, and he hopped out of my life and back into his family's. They had been driving around looking for him for hours, and I was so happy to have helped get him home. What a joy it is to regain something you love that you've lost.

Owl emergency and goodbyes.

I never ended up blogging about the final day of my trip in Belize. It was blissful, and (of course, for me) sad. I have this tendency to get very attached to beautiful things, and when they are gone, I find myself less whole for a period of time.

One of the bittersweet moments was when we performed our final care routine on Ziggie the iguana. He was the only constant patient throughout the course, and he was the best type of patient to have. His gentleness allowed us to practice all sorts of reptile procedures, and it was really great to see his condition improve from the first day of the trip til the last. On day one, he was barely moving at all, halfway through the course he escaped and traveled quite a distance, and by the end, his reflexes in his legs were much stronger, and he was moving against our PT with greater resistance. As he had his prolapsed male organs put back into position on the last day by one of the students, I held him on his back with his head resting on my shoulder. One of my arms was supporting his back and the other was placed gently under his arm. As they began to work on him, he clasped his hand round mine and lightly pressed his nails into me, as if to say, ‘It hurts a little; support me.’ That moment of connection nearly brought me to tears. He was a wonderful patient, and I’m so eager to hear about his release back into the wild when he is healed.

The last day, we had exams and presentations. I did mine on the zoonotic disease, Toxoplasmosis, and on the wild cat, the Margay. After only two of us had presented, we got a call that a mottled owl had been hit by a car and was seriously injured. Thus is the life of a wildlife veterinarian- no schedule can truly be set. We jumped in the van and flew to the clinic. The little ball of dirty feathers was seriously lethargic. He couldn’t fight or raise himself up, so we got him out to check on his condition. He was severely dehydrated and in pain, and his right wing was broken. The wing needed to be pinned, but he was in such bad condition that if we put him under anesthesia, he might not make it. The first course of action was to get him hydrated with injected fluids and a shot of pain medication. After this short treatment, he was allowed to sit for several hours in the dark in a carrier. We finished our presentations and had a final discussion, and then checked on him again. At this point, he was able to sit himself up in the carrier, so we got him out and gave more fluids. It still was too early to perform surgery, so we set him up in a cage in the clinic, cut up a mouse for him to eat, and let him rest for the evening. If he made it through the night, the wing surgery would be performed.

It was such exciting news the next morning before we headed to the airport to hear that the little guy was up perching in the morning. The vet and two assistants performed the bone-pinning surgery, and he did well, though he took a bit to wake up. I’m eager to hear of his recovery!

For our last evening, we all went out and danced the night away. We didn’t hit the hay until about 5 am. To anyone who was on this trip with me, I want you to know that you are some of the most beautiful people I’ve met. You’re going to do great things with your lives, and you have inspired me in so many ways. Our conversations were enlightening and our experiences will never be forgotten. I look forward to working with you in the future to help the animals of the world. Your shared passion will be the flame that gives me hope when the world seems dark. I know this will not be our last goodbye. Thank you for everything.

Bid Sanctuary and a Puma case

We started the day with conversation. It ended up being a review of zoos and of animals’ recognition of our job to help them. The veterinarian told us an amazing story about a stray dog who came to her clinic and needed treatment. She knew that one treatment on the dog would not heal him, and she earnestly hoped he would come back by her clinic the next day. Without fail, the dog returned to be helped three days in a row. The next day, the dog did not return, and she saw him a few weeks later on the streets, all healed. Sometimes it does seem that animals do know what we are trying to do.

Our conversation about zoos was enlightening and important. We discussed the historical prevalence of zoos, even of the human kind, and came to the conclusion that zoos will probably never be fully eradicated, so our energies should not be directed to making all animals wild and free, but to improving the captive situations that animals are under. We discussed the indications of good zoos, including enrichment, healthy animals, adequate staff, good enclosures, and regular preventative healthcare.

A darling little puppy next came into the clinic to get some vaccinations. The little chihuahua/pekinese mix was so sweet! I was allowed to give him his shot under the skin between his shoulder blades. He squeaked uncomfortably when I inserted the needle, poor thing. We all very much enjoyed having him around the clinic and getting to love on him in the morning. Baby animals are just the best! 

