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Another Sad Day in the Animal Department

It is with a heavy heart that I report the loss of our opossum Galileo.  Recently he started to show signs of heavy labored breathing and his appetite had decreased greatly.  We took him to the vet for x-rays on Tuesday October 15, 2013 and found that he had fluid in his chest cavity that was preventing him from breathing properly.  It was determined that he needed to be euthanized.  The final results of the necropsy are still pending, butRead more

Godzilla

There have been many instances where the keepers go through difficult times. Unfortunately, we experienced the loss of our education bearded dragon, Godzilla. Godzilla was with us for a long time. When he first came, I would tend to have him resting on me when I sat in the office where he chilled and just looked around. We noticed Godzilla not acting his usual self and his appetite declined. He was taken off program usage and allowed to get restRead more
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Wolf on the table

October is wolf physical month. This is the one time of year we get our hands on the wolves and check them out. We were particularly looking forward to getting the male, 1414, on the table. He is huge (almost 80 pounds) and he came to us with a growth on the side of his body that we wanted to look at and remove. Since 1414 arrived in November 2012, this was our first experience with him for a physical.Read more

Last week’s vet visit

Dr. Vanderford was here last week for a visit to check on some of the critters. We had two sedations planned for the day: Henry and Cynthia.   Cynthia needed a couple bad teeth removed. She did great under sedation- staying asleep when we wanted and waking when we wanted.   Henry, on the other hand, was a different story. First of all, it’s difficult to hold him- at least it is not safe to hold him as you neverRead more
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Colorful Chemistry

We run weekly water quality tests on all of our fish, alligator and turtle tanks in the Animal Department. We monitor the waters’ pH and the levels of Ammonia and Nitrates. This is important because aquatic animals are often very sensitive to chemical changes in the water they live in and drink; more so than their terrestrial relatives.   10 tanks plus 1 “control” tank (filtered water, to make sure the tests are working properly)   The end result: 33Read more