Dora made her first appearance in the veterinary clinic last week for a routine physical exam. Like Rayne, she willingly took the anesthetic injection (this time from Sabrina and Dr. Erin, with a prior assist from the entire positive reinforcement training team). While we have to wait for specialists to review some of the data the team collected, Dora appears to be in perfectly good health.
Many thanks to our great crew of volunteer professionals, from the vet techs, sonographers, and veterinary student extern helping with the procedure to the cardiologists and internists reviewing the results—and of course to our very own Dr. Erin!
Someone recently asked on social media what types of procedures the chimps undergo when they are in the clinic. While the answer depends on many factors, including their age, sex, clinical history, stability under anesthesia, and the amount of time since their last exam, we generally try to do the following:
- Update Vaccinations (e.g., rabies, tetanus)
- TB test
- Glucose Reading
- Fecal Exam
- Urinalysis
- Blood tests
- EKG
- Dental Exam and Cleaning
- Dental X-Rays as needed
- Echocardiogram
- Cervical, Chest, and Abdominal X-Rays
- Joint X-Rays as needed
- Full Body Exam
Our goal is to perform these exams as infrequently as possible so it’s important to gather all the information we can while they’re in the clinic.
And that requires a great team.
Hopefully Dora will continue to stay healthy and out of trouble so she won’t have to come back to the clinic for a while.