Next we had a patient. Umberto, from the Green Iguana Project (who helped us bathe iggies the other day and kept calling everything ‘little’) brought back in the iguana with the hurt leg from last week. It was time for a re-check. The wound had begun to heal, but he was still quite swollen. Thankfully, it wasn’t draining, and he had apparently been more active during the week. We repeated antibiotic injections, cleaned the wound again, and got aggressively tail whipped as we messed with the wound. I was the restrainer for that little guy and got a few good smacks. He’ll continue to be monitored and the leg should heal fine if all goes as hoped.

Belize bird rescue was the next trip on our agenda. We drove for about half an hour, part of which was on an incredibly rocky road. I was sitting in the back of the 15-passenger van and kept bopping my head on the ceiling as we bumped along. We drove through a large, black iron gate onto a property where the ‘bird lady’ lives. We went into her garage and checked on a barn owl that someone had brought in. The beautiful bird showed all the right signs of being healthy—beak clacking towards us, wings raised in a threatening manner, fear. We stepped out of her room and began to talk in the garage about our plans for the day, when all of a sudden, a green parrot flew right into the garage, startling us all and landing on Nikki’s (the bird lady) shoulder. It turns out he was her pet parrot that could not be rehabilitated into the wild because he is too habituated to humans. She does not condone keeping parrots as pets, but this is one of the special situations where the bird is already a pet and cannot go back into the wild safely. She kept him in great conditions, though, and allowed him to fly around her property and come in for night and when he wanted.

We were shown her release cages for ‘soft release.’ There are stages of rehabilitating a bird into the wild, and in each stage the bird is contacted less and less. After being in an enclosure for some time with human interaction, they are put into a large flight cage where humans feed them, but do not talk or interact with them. After some time, the birds are allowed access to the wild, but still have access to the flight cage and human food. Food is given less and less frequently until the birds find their own sources and have regained their fear of humans.

We helped Nikki do checkups and de-wormed some of her other parrots that would eventually be released. I got to yet again enjoy the joy of restraining snappy birds. They were all healthy, thankfully! We also introduced an aracari toucan who had healed from a wing injury to the other two toucans on the property. Introduction of new animals is usually done in a very slow process where the animals are allowed to interact through a barrier of some sort (cage, etc). After they have gotten used to each other’s smells and vocalizations, they can be fully released to physically interact with one another. Because of the dangers of animals being rejected from a group, and the ability to actually be in an enclosure with birds, several people went in with towels in case an intervention was needed. The birds did beat up on the new toucan just a little bit, but it was not too bad, no injuries were sustained, and we were able to get him back out of the enclosure for further monitoring and a more definitive release later.

We also got to practice blood draws on ducks and chickens at the bird sanctuary. We walked across the pasture to the bird yard, and then the rain started to pour. We still had to catch the birds to get them in the barn for blood draw, so we all took a little shower as we corralled ducks and chickens. The rain and mud covered our bodies, and as I lunged over a duck to restrain him. While keeping down the strong wings under my arm and holding a fiesty, flying head with my hand, I got quite pooped on. It was a gloriously dirty day. I love feeling like you are truly working, and getting dirty is usually always a good sign that you are! We drew blood from a large leg vein after cleaning the area and holding off the blood flow. It was a great experience to practice taking blood from a bird for analysis. 

 The bird sanctuary was a fabulous experience.

After the bird sanctuary, we went to check on a mountain lion named Nala. She was being kept as a private pet, which always comes with its own problems. Turns out this cat was kept housed with her brother for many years, and was even allowed to breed with him and had kittens, which were sold. The lady who had him at her house was not the owner, but simply a caretaker of the cat, and she was the one who called the vet to take care of them. The brother had died a few weeks ago of cancer, and Nala had been quite lethargic since his passing. She was also having medical issues of her own. We got to the property, trudged through a muddy pasture to the back of the house, and waited patiently for Nala to come out of her stone house. Once she was finally persuaded out of there, she lay down, and we were able to see the painful-looking lesions on her abdomen. The wounds were only the external appearance of the tumors beneath. The veterinarian expects that they are mammary tumors, probably cancerous, but with the cat being very old and the surgery being very expensive, and the owners being very resistant, the only thing we could do was to give pain medications for a while and hope she isn’t hurting too much.

