Mondays just became my favorite days.....
Every monday at the zoo they check the oral health of the animals... they also do a general check-up to see if everything is going well with them and if they need any medication.
The table with the white paper is where they put the animal, the x-ray equipment,
at the right corner its the table to put all instruments, there they have connection for all the equipment to do treatment when its necessary, and at the right hand they have all the materials
July 29, 2013
Yesterday was the day of the babuínos... First we checked the oral health of the male of the zoo.
They are so aggressive that they had to sedate him with darts... so he arrived to the Vet very relaxed
We did the intraoral examination, everything was in perfect conditions.. I think many humans would wish his oral health.
He had;
-Good occlusion. Just a premolar distally inclined, because of that he had exposed a percentage of the root. But theres nothing to do about it, because there is not orthodontics for primates yet.
-No tartar
-Gingiva in good condition, just gingival recession at canines
-No cavities.. just slightly pigmented the occlusal surface of the molars. But the doctor said that its better to leave it like this because for his kind of alimentation it's less probable to have a big advance.
He have like humans; 4 incisors, 4 premolars, and 4 molars in maxilla and the same in mandible. And it's not common to find third molars.
He said that the most common treatment in primates was, glass ionomer and in some cases resin. But just when is necessary because they like to bite stones... and ionomer and resin doesn't resist that much.
We just checked if everything was ok, take some photos for his folder, clean teeth with chlorhexidine and then put fluorine for 4 minutes.
Then we did the same with his wives and little baby. The older wife had tooth wear because of her age. The younger wife had no problems. The baby had pigmented upper central incisors, the Dr. said that it was because of his eating habits. (we found some rocks in his mother's mouth, we also find out that she is pregnant)
And these were patients of yesterday... But every monday its gonna be someone new.
They did all the treatment part 4 years ago... after that, they following the treatments and preventing with the ones that didn't have any problem.
They have a folder with all information of the monkeys, felines and other mammals; some of these information are their odontological history, photos, number of study models, Rx's and Tx's.
Study model of a lioness
They also check glucose, temperature, if the chip its working properly, auscultation, palpation, and a blood sample to do other exams.
I really liked the work at the zoo, I think these animals have better health opportunities than many humans.
Another activity at the zoo was giving his vitamins to a penguin with deficiency of thiamine.
My last and favorite task was to give pureed fruit to a couple of edentulous monkey (they lost their teeth due to age, 25 years old).
He is the grumpy monkey
She is the sweet one
She have cataracts because of her age, hearth disease and fluid retention... that's why she is chubby.
Here are other members of the zoo that i enjoyed during the morning :
He looks like a baby but he is not, he is already an adult
He is so charming... every time i go to say hi to him,
he step in two legs and pulls his tiny tongue over and over again
August 5, 2013
Guess who was the first one saying "bom día" today?
Of course!! that's why he is one of my favorites
Then she came to say hello..
First i thought that i was lucky to find her in this sexy pose,
but then i realized that she is like this 70% of the time
After saying hello to all the members in the Vet area, was time to work..
Btw, I did't mentioned this before but at the work at the zoo starts at 7am!!!! Its crazy! But definitely
everything in life has a price!
Today's patient: The lioness "Baby"
This morning Dr. Clóvis and Dr. Mila went to bring the lioness, this because the cage had some problems and din't have enough space for more people than the necessary to bring her.
So, we wait... we take all the animals from the Vet outside to have more room to work with baby and to let them breathe some fresh air.
Then, the doctors and some other strongmen arrived carrying a big gray blanket with huge lump in the middle.. what was my surprise when i find out that it was baby the bulge in there! She is sooooooo big and it was easy to hear his weak roars (scary)
They took her out of the truck, put her in a big weighing machine and then placed her on the table with the white paper.
Then was time to work, I was scared but it was my first opportunity and I think the only one to be near one animal like her; breathing, roaring, alive.
Actually who would do the work was the Dr. Clóvis, I was just going to see and give him materials in case of necessary, but anyways my survival instinct was screaming "get out of here right now"
So, after fighting with my fears, I start helping the Dr. Clóvis (who was pretty calm) with the light. He start removing some HUGE dental calculus form baby's molars and premolars.
