Wildlife Vets & Nurses

It’s Festival Time Again!

This is such a great time of year in Adelaide. I moved to SA in 2008 so last year was my first Fringe, my first Womad... I love it. And it’s so great that Adelaide Zoo is such a part of it all; even more so from this year with the new spaces for performance and exhibition at the new front entrance of the zoo.

With this, though, comes a responsibility for us to ensure that the animals in the Adelaide Zoo collection are not adversely affected by the events in and around the zoo – just as domestic dogs can be afraid of thunder. Between Festival and Fringe events, Womad right on our doorstep, Clipsal... and this year the AC/DC concert at the Adelaide Oval the night before last!... the zoo experiences a lot of loud noise at this time of year.

Wrangling with Woylies - Round 3

Hi Everyone.

Recently back from my third trip up to Venus Bay on the Eyre Peninsula to catch and health check endangered brush-tailed bettongs, or woylies, with ecologists and rangers from DEH. Check back on my posts in July and November for more information on this project.

Keeping out of Mischief

Hello this is Wayne Boardman here, Head Vet for Zoos SA.  Quite an interesting week this week - not full on but enough to keep us out of mischief.

On Saturday we saw Ian Smith, the main vet for Monarto Zoo, leave us for three months as he goes on his Churchill Fellowship. He is travelling to South Africa, Europe and USA to look at veterinary facilities for open range zoos. I think we are all a little green with envy.  We all wish him well and look forward to him being back at the end of May.

I checked on Mujambi, our lion that previously seizured, to review his medication which we have done.  He is looking great and eating well but occasionally stumbles – we want to titrate the dose the minimum effective level.

Woylies – Round 2

Back in July, I posted some info on a field trip up to Venus Bay Conservation Park to look at the health of brush-tailed bettongs (also known as ‘woylies’), which were re-released into the park in 1994.

Adventures in "Beakistry"

Earlier this week the bird keepers found that one of our plum-headed parrot chicks had a severe fracture up the right side of the upper beak. The bird was rushed up to the health centre as front part of the beak was at risk of being ripped completely off if it happened to get hooked on something.

To the Bat Cave...

Back in September, we were approached by the Department of Environment and Heritage to help with investigating a skin disease in bats at the caves in Naracoorte. The Southern Bentwing Bat is listed as critically endangered so an apparently emerging disease in this population is concerning for the future of the species.

A Hectic Schedule

Hi Everyone

Apologies for the lack of entries in recent times. It’s been a busy time for all of us recently.

Wayne, our Head Vet, is over in China at the moment with Senior Panda Keeper, Simone, and Assistant Curator, Jason, to become better acquainted with Wang Wang and Funi. They will all fly back together at the end of November. See Simone’s Panda Blog for more details of their trip to China.

More about wombat catching

Once we had all the wombats back in the shearing shed, it was about 2 in the morning and we all went to bed for the night.

When we got up in the morning we gave each wombat, one by one, a general anaesthetic and began to check them over.

The highlights of catching wombats!

Hello, this is Mishelle from Monarto Zoo.

A few weeks ago, I went on a research trip for the Southern Hairy Nosed Wombat.  We set up camp in a shearing shed on a property near Swan Reach.  The research team have been working with the wombats on this particular property for over 15 years and in this time have gathered lots of information about these wombats and their habits.

Our zoo collection

The zoo collection is going along OK at the moment. A Veiled Chameleon in quarantine at the moment in settling in and feeding well. A Woma Python in the reptile house had a prolapsed of its cloaca which thankfully was resolved fairly easily; these can be difficult to deal with in some instances, and he looks to be recovering well with treatment. One of the Fallow Deer in the Children’s Zoo injured its knee over the weekend, and at one stage we were contemplating surgery. But, thankfully, she looks to be improving with medication and limiting the area she has to run around in.