After Nala, we went back to the clinic and made use of a kiskadee bird we had found dead outside at the resort. He had probably hit a window, because no wounds were seen. We used him as a ‘test patient’ of sorts to practice bone pinning and intraosseous (IO) catheters, which is a catheter placed in the bone marrow when an IV catheter is hard to place, like in reptiles. It was really great to be able to use the gift nature had given us of that bird so we could learn something that truly can only be learned by hands-on practice, so that we may later help other live animals. 

Baby monkeys and frog conservation.

Amphibian conservation:

Today, we had a speaker come from a non-profit, Save the Frogs. He and his two friends were all young, vibrant Californians, and the talk was really compelling. I found out that 2000 of the 7000 amphibian species in the world are threatened with extinction. One of the main threats to these species is the chytrid fungus that spreads like wildfire among amphibians. Speaking of extinct species, he mentioned a really cool type of frog that went extinct in the 1980s. It was known as the Gastric brooding frog, because it gave birth in a very special way. Once the female laid her eggs, she would swallow them, and her intestinal tract would proceed to shut down (quit respiration/metabolism), so that the babies could be raised in her stomach. Once the babies grew old enough to be tadpoles, then coughed them up into a stream, her stomach went back to normal, and all was unique and happy. This frog was the only type of animal in the world who did something like this, and now it is gone forever.

          

 Frogs are incredible bio-indicators. As many people know, pesticides are harmful, but it is amazing how frogs can display the harmful effects of them. When frogs are exposed to pesticides, it damages their DNA, and we say photos of frogs with 3-6 extra limbs sticking at odd angles from the hind-end, because of the damage of the pesticides in the water. A chemical pesticide named Atrazine will actually chemically castrate male frogs, turning them into females. The studies of this phenomenon are hushed up to promote the selling of the chemical, but this stuff is in our drinking water! It is certainly something to consider.

           

People are often keen on saving what we call “charismatic megafauna.” These are the species that are beautiful, large, like us—cats, elephants, primates, giraffes, etc. However, the animals as small as frogs all have an impact on those charismatic megafauna. The speaker gave an example of a frog population wiped out by chytrid fungus in Panama. Once the frogs were gone, the birds that ate those frogs left. Once the insects didn’t have frogs eating them to cut down on population numbers, they drastically increased in numbers, destroying many plants for food. The tadpoles of the frogs had once fed on the algae of the river, and when they were not there anymore, a once-clear stream was green and stagnant. The loss of one frog species essentially created a forest dead zone. This point re-iterates the fact that we are all connected and even a small squish of a bug can lead to drastic changes for everything living.

Check out http://www.savethefrogs.com/ to learn more!

I’d like to throw in a tiny disclaimer about protecting habitat of animals to save the places they live in and keep that circle of life strong. Consider your use of plastic. A plastic bottle takes 450 years to degrade. One plastic bottle! And when I say degrade, I do not mean BIOdegrade. Its remains are not helpful to plant or animal life. This is an alarming and terrible statistic, and I would beg you to avoid plastic as much as possible, and recycle when you must use it.

Another short mention while it is on my mind—I am making the most wonderful connections while I am down here. Incredibly, I was in the veterinarian’s office looking at books today, and I came across a book I had just read a few weeks before—Tales of an African Vet. I had really enjoyed the read and felt very inspired by the stories of the author. I opened the front cover just to look at the book, and noticed a personal note to “Dearest Isabelle.” I asked her about it, and apparently she had worked with him in Ghana a while back. My professor here has a personal relationship with a guy whose book totally inspired me?! Wow, I can’t believe all the wonderful people I’m starting to meet in my life. Don’t think I like her just for her connections, though! She is a beautiful, wonderful human with much to teach and give to the earth, but I was just amazed at how small the world can be when you just step outside and look.

Baby monkeys!!!

