Today’s Pup Check

A long day is finally winding down. I know all you want to see is pictures of the pups and hear about how they are doing, so I will spare you the details of the day. Both pups were in the den upon arrival! They were busy wrestling with each other and gnawing on a rat that M1803 (dad) had dropped off earlier. I say huge because, well, they are huge. Their dad, M1803 is huge (almost 80 pounds) andRead more

Virginia’s treatment plan

I’ve watched Virginia, our black bear that has been at the Museum since June 2005, grow from a 15 pound cub still on a bottle to a full-grown black bear. We noticed many months ago she had an intermittent yet recurring limp. It never stopped her from doing anything but it just wasn’t going away no matter what variety of treatments we provided. Diagnosis has been a challenge, but we had a team from NCSU College of Veterinary Medicine outRead more

Pupdate #12

June 12 hands on check of the 6-week old pups is complete. There were two pups in each den rather than them all being together in one location. One in each den honkered-down while one in each den tried to scramble away. We transported them in the large net and did our work in the side cage area much like last time we did hands-on.   A few things to report: First, weights. Everyone is still gaining weight, and while the largestRead more

Pupdate #1- the good and the sad.

News to report on the pups and not all of it happy: Four pups are doing great. They seem to be thriving. They’ve gained 43%-53% since initial weights were taken which is right on track. Some have started to vocalize when we pick them up. “Robust and active” were some of the words Dr. Vanderford used. Their feet look pretty good, they are peeing and pooping, and doing everything pups should do at this age.   Unfortunately, not all theRead more

Filou gets his physical.

Dr. Vanderford  was nothing but smiles checking Filou out for his physical.   While his physical went great- the only issue being the need to take off some weight- he has aged quite a bit since then. Opossum’s tend to only live 2-3 years, and Filou is slowing down and showing some issues in the past month or more.  Read more

Dr. Vanderford dons the gown again

The Ring-tailed lemurs have been getting along well since the initial incidents with their introductions.  (Hopefully Autumn will get some photos to share of the snuggling occurring). That’s why we were very surprised to find Henri one day with his ear split. He, and the others, were all acting totally fine both before and after, but his ear did need to get sutured. Take a look:          Read more