Below the dental calculus she had restorations with glass ionomer, which were placed 1 year and half ago. They placed these restorations due to a resorption in the cervical area of premolars and molars. This kind of reabsorption its commonly found in felines and does not have a know cause.
Quadrant II:
Loose incisors 4 years ago or more
In the canine she had a deep resorption but they said it was stable, they don't want to weaken more the piece because it's so necessary for her to eat.
In the premolar she had one resorption beginning, but not too deep to do a restoration (took a Rx and will keep under observation)
In the molar she had a restoration in good conditions
Quadrant III:
No comments
Quadrant I:
In the premolar she had a deep resorption, in this piece he did placed glass ionomer
In the molar she had damaged glass ionomer, so he replace it.
Quadrant IV:
No comments
Because when the doctor was preparing the pieces for the ionomer I was doing the mixture, I could't take more pictures. But the cavities were very deep, I have to make 8 portions of glass ionomer and still had to do 3 more. They said that it was easier if i used a shovel!
The Dr. take some Rx to follow up the restorations, Dr. Mila did all the medical stuff and then Baby was ready to go back home.
It was a tired day... and I also have to move into the student residences and check if they already had my schedule in the FOB
Today's patients: Two monkeys (macacos arana de cara vermelha)
Something interesting happened today..
When I arrived to the zoo the Doctor was, as usual, preparing all the materials and instruments for the "patients"...then I had the wonderful idea of ask him which animal were going to see today, then he said; Today is the turn of a Lion, ahh the one I told you I had done the endodontia... I just put a huuuuuge smile, then he said; You want to see his folder? Of courseee I want!!
I was seeing all the information in his folder when he said, ohh we checked him 2 months ago! Is not time yet to see him. I think the Dra. Mila made a mistake... then he walked away... and I was like; ok, so.. now what are we gonna do? We still have to see the lion! But not.. instead of lion were two monkeys.
Then I get mad at me for asking more than necessary... but the good part was that they didn't bring an innocent animal just because the mexican girl wanted to see his huge teeth.
So the patients were two monkeys;
The first one was a male;
He was really really thin, he looked old and neglected. Dra Mila took the blood sample, glucose, and all the protocol.
Meanwhile we checked the mouth, he had a lesion in the upper lip that seemed kind of cleft lip, but i think that was because a fight.. monkeys are very aggressive
He also have bruxism and a marked wear of all teeth
There was no possible treatment to do, so we just put fluoride and chlorhexidine and wait until Dra. Mila finishes his part... She said that he was vary malnourshed and with a chronic diarrhea, so she put him in a cage with blankets, put subcutaneous serum and put him near a bottle with hot water... he would continue in observation.
*The bad or good part of being here is that I learned how animals really are, and that they are not toys and you have to respect the nature... I know is a basic of life but i thought they were a little more like humans, sad story. But when they are sedated ara really cute
We follow the same protocol with the female, Dra. Mila checked the medical part and we checked her oral health... she didn't have any problem, so we just put the fluor and chlorhexidine.
Dra. Mila said that her only problem was that she is fat... So she went back to her cage to continue eating bananas.
Patient: Lioness
This patient had a good oral health, comparing her with the other lioness from the zoo, she have the perfect oral health... her problem was just a little bit of tartar. But this lioness have her own story, story that left me a lesson that I'll never forget.
Fist of all, this lioness didn't have any health problem, they only wanted to change her to another cage.. and to do it she should have been sedated.
So that's what they did... they sedated her with one dart, but she was getting the effect very slowly so they put another doses.
That's where the story begin... They put her in a blanket and carried her to a kind of wheelbarrow but bigger. They decided to do all the check-up near to the door of the consulting room because it was really hard to move a body with 120 kgs of weight. So the vets start doing her work and the Dr. Clovis and I started checking her mouth....
When suddenly the lioness started having contractions, and Dr. Clovis very brave still holding her jaw (I was shocked, it was the first time I saw something like this and to see it for the first time in a lioness.... was scarier), then everything get back to normal, we finish taking the pictures, putting the chlorhexidine and fluor and then the contractions came back and Dr. Clovis as the last time, still holding her jaw.