Update on Wildlife Disease Association conference

Thought I would also give an update of my trip over to the US and Canada. My wife and I attended the international Wildlife Disease Association conference held in Washington State. This conference sees around 300 people from all over the world convene to discuss wildlife health and disease issues. It is a fabulous conference and a wonderfully collegiate organisation, which includes a very active Australasian section. I gave a presentation on the opportunities for Zoos SA Animal Health Department to develop the capabilities to increase our wildlife health monitoring activities, conduct wildlife disease surveillance, and expand research into wildlife diseases of significance in South Australia. There is a real need for these areas to be developed in South Australia as there are significant gaps in our knowledge of the health of wildlife in South Australia.

Warru field trip

Hi everyone,

It’s always a bit of a grind to back into the swing of things at work after being away for a long time. Have been back a few weeks now from the Warru field trip and 3 weeks in North America and the jetlag is just about gone!

Meerkat procedure

Whew.... another busy day. Only have time for a quick chat, so will just write about the patient of the day.... a very cute 4 year old female meerkat, who about a week ago poked her front paw into another meerkat enclosure and had it bitten. She was brought to the animal health centre after the incident and was anaesthetised to check the damage. Her wound was cleaned, sutured and bandaged and a 7 day course of antibiotics were prescribed. It was decided to house her in the Animal Health Centre so we could check her bandage daily and ensure she takes her antibiotics in mealworms, meatballs or a mouse.  It was decided to bring her partner up to stay with her for company.

Hello again from Paula

Hello everybody.

It seems like every time it is my turn to chat I have just been away. Today is my first day back from holidays, lapping up the sunshine in beautiful northern NSW, and attending the best music festival (well, in my opinion!), Splendour in the Grass. I could spend the whole blog chatting about my holidays, but that’s not what you are interested in!

Today has been a very busy day; we are short staffed today so I am both the hospital and clinical nurse, which has kept me on my toes. After conducting rounds with Lynley, the vet on duty, I started feeding, cleaning and treating all animals in hospital and isolation. Then it was time to move into the surgery and assist Lynley with our scheduled procedures. First on our list was our geriatric male Bilby who needed an anaesthetic to re-check his right eye. A week ago his keepers noticed he was not opening his right eye properly and so they brought him up for a health check. On closer inspection it was noticed that he had a corneal ulcer. Lucky for him, his keepers were able to put drops into his right eye and the ulcer has resolved nicely.

Monarto Zoo Update

It's been an interesting few days as I have been at Monarto Zoo this week.

We had planned to castrate a Przewalskis horse on Monday as we do not want it to breed because it has suspected ‘Wobblers syndrome’, which is thought to have an inherited cause.  However it was delayed because we need to seek approval from the stud book keeper for such an endangered and high profile species.

More on Cross Fostering

Tonight we are doing our first cross foster procedure.  The tiny little joey gets flown down and a staff member will meet the plane at the airport and bring the joey back to the zoo.

Barbary Sheep Post Mortem

Today the vet Dr Lynley Johnson and myself performed a post mortem on a Barbary Sheep. 

For these procedures, the vet is required to take certain samples which get stored in formalin and then sent to the pathology lab for testing.  All animals that pass away at the zoo get autopsied as this helps us monitor for any emerging infectious diseases, and to establish a cause of death.  Results are usually back from the lab within a week.

Cross fostering procedure

The next stage is the cross-fostering procedure.  If a mother Black Flanked Rock Wallaby has a very tiny pouch young (we call them pinkies) then the little joey will usually be suitable to be placed into the pouch of a healthy zoo wallaby of another species that is less threatened than the Warru.

More about Warrus

Hello from MZ vet dept.

We have a very exciting week ahead.  Our vet Ian Smith and some other staff are off to the APY lands to catch up the endangered Black Flanked Rock Wallabies (also known as Warru) for the zoos cross-foster program. 

Vet Checks

Dare I say it, it’s been a quiet week so far for us in the Animal Health Centre. Which is good as we are a couple of vets down. Wayne is on leave and Lynley is unfortunately off sick.

