Dr. Jeffrey Lakier from Luthern General Hospital, a member of the Medical Advisory Comittee examines a cardio ultrasound.
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Refined Instruments
Gamble explains that for zoo medicine, the 1980s were a time of knowledge
acquisition, finding out what’s going on in the field. In the ’90s, zoo
veterinarians learned to share developments and technological advancements
among the various institutions. “Now we’re in a phase of knowledge
refinement,” she says, “where we’re using all these great instruments to
pull all the knowledge from the ’80s and ’90s to a whole new plane.”
Endoscopes, ultrasound, radiographs (X-rays), MRIs, CT scans, laser surgery – you name the technology or procedure used in human medicine and it’s more
than likely being used for zoo animals too, though zoos usually do not own
equipment such as MRI and CT machines due to cost and space limitations.
Each of those machines, for example, requires a room of its own. If that
kind of diagnostic equipment is required, the zoo can take an animal to a
local clinic or hospital. When a swamp monkey recently needed an MRI for a
neck injury, it was done at the Animal Emergency and Critical Care Center in
Northbrook. Dr. Michael Podell, a member of the zoo’s Medical Advisory
Committee, is the clinic’s co-owner.
The current dream machine of the medical profession is a
carbon-dioxide diode laser. In February Gamble borrowed a demonstration
model from AccuVet Laser to remove a noncancerous cyst from the head of a
rattlesnake.
“The laser is so important because of all it does,” she says. “It reduces
surgery time by cutting and coagulating simultaneously. You have less blood
to remove. It also sears nerve endings, so that it actually provides pain
control at the same time you’re doing everything else. The field is usually
cleaner and heals in a cleaner fashion.
“The laser can be used for a lot of other things too: for opening an
abdomen, removing tumors or amputating an infected digit. You can use it to
clean wounds. That’s the next piece of technology we’d like to have.”
In the meantime, already on its way is a trans-esophageal ultrasound probe,
thanks to a donation coordinated by Dr. Jeff Lakier of the Medical Advisory
Committee. The probe is inserted into the esophagus to evaluate the heart,
aorta and valves from within the chest.
One morning a couple of weeks after the goose surgery, a team of eight
medical technicians and animal keepers rings the radiograph table in the
zoo’s hospital, waiting for Gamble’s instruction. On her signal, the team
turns and shifts a 312-pound Amur tiger (Panthera tigris altaica) into
position for another in the series of X-rays. This striped beauty has paws
the size of saucepans and teeth as long as an index finger. He rests quietly
under anesthesia.
“Even human medicine would be lost without anesthesia,” Gamble says. “Its
development was a miracle.”
While in the treatment room, the tiger receives its annual exam, including
teeth cleaning, blood and urine collections, toxoplasmosis testing
(protozoal parasites found in domestic and wild cats), thoracic and
abdominal radiographs and a rectal culture.
With advancement in technology and a growing body of knowledge in animal
care, examinations like these, the goose surgery and countless other
procedures have become routine at the zoo’s hospital.
“Human medicine has become so fractionated that if you want to get one thing
treated, you have to see five different doctors,” Gamble says. “The skills
of veterinarians are primarily those of a generalist. We are our own
specialists. We do a little of everything. And our team here has to be able
to flex from one end of the
animal to the other.” 
Next: Vet Techs Thinking on the Fly
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