Okay, this was potentially one of the best days ever. We were expecting one baby monkey to come into the clinic for a re-check, but we didn’t know we would be receiving two! I find it hard to say it’s ‘exciting’ when a sick patient comes in, but I was eager for the learning experience, and very eager to see baby monkeys up close. The monkeys were coming from a rescue where they are being rehabilitated to eventually return to the wild. They were found as babies or confiscated from the pet trade and are being raised by humans. The humans have to have constant contact with the juveniles, because baby monkeys are much like human babies in their needs of contact comfort. These monkeys were not ‘pets’ of the people who brought them in, but would eventually be trained to live amongst their own kind and then one day, go back into the wild where they belong.

           

We knew about Izzie and what we would be doing with her. Izzie is the baby spider monkey who had been shot several times and had to have her arm bone plated. She was coming in for more x-rays to determine if the arm, tail, and hand injuries were healing well. However, we did not know what was going on with the other monkey, except that it was limping.

           

In a situation like this, the staff must prepare absolutely everything in advance. Organization and preemptive thinking are key with wildlife medicine, because you absolutely must do everything efficiently as not to disturb the animal too much. Before the monkeys entrance, we had a short lecture on capture myopathy. Capture myopathy is a condition that animals get when they are well…captured. The stress of being restrained or confined causes severe muscle cramping, pain, and necrosis. Essentially, the muscles just waste away at an incredibly quick rate. Animals with capture myopathy will show neurological symptoms such as limping and holding the head in an unnatural manner. This disease can only be treated by reducing the stress and giving Vitamin E and Selenium injections (which act as antioxidants).

            

So, after this important lecture and a briefing on possible conditions that we could see with the monkey, we got tons of supplies together. We did drug dosage calculations, prepared the drugs, syringes, bandage supplies, anesthesia, x-ray, emergency drugs (lest something bad happen under anesthesia, like with the pelican), and surgical tools. The leg could be broken, it could be an injury, it could be a displaced hip, it could be a neurological problem arising from infection or trauma, etc, etc.

            

After setting the scene, we began to anxiously twiddle our thumbs until we heard the truck pull up outside. All students except those keeping medical records were urged outside while Izzie, our first patient, was ushered in. I was kept outside at this point, while the vet and helpers immobilized her with drugs and took xray images of her body. We got to come in when they were finished and she was getting ready to get off gas anesthesia and wake up, just to give her a quick checkup ourselves and touch a darling baby monkey. I held her little hand in mine and heard her rapid heartbeat. I felt her soft, dark fur between my fingers, her tiny belly and thin, long arms. She was soon ushered into a dark room with her caretaker to wake up, while she unconsciously clung to the shirt of her ‘mother’ in the most dear fashion it brought tears to my eyes. Her x-rays showed that the bones were healing excellently, even the ones in the hand that were of most concern to the vets. You could hardly tell that her tail had even been broken. 

The scar from her bone-plating surgery

            Under anesthesia

Excitingly, I was one of the record keepers for the second monkey, who turned out to be a juvenile howler monkey male named Jaz. The veterinarian looked him over and observed his hurt leg as best she could before we made the decision to put him under anesthesia. When she moved his hurt limb, he aggressively showed his teeth and hissed at her in a most threatening way, but it turns out howler monkeys are much gentler than many other monkey species to humans as well as to their own kind. So, it was apparent by this gesture that Jaz was in quite a bit of pain. The drugs were injected and Jaz quickly went to sleep in his caretakers arms.

            

We took x-rays of his legs and felt range of movement between the two. No external lesions or problems were detected, and though there was no ‘crepitation’ (scraping of bones), there seemed to be a popping in the knee joint. This popping would indicate tendon or ligament damage. We looked at the x-rays and found no signs of fracture anywhere, so the tendon/ligament diagnosis was accepted.

            

For treatment of this monkey, it was advised that pain medications would be continued for a week and movement would be restricted. Close monitoring of his progress would be necessary. Otherwise, there was not much we could do for him but let time to her healing.

While we waited for Jaz to wake up, a classmate and I were taking his respiration and heart rate. After several minutes of not waking from the anesthesia and a general trend of heart rate going down, the vet decided to give him an injection that would reverse the effects of the sedative drugs. We whipped out stethoscopes and watches every minute or so, and listened to the rising of his heart rate. What a relief! The little guy did wake up several minutes later, though he was still pretty groggy from the medication and kept reaching to hold his injured leg. 