Ian is holding fort at Monarto. There are two baboons in pre-export quarantine up there due to be shipped to Auckland Zoo this week, and will require a visual veterinary check prior to shipment. Last week he had to euthanase one of our elderly male cheetah who had been managed for chronic kidney disease for some time – never a pleasant task, but in the interests of quite a sick cheetah.

Warru Field Trip

My attentions are again focussed outside the zoo. Today is my last day at work before I head up to the APY Lands with Ian and two keepers, Gayle and Heidi, to join a team from DEH and Adelaide Uni to look at black-flanked rock wallabies (or ‘warru’), a threatened species in South Australia.

In addition to conducting health checks, we are taking lots of samples for ongoing research projects, and appropriately sized pouch young will be taken from the pouch, flown back down and fostered onto rock wallabies at Adelaide and Monarto Zoos. The mother will give birth to another joey soon afterwards, allowing many more joeys to be raised each year than would otherwise be the case. This technique has also been used for the Victorian brush-tailed rock wallaby, as seen recently on the channel 7 program ‘The Zoo’. So, I am busy getting all our equipment ready to go, so we can hit the road early on Sunday morning.

Woylies

Hi everyone, Dave here. My turn again this week.

Thought I’d begin this week by telling you about a recent trip up to Venus Bay on the Eyre Peninsula to assist staff from the Department of Environment and Heritage (DEH) to investigate an apparent decline in the population of brush-tailed bettongs (or ‘woylies’) in a fenced reserve there. This species once ranged across southern Australia from Perth to the Gold Coast. It was decimated by cats and foxes.

Computed Radiography machine

Hi All,

Things are really moving along at the moment in the Animal Health Department.  From a nursing point of view, we have a terrific team of nurses here that work incredibly hard to ensure that all the animals under our care get the very best care available.

We are still working hard at raising enough money by the end of the year to keep our Computed Radiography machine ($45 000 to go.........).  This machine has been invaluable to not only the staff but to many of the animals that pass through our way.

Snake, Tapir & a Pelican

At Adelaide Zoo today, car pooled with one of the nurses as motorbike chain is loose & needs replacing.

My results arrive for memberships & I have passed so I can now put a few extra letters after my name.

Animals to see today were a Woma Python with skin shedding issues and a Malayan Tapir with healing mouth ulcers; later Seabird Rescue brought in a pelican that has tangled with both a power line then barb-wire fence which required some minor surgery.

Weekend off but need to go to Melbourne on Sunday for cheetah collection.

See you all next time it is my turn if I don’t forget.

Cheetahs

Interview with the Courier newspaper first up for the Churchill fellowship, seemed to go well. Just before 10 the team starts to arrive for our big procedure today: semen collection from our aged male cheetahs. The team includes some human reproduction specialist from Repromed, a comparative anatomist from the uni and a reproductive ecologist with two of his recent PhD students.

The knockdown and collection go well in the first one but the other male doesn’t appear well enough to produce any sperm. Samples are stored in liquid nitrogen for future use.

No time for anything else and soccer training cancelled due to weather. At home get invite to first Churchill planning meeting next week.

Back at Monarto

With the exam now out of the way I can begin planning for the Winston Churchill Fellowship (http://www.churchilltrust.com.au) that I had been notified about late last week. These are short-term overseas travelling scholarships awarded to investigate specific projects with my topic on “Open-range zoo veterinary facilities” and visits planned to the USA, UK and South Africa.

Focusing back at the zoo we have a busy day ahead. First job is the knock-out and examinations of two young baboons destined for New Zealand. Both seem very healthy and the required samples were dispatched to the lab. I will need to visually examine them daily for the next few days to check for reactions to today’s treatments that may indicate infection.

A Hopping Mouse with an eye infection was rechecked and may need surgery, and a Barbary Sheep had his foot x-rayed in our purpose built crush so we didn’t need to anaesthetize him which is great. Then turned my attention to the mountain of paperwork and emails that builds up after a few days off, and started preparations for a trip to Melbourne this weekend to bring back a female cheetah as part of our breeding program.

