Well, fortunately the telephone, which today is still a useful tool, was always there. And we would call each other up if we had issues or problems. And once a year at the National Veterinary Conventions, the American Veterinary Medical Association, AVMA would have their meetings. And invariably, those of… Read More
Were you able to communicate with these other zoo veterinarians on a regular basis?… Read More
A woman named Patricia, who?… Read More
I can’t think of her last name at the, O’Connor, Patsy O’Connor was the first woman zoo veterinarian at the Staten Island Zoo full-time. And in Cleveland, a guy named Dr. Leonard Goss, who was a pathologist as well as a veterinarian. His father was head of the Department of… Read More
Well, and again, clarify, when you say the tranquilizers were good in treating the animals, meaning the primarily to get access to the animal. And the treatment part then became what would normally be done with any other medical procedure. Happily for the zoo vets, a veterinarian by the name… Read More
And I think in those earliest years, there may be where at most three or four full-time in the U.S. A guy named Dr. Charles Schroeder out in California was one of the early both veterinarians, and he ended up director of the San Diego Zoo. Read More
Were there any other significant changes in zoo medicine, which assisted the zoo veterinarian in doing the job?… Read More
Another drug was succinylcholine, which is a paralytic drug, and it’s even used today in human and animal medicine to stop respiration ’cause it paralyzes the muscles of the chest. And a certain dosage would be used by the anesthesiologist along with other drugs. But it was not unusual to,… Read More
One of the interesting dangers were that, in working with these early drugs was the fact that we didn’t really appreciate the potential danger or toxicity to the person preparing the drug. And it’s possible if somebody had a cut on their hand and they were handling one of these… Read More
Now, how much of that drug do you put in to safely work with the animal?… Read More
Were you one of the first veterinarians to use a tranquilizer gun?… Read More
Yes, we received as some of the earliest drugs and some of the early ones were crude compared to the later ones. Nicotine salicylates was one of the early ones that we were using, sort of like concentrated tobacco, I guess. And the problems were that we didn’t know dosages. Read More
And shoot a drug into the muscle of the animal and get it to go down. That started a whole bevy of drugs, and rifles, and pistols, and aluminum dart guns, and you name it, with which we were able to truly, almost eliminate the stress of handling with newer… Read More
And Eric thought, “What’s the big deal?… Read More
“If it’s under 20 minutes or two hours, “it’s under the anesthetic not to worry.” So he didn’t quite have the same concern that I did about stress. I think that that kinda gives you an overview in response to your query about the animal handling. There’s no question that… Read More
And one of the more stressful situations that I can recall is, I had a colleague named Dr. Eric Maskin, who was a perfectionist. And Eric’s theory on surgery was to do it meticulously perfect. Mine was to get in and get out within certain parameters. And if I scrubbed… Read More
And occasionally the little bird would be stressed out and die in your hand. I can recall a dramatic case where Marlin Perkins, who was doing some “Zoo Parade” shows at the time, was doing something with one of the gazelles. And just the fact that the cameras were focusing… Read More
At that time, we were so thrilled to be able to handle it physically and get it into this situation, no one bothered checking its sex. And of course, it arrived at the European Zoo, and the next day a cable came back, “Why did you send us X?” Meaning… Read More
And for whatever reason beyond belief, the animals invariably went behind the scratching post, which was us in the middle of a cage, and so that became a game. And the other issue was you couldn’t just get a lariat around the head of the animal. You had to get… Read More
What were the challenges and problems with transferring animals, or the medical attention of animals, or even sending an animal to another zoo?… Read More