 

Watching him and Izzie hold to their caretakers with all the look of need in their eyes reminded me what a help we can be to animals. The work they are doing to rehabilitate these monkeys is unselfish and very much needed. It can be so hard, as possessive humans, to not want to keep the entire world’s beauty to ourselves, but these people are somehow managing to balance getting to work with amazing, humanlike creatures, but also allowing them to be the monkeys they are. 

Jaz

Izzie

Pelican wing amputation

Today, we had a brown pelican patient come into the clinic. He had been found injured on the side of the road. He was in a large carrier and one by one we sneaked into the darkened room where we had housed him. Being slow and quiet around wild animals is absolutely critical to prevent stress. Upon examination, we could see a terrible fracture on the wing of this big bird. From his dull, brown feathers stuck a bone that had broken and punctured the skin. He was in obvious need of medical attention, so the veterinarian got him out and restrained him while he was put under anesthesia. The pelican anesthesia mask was a cleverly made one from a dryer tube, because of the length of the beak. 

The hurt guy went under fairly quickly and after assessing the break, it was clear that part of the wing needed to be removed. The end of the wing below the broken portion was cold, indicated severed blood vessels. The end of the wing was dying and could not be saved. The surgery was kind of bloody. There were many bone fragments embedded in dying tissue. Chunks of trashed muscle and skin had to be removed and after the lower portion of the wing was removed, the skin had to be sutured over the stump. We wrapped the stump, gave injectable antibiotics, and pain medication, and turned down the anesthesia gas to wake him up.

Unfortunately, what followed was something that happens too often in wildlife medicine. By the time wild animals come into a clinic, they have gotten to a stage of such severe injury or pain that some human can come pick them up and transport them. Wild animals by nature are afraid of humans, and when they've reached this stage of injury, chances of recovery get very low. They are already in a very stressed condition, and anesthesia is a stressful procedure. We kept monitoring heart rate and respiration of the pelican as he was waking up from the surgery, but his heart rate jumped up dramatically and his respiration stopped. At this point, many of the students had walked away from the surgery room, thinking the procedure had gone successfully and the arm looked good. I may have done the same myself if I wasn't taking records. The vet immediately gave emergency drugs to recover heart beat and respiration. We performed CPR on the bird, attempting to get his heart re-started, and we used the anesthesia machine (via intubation) to breathe for him. Several minutes of stressful attempts to revive him were not rewarded. The brown pelican did not wake up from anesthesia. This is a terribly sad situation, and it is all too common. There are some things to be thankful for, including the opportunity for us students to learn about amputations, for us to see the reality of wildlife medicine, and for the bird to be carried away from the earth in a peaceful anesthetic sleep. It still was not the ideal situation, but it was still worth trying. The veterinarian that we have here uses a three strike rule when it comes to wildlife. If they have three major injuries (including fractured bones), the chances of recovery are very small. Euthanasia is often the most humane decision in this situation. However, if there are less than three major injuries, then caring for the animal is always attempted. Respect for individual life is a beautiful trait.

After the pelican indicent, we practiced necropsies. A necrospy is an autopsy of a non-human animal. Animals that had passed away at rescue facilities or at the zoo or found in the wild, had been brought in for us to study. A necrospy can be considered a bit of a greusome process, cutting open a dead animal, but is so necessary in learning more about disease processes, why an animal died, and how to help other animals in the future. I necropsied a barn owl and found it to have hemorrhagic lungs and liver, indicating trauma. One thing that impressed me so much was the Doctor's use of the dead animals after necropsy. She buries the bodies behind the clinic and waits for them to decompose over several months. The earth gets back what the earth gave us to learn from. Only after all the parts have been decomposed and used by the environment will she dig up the bones and use them to study anatomy.

In fact, we did a bone lab just after necropsies. We got to get a box full of bones from a whole animal and put them together into a full skeleton. The animal my partner and I received was a coati. The coati had an incredibly bad break in his skull between the eyes. A whole square inch of bone was missing. Turns out the poor thing had been wacked with a machete and somehow still managed to survive for 6 days at the rehab center before passing away. Using the bones to study anatomy from an animal that was cared for and was attempted to save, who decomposed naturally, and who was not just raised to be killed for science was a beautiful thing. It made me appreciate how there is a right way to do things in science that shows true respect for nature and what she has given us.

