We had a really busy, but successful morning with Dr. Vanderford today for Vet Rounds. The muskrat and all three salamanders received their physicals, and Mocha and Latte, our education rabbits, had their teeth checked and trimmed. The muskrat and rabbits were sedated for their checks, while the salamanders were wide awake for their work. Everyone is up and awake and back to their homes and I will spend the rest of the afternoon cleaning up 🙂Read more
Posts filed in: Behind-the-Scenes
Engineering Project follow-up
Our two student teams from Duke’s Pratt School of Engineering are in their final push to finish their projects. Both teams are focusing on enrichment feeders for the bulls, Dallas and Dusty. One team is making a scatter feeder, while the other team plans to have hay boxes open for feeding when motion sensors are set off. It will be exciting to see how everything fleshes out!Read more
Birthday Present (for the lemurs)
A package arrived a few days ago. I opened it up and it didn’t look like anything Aaron or I had ordered. It wasn’t. Krista, the Museum’s Retail Operations Manger, sent her mother a birthday present from our Amazon Wish-list. What a great gift, and great surprise. Thanks Krista, and happy birthday Keath!Read more
Virginia Bear’s Laser Treatment
Virginia, our almost 15 year old American black bear, has some extensive arthritis and degenerative issues. We’ve been treating her for years with a variety of medicines and supplements. We’ve even added acupuncture and laser treatments. (Check out this blog post about treatment from almost 2-years ago). I watched yesterday as the team administered Virginia’s Laser Treatment (cold, or low-level, laser therapy is often recommended for pain management or inflammation reduction). The Animal Care team worked (and still works) toRead more
Flashback Friday: Yona’s surgery
I mentioned I try to take time on Fridays for some reflection time. My father had surgery last week. It got me thinking about other surgeries, which lead me to think about Yona. She’s our youngest black bear. She arrived at the Museum January 15, 2010, at just under one year old. We noticed pretty quickly she had a bit of a limp, and her right front leg had some atypical curvature. It didn’t impact what she could or couldn’tRead more
Another project with Engineering students
Another semester has started and we’re working, again, with students in the Pratt school of engineering at Duke. Two student teams are working on creating enrichment feeders for Dusty and Dallas, our miniature Hereford Cattle We’ve met with the teams four times, they’ve been out to visit, and they completed their first project pitch to their classmates. We’re excited to see what the create for our bulls!Read more