Exam Time

Up early (half four) so that I can catch the early plane to the Gold Coast for the exam. Arrived at the examination hotel with a few hours to spare so had lunch (and continued study) on the beach.

The exam went well with about ten hypothetical case-studies to work through. Saw a few other vets sitting similar exams in other subjects, many of them are staying on for the post exam conference (a.k.a. Science Week) but I have to get back ASAP.

Caught the bus back to the airport for a direct flight to Adelaide but with delays taking off and storms in Adelaide during the day we were late landing.

Hello again from Ian

Ian Smith here again, the veterinarian based at Monarto Zoo. It seems like a long time since I last wrote up the Animal Health Department blog but that may be because I forgot to do it last time it was my turn...

I have a day off today as I prepare for an oral exam tomorrow in Medicine of Australasian Wildlife. The exam is to gain membership to the Australasian College of Veterinary Scientist (www.acvs.org.au) which is often the first step on the path of being a recognized specialist in your field. I had two written exams four weeks ago and it all comes to a head tomorrow.

Paperwork

As manager of the Animal Health Department, sometimes I don't get to see as many animals as I would like because of the paper work – today its been sorting out a grant application to develop a new wildlife health centre and the budgets for next year. We also met our colleagues Earl and Adam from TMIS and Agfa who have very generously supported the purchase of our fabulous new computerized radiography system at Adelaide and Monarto Zoos.  I also reviewed the building of the new Giant panda exhibit with my colleagues here at the zoo, Jason and Gert.  Maybe I might see some animals tomorrow…..

Update from Wayne

Sorry this is a bit late. Had a day in hospital myself on Monday – bit of a check up, all is good though.

On Tuesday I went to Cleland to check out some animals.  We normally provide the veterinary services for the park and I love going there as it’s a magical place and the wildlife is wonderful.

Leopard Tortoises

Hi again

Today Ian Smith (the vet) and myself health checked our 4 new Leopard Tortoises.  First we gave them a visual check over to make sure they looked normal.  We tried to look inside their mouths but they clamped them shut so tight and pulled their heads right in!  Next we put a device called a dopler in under their shell.  The dopler amplifies sound so with this we were able to hear their heartbeating and their breathing.  One of them hissed at us when we put the probe under his shell.

Hello from Mishelle

Hi, my name is Mishelle and I work as a veterinary nurse at Monarto Zoo and occasionally at Adelaide Zoo.

Life in the vet dept at Monarto is exciting.  I can still remember how thrilled I was to touch an anaethetised lion.  Most of our work is done out in the field as some of the animals at our zoo would have trouble fitting in the vet clinic!!  We have a hospital van we drive around in, which is loaded up with all the supplies we might need. Many of our larger animals require darting if they need treatment or an anaesthetic.

Very Busy Indeed!

G’day all

Today I am the hospital and clinical nurse which has kept me very busy indeed. Everybody in hospital is doing very well, the quails are going today and the young koala is doing very well indeed. She has eaten well and has taken her medication without any fuss.

BBBQs, Budgies & one cheeky Echidna

Hello again,

Today I am the hospital nurse which means I am responsible for looking after all the animals in hospital and quarantine.

In hospital we have 3 Black Breasted Button Quails (otherwise known as BBBQ!) who have been in quarantine and are leaving the zoo tomorrow. We also have 4 male budgies that have recently arrived from Cleland also in quarantine, and one very cheeky echidna.

Wild Wallabies

G’day all!

It’s been a while since we have had a chat. I have only just recently returned from a field trip to Aroona Sanctuary near Leigh Creek where we were monitoring the in-situ Yellow-footed Rock Wallaby population. In 1996 10 Yellow-footed Rock Wallaby individuals were released into Aroona Sanctuary and a further 2 were released the following year. There are currently around 40 individual Yellow-footed Rock Wallabies in this sanctuary and in 2007 the 60th animal was trapped.