That evening, we had a nice barbeque at a veterinarian's home and got to play with his two baby puppies. Afterwards, we went swimming here at the hotel, and it was a blissful evening.

The next day wasn't too interesting. We spent the morning listening to a lecture on parasitology. I myself love the subject, but it's probably not worth delving into on here. We spent the afternoon collecting and analyzing fecal samples. I've described the process on this blog before, but I'll recap for those of you who don't know. Basically, the first step of studying a fecal sample is stirring up the poop in a sugar solution. It gets all homogenized until it is not clumpy anymore, and then sugar solution is added to the tip top of the container. On top of the solution, a microscope slide is placed. The parasites will float to the top of the solution, because of the specific gravity of the solution, and they will stick to the glass of the slide. The slide can then be viewed under a microscope to see what bugs are living in an animal. 

In the afternoon, we watched some youtube videos of the wildlife clinic's inaguration and the cases which really started it. The clinic won a grant through a contest, because they submitted a video of a particular case with a baby spider monkey named Izzie. Izzie had been found crying under a tree and abandoned. Upon xray, it was seen that the had multiple breaks in the arm, tail, and hand. She also had five bullets under her skin where she had been shot. A surgeon from the US came down to perform her orthopedic surgery, in which a plate was inserted to set the arm bone. The money for surgery and his flight were donated from organizations. She was the most precious baby spider monkey, with huge brown eyes, and only weighed about a pound. She was the monkey that came on the first day the clinic opened. We also watched a video of the opening ceremony for the clinic. It was a beautiful moment where advocates met up and the veterinarian spoke. She and the minister cut a ribbon of vines and flowers to officially open the place for wildlife to come and be healed. Seeing the Doctor's dreams and wishes materialize before my eyes brought me to tears.

Belize Zoo tour!

We started the morning at the film makers’ house. They have 5 margays kept in captivity at their place, and they needed deworming. Margays are small cats that have spots like a jaguar, but a distinct head shape with bulbous eyes. They are about the size of a large domestic house cat. We estimated weight, differentiated between the cats, and put de-wormer in their meat snack. The best part of that experience was seeing the mother and her one month old baby, which was hissing at us with all the gusto of a big tiger, despite his kitten size. It was precious and an excellent example of a cat probably able to be released back into the wild as he matures.

Momma and baby (hard to see baby on the left there)

Next, we had our day tour at the zoo and got to experience some incredible things. First of all, I ran into one of my very best friends from my hometown there! She is also studying in Belize, and we didn’t think we’d see one another, but we happened to run into each other in front of the Macaw exhibit, and it was quite exciting! The next amazing thing we experienced was what the zoo refers to as the “Junior Buddy Encounter.” Junior Buddy is a jaguar who was born in the zoo and is acclimated to humans. For a special fee, we got to go inside his enclosure (while he was locked inside) and were housed in a tiny cage. People began to stare into the enclosure, completely struck by the humans on exhibit. A few seconds later, the intent would reveal itself. Junior Buddy came bounding out and rubbed himself languorously against the cage side, allowing us to pet him and receive treats of chicken legs through the bars. He is trained to do summersaults for treats and will jump on top of the cage to let us feel his paws. It was a surreal experience. His fur was soft and you could feel the power each paw held for destruction.

 Next, we got to go around visiting the other trained jaguars.  We climbed up on a platform about five feet above the ground, and another jag, Fieldmaster, was released to come out in his runway. He met us against the cage and allowed us to ask him to roll over, which he performed, and then ‘high five’ in which he brought up his paw to the cage and we could put our hand up near the cage. Incredibly, Fieldmaster was brought in from the wild and was still able to learn these tricks as a captive wild adult.

We also got to ‘high five’ and stand beside the Black Jaguar, Lucky Boy. He was incredibly beautiful.

Some of my favorite animals at the zoo were the tapirs—Belize’s national animal. They are related to rhinos and have a prehensile lip that they can use to pull out leaves and fruit.

