May 24, 2010
When I arrived today, I met Will who is one of the many technicians that work at Avian and Exotic Animal Care. He immediately took me under his wing and began showing me around. He and Andie, one of the other techs, were hustling around to finish cleaning cages before the doctors started seeing clients. I met the residents at the clinic: Oscar, a ferret, Constantine, a green iguana, and a few birds and bunnies. These guys are all part of the clinic’s little family of animals, and are mostly used as blood donors and waiting room entertainment for the visitors.
At eight AM, the doctor on duty started seeing patients. Dr. Leonatti told me to just follow her around all day and if she is in a room with a client, to just knock and come on in! So I did! Our first appointment was with a Bearded Dragon. The owner said she had noticed him sitting with his eyes closed constantly since two nights ago when her son fed him and rattled some dust off the top of his cage down onto him. (This whole story required probing the client for more information over the course of about 20 minutes!... guess this is private practice for ya!) Anyway, Dr. Leo (her affectionate nickname among the techs and other doctors) decided we needed to flush out the lizard’s eyes. She held them open with an eye loop, and I flushed them out with saline. Pretty fun for my first appointment! The “beardie” immediately started to keep its eyes open a little better and became more active as we watched him, so I think we fixed the problem.
Next we saw a hamster with diarrhea, to which we gave fluids and prescribed chloramphenicol. Hamsters can get a disease called “wet-tail” which is diarrhea caused by a specific combination of bacteria. Untreated, it can lead to dehydration and death in only a day or two. Dr. Leo seemed confident that we caught it early enough to treat the problem and avoid any severe consequences.
Also this morning, we saw two guinea pigs. One was a recheck after an abscess removal, and the other was a regular patient in for her monthly tooth trim. The guinea pig that had the abscess removed was doing well. Dr. Leo and the pig’s owners were very pleased with the home treatments they had been administering, and her incision was healing as they had hoped, from the inside out. Her owners had to flush out the hole daily and apply an antibiotic ointment to the opening, to allow drainage of the abscess, and to prevent it from healing over on the outside and recreating the same infection on the inside. The other guinea pig that came in for the tooth trim had severe jaw malalignment. This can be a serious problem in guinea pigs because they have teeth that grow continuously. Any surface of a tooth that does not perfectly oppose the opposite arcade of teeth will become overgrown, and can even begin growing into the roof of the mouth or the cheeks. Just like horses, some guinea pigs have to have their teeth filed down periodically to prevent the wearing of their teeth into sharp points. This particular guinea pig’s teeth were so malaligned that the bottom teeth frequently grow together over the tongue because they don’t oppose the upper arcade of teeth at all. They basically grow almost perpendicular to the upper teeth. Therefore, her owners bring her in almost once a month to have her teeth filed down. Luckily, she has very dedicated owners who don’t mind spending the money, time, and energy bringing her to the vet once a month and hand-feeding her every day. Luckly little pig!
After lunch, we saw a couple of healthy rabbit and guinea pig annual exams. Then came a ball python with what the owner was describing as “multiple splinters between her scales.” When Dr. Leo examined her however, she decided that the scales were simply damaged by the cedar shavings the owner had used as the snakes bedding. Since none of the “splinters” needed to be removed, Dr. Leo educated the client on some other husbandry ideas and to watch for the next ecdysis (shedding) to monitor for any problems with retained shed.
Next, we examined a Blue and Gold Macaw with a chronic feather-picking problem and cloacal papillomas. Captive birds need a great many parameters to be met in order for them to live a happy, healthy life in captivity. If a few, or sometimes even one, of these requirements are not met, it could lead to a feather-picking episode where the bird plucks out its own feathers due to either disease (its abdomen is sore so instead of biting at its belly like a horse or dog may do, the bird picks out all its feathers in that area), boredom, malnutrition, etc. In the case of our patient, she was a rescue animal from a home where the lady’s husband died and she was afraid of the bird, so she kept her in the basement alone. Most often, once a bird begins feather picking, unless it is addressed very early, it is nearly impossible to reverse, and the bird will continue its habit for the rest of its life. This bird is now being cared for correctly, but will always look like it is sick because of its ragged appearance. She was visiting the doctor today because of unexplained diarrhea. Her fecal float came back negative, and her cloacal papillomas, which she has had for a long time, seemed to be fairly idle with minor inflammation. The cloaca acts as a bird’s collector for urine, feces, and/or reproductive secretions. The cloacal papillomas, contrary to what we vet students would like to think, are actually caused by a herpes virus, and not a papilloma virus. We examined the bird briefly and scheduled an appointment for an endoscopic exam of the cloaca for tomorrow morning. That should be very interesting indeed!
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