Pandas and Papers

Hi Everyone,

This week has been quite busy as usual.  Our Head Vet has left for China to meet and work with the Giant Pandas which is very exciting. 

Myself and another nurse (Paula) have just come back from attending the Zoo Nursing Forum in Melbourne, where all the zoo and wildlife nurses from the Australasian region meet to present papers and discuss issues.  This is a wonderful format because as you can imagine, our job is quite isolating from other zoo nurses and its a great way to chat about common challenges that this job continually presents!!

Mujambi's Surgery

Watch our male lion, Mujambi, undergo surgery to investigate any potential issues with his central nervous system.

Check out our "Zoo Bites" blogs for more information on our lion introduction.

Felix and Tilly

Hello again,

Well, the only certainty when working with animals is to expect the unexpected!! I thought I was in for a quiet paper work day but an emergency first thing changed that!!  Our 6 month old orphaned Fallow deer Felix, that our dedicated and hard working Children’s Zoo keepers had been hand rearing, was found collapsed  and in shock this morning. We got her onto warm intravenous fluids and heated air bed immediately and then treated her for shock. All tests we carried out on blood, urine and faeces were non conclusive but we suspect some kind of acute infection, and is also having intravenous antibiotics.

Hi from Lynette

Hi everyone

My name is Lynnette Drabsch and I have been working as a Veterinary Nurse  in the  fabulous Animal Health Centre at Adelaide Zoo since November last year.

I have been a veterinary Nurse for 25 years, as well as a  Keeper at Cleland Wildlife Park during that period, but I have to say that THIS is the BEST job of my life!!!!!

Mata Matas & Pygmy Hippo

Funny sort of a day today.  Started off checking a few animals like the Mata Mata tortoise that’s been on treatment for a skin infection, following by checking out the new exhibit for the mata matas that have just come from Rotterdam.  The tanks has sprung a leak and we need to do some remedial work on it so that they do not get any plastron or carapace damage.  We decided to add more logs to the tank, small sand which will be covered with organic material to mimic their environment in the wild.

Siamangs & Koalas

G’day this is Wayne Boardman, Head of Veterinary Conservation Programs at Zoos South Australia.

Just back from a conference on the Gold Coast – the Australasian Regional Association of Zoo Parks and Aquaria or ARAZPA, where amongst other things I gave a talk on some field work we undertook at Scotia in NSW health checking one of Australias more endangered species of wallaby, the Bridled Nailtail Wallaby.

Serval and Warru Update

Hi all, it’s been another busy day. The serval was cleared from quarantine today which is great news, this means that soon she can be transferred to her new exhibit and will be eventually introduced to our male. We hope that they will breed in the future.

This morning I assisted David the vet give the juvenile black-footed rock wallaby his final health exam before returning to Monarto Zoo.

Update from Paula

Hi again, well it is 4.30pm and it has been a very busy day. I am the hospital nurse today, which means that I am responsible for looking after all the animals in hospital and the female serval in quarantine. Sorry don’t have a lot of time to chat, must go now and do a final check of all the animals, will talk again tomorrow.

Hello from Paula

Hi everybody my name is Paula Modra and I am one of the Veterinary Nurses at Zoos SA, mainly working at Adelaide Zoo, but occasionally at Monarto. I have been with Zoos SA for over 7 years, and as Dianne said last week, I also love my job to bits and pieces!

Well it has been quite a busy day so far, unfortunately for me, as I am still trying to recover from working the weekend, and having a great time at Womadelaide in the evenings. As it is a public holiday I am the only nurse working today with David the vet. I started my day checking all animals in the hospital including a sleepy lizard, a very cheeky pair of squirrel monkeys, a 3 month old male eclectus parrot, a juvenile black-footed rock wallaby, and 2 meerkats just to name a few. There are also 2 very cute baby yellow-footed rock wallabies that the kids zoo staff are handraising, but are being housed in the AHC.

