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
Posts tagged: #Dr. Vanderford
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
lemur physicals
This week the red ruffed lemurs got their annual physicals. All three girls- Cynthia, Iris, and Jethys- did great. Each one, from pre-sedation to reversal took 37 minutes. We’re waiting for blood work to come back, but everyone’s initial findings seemed to be okay. Our girls are getting old so I always have concerns about what the tests will show. Cynthia is almost 32 years old. The Duke lemur center only has one red ruffed lemur older than her. Read more
Too busy to write
It’s been a crazy and busy week- too much going on to even sit and think. We’ve been paying extra attention to our newest members. Last week about this time I was out at Our Ancestral Farm with Dr. Cannedy doing a herd check on the alpacas. My head is still spinning from the week, but I’ll share (what I can remember) from the week: Meetings, some multiple times, with 7 different contractors: 1) the fence company putting upRead more
Lemurs in Crates
I’ve posted about lemur training before and wanted to give an update. Click here and here to refresh your memory. Ring Tailed Lemur physicals are in September! That’s so soon. But we are making progress. Lycus actually had to be seen earlier than expected. I noticed a change in his eyes, a white cloudiness. We had a few days until Dr. Vanderford would be able to see Lycus so I began using the ophthalmoscope (a lighted instrument that is usedRead more
Training Progress
I posted in March about my progress training the Ring Tailed Lemurs. At that point they were staying in their crate for about 4 minutes on average. I’ve worked up to about 10 minutes, including taking them right outside of the lemur house. Yay! But here is where it gets tricky- we spoke with our vet about giving them one or two treats the morning of their physicals. Since the lemurs have to be sedated, she does not want themRead more