The keel-billed toucan—Belize’s national bird, was also a favorite. We’ve been hoping to see one in the wild, but haven’t yet. They’re pretty elusive. The harpy eagle was also a huge and impressive bird. Her eyes and stance and size were so commanding. Raptors are pretty great, actually.

The spider monkeys were beautiful. I had never seen them in person before. They walk upright with long, thin limbs, and almost look to be Avatars. They have a swagger about their walk, with tail held high and long arms swinging.

The Jabiru stork is an incredible animal. It’s a huge bird with a massive wingspan. Apparently, one kept coming back to the Belizean airport runway and standing there, causing issues with planes landing. It needed to be relocated.

 

The peccaries were super smelly, but interesting. A peccary is a small, wild pig that lives here in Belize. They can be highly aggressive, but do not appear so. I was looking at them and commenting on how they looked so ‘un-sassy,’ when two started to fight over some food. The actions were highly aggressive, and when the one peccary was threatening the other, his jaw snapped open and shut so fast that it sounded almost mechanical, rather than natural. I took back my previous comment.

A great thing about the zoo in Belize was the naturalistic enclosures. I feel that zoos will often try so hard to make animals easily viewable to the public that they will remove most every natural stimulus or habitat that the enclosure could provide. It is often argued that naturalistic enclosures are harder to clean, but if the plants there are native to the area, the waste can be decomposed in a natural manner (for the smaller animals, at least). It was just really impressive to see monkeys and rodents and birds with trees and layers and high cages that they could climb and play and hide in. Sometimes it was harder to spot an animal if it was down in the plants, but I am sure the animals overall mental well-being is greatly increased in the most natural setting possible, and I appreciated seeing that valued over entertainment.

Monkey encounters and zoo night tour

Our first trip of the day was to the Community Baboon sanctuary. Everyone awoke excited and piled into the van, but first we needed to get gas before our long drive there. To fill up the van, it took 290 dollars (Belizean).  Gas costs 10.59 per gallon, and when converted to US dollars, is 5.28 per gallon! Once we arrived at the sanctuary we came into the museum entrance and waited on our guide. Inside the museum, one wall was dedicated to Women in Conservation, and it made me so happy to see my heroes highlighted. I took a picture beside the sign, hoping to one day become another one of those women in conservation. The museum was interesting, but the hike and monkey encounters were amazing.

To start off, I’ll go ahead and say that the Baboon sanctuary doesn’t have baboons. It is a common occurrence here in Belize for animals to be called by some colloquial term that isn’t what it actually is. Common names are deceiving that way, but some examples include “Tiger” for all cats in Belize, “Mountain Cow” for tapirs, “Bamboo chicken” for iguanas, and finally, “Baboon” for all monkeys. The two types of monkeys that live here in Belize are the spider monkey and the howler monkey. Howler monkeys have had a good success rate when they are released back into their natural habitat with efforts on conserving their land and population. We set out in search of some howler monkeys, and we were not to be disappointed.

The area surrounding the museum had many hiking trails and forested areas. Our tour guide was incredibly knowledgeable and explained to us the natural and ancient uses of the forest. I was amazed at how nature really does provide everything we need, even without our manipulation. I walked through the dense, green forest, new smells captivating my nostrils, new sights striking my eyes, and I breathed a sigh of bliss and healthy life. Everything in that moment felt right. All my goals since I was a little girl have been leading to this. Every small and big moment are moving me towards my life in union with the earth. To be in the jungle and learning was the essence of all I’ve hoped for. Our guide was a dark skinned man, older, full of intelligence and calm assurance. He spoke in a creole accent and when he asked someone what their name was, it came out, “Wadd yeer neyhm?” Hearing his voice was a whole part of the experience. Some examples of things we learned from him include:

1. You can use the Mahogany tree’s bark in a special way. If you soak it in warm water and then soak your feet in the red water, you will obtain a long-lasting coating/stain on the bottom of your feet. However, this layer will prevent for feet from sweating or smelling as it blocks the pores for a few weeks.  

2. Air roots hang from high in the trees down to the lower levels of the forest and they are relatively pliable. When you begin to burn the tip of one, it has a nice smell and will burn until the end of the stick. Air roots made up the first incense, and was used by the Mayans in their rituals.