Update on Lion Surgery

Hi Again,

Well the day is nearly over but we still have lots to do.  Mujambi's anaesthetic went really well and he has recovered beautifully so we are all really pleased.  In total the procedure took 3 and a half hours!!  We have done all the tests and now we play the waiting game until all the results are back.  His wounds are healing beautifully and we didn't find anything suspicious during his examination.  i have posted some pictures for you to all see which will give you an indication of how big a job it is to do this and how many people are involved!!

Lion Surgery

Hi All,

Just a quick one this morning as we are preparing to go down to the lions to start the procedure.  Stay tuned for more details this afternoon when I can let you know how our “Mujambi” went.

Kind regards always

Di

Day before an Anaesthetic

Hi Again,

I am in early today as I have a Supervisor’s course to go to all day today and we need to start preparing for the lion anaesthetic tomorrow.  We do most of the setting up the day before and liaise with the Carnivore team to make sure everything is set to go first thing tomorrow morning.  We plan to dart him at 0830 hours and have him up at the Health Centre by 0930 for tests.

We dart all our animals in their den (when possible) so we have access to check them when they go down.  This way we can be certain that the animal is fully anaesthetised before entering their den (if we are not certain we send the vet in first!!!).

How do we check the animal to see if it is fully anaesthetised before entering the den?

Hello from Dianne

Hi Everyone,

My name is Dianne Hakof (aka DJ Disey!! But there’s a story for another day!) and I am the Head Veterinary Nurse at Zoos SA.  I have been with Zoos SA for 17 years and love my job to bits and pieces! 

My favourite animal (besides my dog and cat at home) are Australian Sea lions.

Quiet Day

It’s a reasonably quiet today in the animal health centre, and thankfully so. Only me working today. Lynley is away this week and Wayne left this morning for the Gold Coast to convene a two day meeting of Australasian zoo veterinarians as part of the Australasian Regional Association of Zoological Parks and Aquaria (ARAZPA). Ian has taken today off as well but is on call for Monarto. These are usually the days when everything decides to gets sick! But so far so good.

Cleland Update

Went out to Cleland this morning as Lynley is off this week. Unfortunately we had to euthanase the mallee fowl she was treating for aspergillosis (a fungal infection in the lung). It is amazing the mallee fowl was still alive – on post-mortem examination I found that at least ¾ of her lung capacity was infected and probably not functional. Wild animals can be amazingly tough critters.

Mujambi

Had a busy weekend even though I wasn’t working! Saturday I came in to help Lynley anaesthetise our male lion Mujambi. He had a seizure on exhibit on Friday. This the second, possibly third, seizure that he has had, but this time one of the females attacked him while he was fitting and injured his back leg quite badly.

Lion & Oryx update

Started Thursday morning off very early to get to Monarto and anaethetise Kabira before it gets too hot.  It's very hot up here again today with the temperature at about 38 deg C. 

Kabira has had ongoing issues with her right ear so we had to anaethetise her this morning to flush and clean the ear out before starting her on oral treatments to try and get rid of the nasty bugs in there once and for all.

Another Busy Day at Monarto!

Wednesday has been another very busy day with an anaesthetic on the addax calf at Monarto this morning.  It appears she has a bone chip on the lateral aspect of her humerus and some radial nerve damage.  We have moved her away to a safe area where she can have some rest and hopefully the nerve will heal with time.

Cleland Update

Tuesday has been a very busy day with a visit to Cleland this morning.  I had to recheck several koalas which have some arthritic complaints.  Also had to revisit a Barking Owl with bumble foot lesions and a Woma python who has not eaten for a few weeks.

Busy Day at Monarto Zoo

Hi Guys, this is Lynley Johnson here, another of the vets from ZoosSA.  You will be getting to know all of us from the vet department over the next few weeks as we are all taking it in turns to run the blog!

Paperwork

Returned the x-ray machine today to Adelaide along with a few boxes of excess supplies for donation to the Victorian bushfire appeals. Also tied down logistics with a  keeper who will be assisting on the fish field trip next week and finished packing the field kit.