Note.
Lesson #1 If a lioness start having contractions, do not hold her jaw... she have a mouth full of sharp teeth and very easily can cut a pair of fingers (more if you are dentist and need those fingers to work every day).
After the two episodes of contractions everything get back to normal, we start putting everything in its place, take the trash to the garbage... When one of the Vets said... The lioness is not breathing.
The Dra. Mila take the needle of a syringe and start stinging her nose, one and another time and because the lioness was not responding... the Dra. took her lower lip and put it near the nose, and start doing "mout-to-mouth resuscitation" (but by the nose).
-Now I was really really shocked. What if the lioness awake and I'm the fist thing she see and
attacks me or what if she die!!!! I had lots of things in my mind, but my survival instinct moved my
legs to a safest place.
Lesson #2 If you can not save the lioness life, and don't know how to help to resuscitate, the best you can do is to move to a safest place and leave the experts do their job.
Well... After a couple of attempts ..the lioness start breathing and the other Vets came with a device that is made to do what the Dra. Mila did a few minutes ago.
She said; Thank you, I don't need it anymore.
After the girls left... the lioness stop breathing again!
So the Dra. Mila did the same as the last time. And the lioness start breathing.
Lesson #3 If you don't want to do mouth-to-bleedingnose resuscitation with a lioness is better to keep the resuscitation equipment near to the patient that probably will need it.
After all, the lioness survived and go back to her new cage without any other problem!!
This experience left me lots of lessons. I understood that is really really important the infections control in every single thing we do. I mean in moments like that you can not think in lots of things, but when you see it in another person it is easier to learn and do all those things aware to not to repeat the others mistakes when the happens to you. Is the good part of be just watching.
Patient: Llama
This case was really funny... Some llamas have a very peculiar dental problem, the clinical crown grow and grow without limits!! This was the third time that this llama needed to be cut off part of the crown of her lower incisors.
The Dr. Clovis said that in the crown, just the area near to the gingiva have innervation. So we would not need anesthesia!
So thats what we did... cut a part of the crown of her low incisors without anesthesia in the
comforts of her house! Was very quickly and lovely experience (For me... I think the llama didn't like it that much)
Oh and he is her neighbor.. the one that made my day happier!!
Patient: Monkey Guigó
This day was very interesting.. first i met a little penguin, the bad part was that he was sick of his tummy and was doing poop with blood all day long!
Then the patient came sedated into the clinic... We did a check up of an amalgam in a canine that the Dr. Clovis placed 4 months ago because of a fracture.
Everything was ok, so we put chlorhexidine and fluor before he waked because they put just a little bit of anesthesia. So he started moving and the Dr. put him in his cage, because they are small but very aggressive.
After that I start cleaning the area, and then I helped an veterinary student to feed two baby possums
Patient: The red face monkey
This was the same monkey we saw a weeks ago, he was putted in a jaw near the vet area so they can give him a medicine because he was really thin. Now he was better but still thin, because he was sedated we check him again an put clorexhidina. But he had nothing different.
He went back to the same jaw (the one near the vet area)
Patient: Ferret
Fist time consult of a ferret. He had the the tiniest and cutest mouth I've ever seen! He didn't have any dental problem, we could not take any impression due to the small size of his mouth but we put fluoride and chlorhexidine.
Patient: Ocelot
Fist time consult of an ocelot. He also have a good oral health, but his mouth was little bit bigger so we take an impression with alginate and then put fluoride and clorexhidine.
So this was my last day at the Zoo
I loved having the opportunity of live this experience! To see how a Zoo works, the importance os the animals health, see everything that is behind the jaws, see the love that every worker in the zoo put while doing their job. We have to respect nature... learn from Brasil, a country where people care about their nature, their animals.
My love for animals increase here in Brasil, I know it is a hard work and requires a bigger effort but it worth it. Some day I'll do something big to help to improve the services in the zoo's of Mexico.
I will miss the Zoo...
A part of my hearth will stay here for ever.