3. One really cool symbiosis that I had read about in school but never seen in life was the bull-horn acacia and the ants that inhabit them. The large spikes on the tree are hollow, and they are inhabited by ants that aggressively defend the plant. We popped off one horn and were able to shake out the larva of the ants inside.

4. In ancient times, people had no true stitches when a wound needed to be closed. To hold the skin attached, soldier leaf-cutter ants were attached to the skin, to which they clamped and didn’t let go, and then the ant’s body was flicked off. Several ants’ pinchers in a row were applied to hold wounds together until healing occurred and the pinchers fell out of the skin.

5. A plant called the ‘hotlips’ is used as a natural medicine when women are pregnant to relieve the symptoms of pregnancy. The flower is shaped like a certain part of the female’s anatomy, and it is traditionally believed that plants shaped like body parts help heal those body parts. The flowers are boiled in water, which is then rubbed over the pregnant stomach to reduce clotting and pain.

6. Our guide joked that if you want a tattoo, there is no need to use needles. He picked up a plant from beside the creek, laid it on his arm, and gave it a good smack. The plant left white residue in a perfect leaf shape on his skin, and it stayed for the rest of the day.

7. The locals make wine from the cashew nut. According to our tour guide it is, “guaranteed to get you high for 1 to two days.” None of us tried the stuff.

8. We found nature’s first pregnancy test, as well. A small yellow flowered plant was used by women to detect a pregnancy. When urinated on, if the test was positive, the plant leaf would turn yellow, and it is claimed to be up to 99% accurate.

After we had walked blissfully through the forest for some time, we heard a most shocking sound. I can only describe it as a mix of a growl, scream, engine starting, and roar. Turns out that sound belonged to howler monkeys. Howler monkeys have a special bone in their throat that allows them to howl so loud. We followed the noise for a bit and then looked up. All over the tree above us was a troop of howler monkeys. 

Their black bodies hovered in the canopy, perched seemingly precariously, and as they noticed our guide with leaves to share, they came down from the trees. These monkeys are not considered tame, but they are habituated to human presence. About 5 were brave enough to come to the branches just above our heads, and we were able to hand them leaves. Their facial expressions were beyond description, and amazingly enough, I was able to differentiate between each just by their faces—in a very human way. One of the howlers had a one month old baby clinging tightly to the hair of her tummy and nursing occasionally as she fed. 

My heart was bursting with affection for the most beautiful, little creature that God could produce. The monkeys ate around us for some time, exploring us and what we had to offer, then made their way back up the tree. The big male of the group stayed in the tree and howled the whole time, but we were able to get quite close with mommas and juveniles. It was a surreal experience, and one of the best of my life.

Though the monkeys were the highlight, we did get to see some pretty cool other stuff today. We saw the basilisk (or Jesus Christ lizard) that runs across the top of the water in a most amazing fashion. We also saw a cross between a hummingbird and a kingfisher, known as the rufus-bellied jacamar. It was a beautiful bird with black wings and a sparkling, bright green breast. We stopped by the side of the Belize River and saw another troop of monkeys across the water in the trees, and saw a croc swimming in the water. We stopped at a road stand and bought coconuts to drink from afterwards and headed to our new abode.

The house we stayed in for the evening was superb. The large wooden and screened two-story dwelling was sprinkled throughout with natural woods, hammocks, and bedrooms for our sleeping. It is owned by a married couple of documentary film-makers who have made clips for Planet Earth, Life, and BBC. They’ve housed Steve Erwin, and they are having David Attenborough down in a little while to film vampire bats. It was a lovely place to stay and had two sweet dogs to play with.

In the evening, we went for a night tour of the zoo! The nocturnal animals, such as cats and kinkajous received treats from us and our guide, and it was really neat to see them active in their natural hours. During our tour, the sky opened up and we were showered with fat drops of hard rain. It was the first rain we had experienced all trip, and because it was warm outside, we were in a densely planted zoo at night, and the animals were calling all around us, it was a most surreal and amazing experience. We walked around in it for some time before it let up. Day tour of the zoo tomorrow!