Ungulate Update

Part two of the x-ray installation with the technician teaching us how to drive the system. Held over the examination of a yellow-footed rock wallaby so fresh x-rays can be taken, she has a mild dental issue and one tooth is removed. Two weeks of antibiotics should see her right. Also x-ray the possum from yesterday, lack of food seems to be the main problem; I think with the hot weather last week and the zoo being closed there was no food scraps in the skip to sustain him. Feed her up is the plan but we need to release her soon to the same area or she may lose her territory.

Oryx & Cheetah Procedure

First up today is regular meeting with carnivore and ungulate departments (this helps to plan the weeks ahead). Today is also the oryxs' big day, she has a poor appetite and is not gaining weight and now has developed an abscess. The drugs we use are extremely dangerous to humans so have staff standing by with first-aid kit throughout the procedure. Everything goes well but the examination fails to show much except for some pelvic pain, hopefully the blood samples will help work out what is going on.

Hello from Ian Smith

It's great the heat has finally eased and we can get out in the field. The heat certainly puts pressure on the animals and they don’t need the added stress of anesthetics to tip them over the edge. Unfortunately the oryx due for an anaesthetic wasn’t starved last night so it will be her turn tomorrow.

First job of the day is to read through all the keeper reports from the weekend to start to plan my time. There is a lame bison, some bleeding in the colobus breeding group and the przwalski horse colt has massively improved. But all is put on hold with a giraffe birth progressing slowly on exhibit. When I get there all seems to be as expected and a new addition arrives within 45 minutes.

Paperwork

A rare quiet day today… chance to catch up on paperwork… but 5 o’clock has rolled around and still plenty I haven’t caught up on!

 

Welcome from David McLelland

Hi Everyone. I’m David McLelland, another of the 4 full time and 2 part time veterinarians here at Zoos South Australia.

I’m the newest kid on the block, coming to Adelaide in July. I’m from Sydney originally, where I did my vet degree. I spent 2 years in mixed-animal private practice in the heat of Darwin after I graduated, then went to Canada to do a 3 year residency in zoo medicine and pathology at Toronto Zoo. After several temporary stints at Wellington Zoo in New Zealand, and Melbourne Zoo, Healesville Sanctuary and Werribee Zoo in Victoria, a position opened up with Zoos SA and I was lucky enough to get the gig. The rest, as they say, is history.

Dolphins & Wallabies

Missed the blog for the last few days – sorry about that.  Been a little distracted of late.

We got a call on Monday from Aaron Machado to see if we could go out on a boat in the Port River to look at and treat a dolphin whose mouth had become entangled with fishing line or some such thing.  We got all prepared and then the dolphin went awol – we are still not sure where it has gone.  Hopefully it's still ok.

Chimps & Conservation Ark

Both Sandy and Fanny are now on there way to NZ to their new life – we got the final health declaration from IDEXX laboratory and all was well.  Seems a bit quiet now after the busy afternoon and evening last night.  We all sat down after they were happily in their crates and had a beer and wine to wish them well.  Got home at 9pm

Today we had a dead meerkat brought down by Mishelle from Monarto Zoo to do a post mortem examination – it had developed signs associated with toxoplasmosis which is quite common in these guys.  Problem was when they start showing signs; the group notices the strange behaviour and attacks them.  Pretty gruesome – we have taken tissues samples for histology to see if there was microscopic evidence of disease.

Welcome and an Introduction

G’day its Wayne Boardman here, Head Vet for Zoos SA and this is the very first Animal Health Department blog. It’s all a bit new this blogging thing but we will get used to it as we go. I’ll introduce you to the team over the next few days. We thought we would all take turns at letting you know what is going on in the Animal Health Department at both Adelaide and Monarto Zoos.

Got in a bit late today but promised Lynley I would be in to help with the chimp anaesthetics this afternoon. Sandy and Fanny our chimp girls are off to a new life in Hamilton Zoo in New Zealand. Catherine their new keeper from Hamilton Zoo has been getting to know them and working with our keepers Murray, Emma, Simone and Nicola.

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