VIN Topic Rounds

 

Are you missing out on clinical rotations because of COVID-19? The VIN Student Team has you covered with Tuesday Topic Rounds.  During the month of May, join Amanda Guthrie, DVM, MRCVS, DACZM, DECZM for 30 minute, case-based sessions on Zoo Medicine every Tuesday at 12ET. Everyone and all levels of experience are welcome. There will be time for Q&A and discussion following. The next session is Zoo Medicine: Avian Cases on May 11, 2021 at 12 ET.

In this rounds:

• Recognize and understand a few of the most common diseases of zoo avians
• Working up zoo avian cases in a systematic manner
• Zoo avian diagnostics and treatment options
• Zoo avian disease prevention and wider significance to the collection, emphasizing the individual vs. the group

TO JOIN THE SESSION, LOG INTO THE VIN STUDENT CENTER AND CLICK THE GREEN BUTTON IN THE TOP RIGHT

The Veterinary Information Network (VIN) is here to help you as a vet student – especially during this worldwide pandemic. Membership is always free as a student!

Condor Project

Entry, Experiences
Jana Mazor-Thomas, Tufts

Last June, I was lucky enough to go on what is pretty much my dream externship: working with Dr. John Bryan of the National Park Service, on the California Condor recovery project at Pinnacles National Monument.

For those who are not obsessed with birds, the appeal of this is probably a little hard to imagine. Condors are huge, stinky, sometimes angry birds. They live primarily on carrion and the bacteria in their mouths are the ones that are nasty enough to out-compete all the bacteria that grow on dead animals. They're also unbelievably beautiful, critically endangered, the largest bird in North America - and a fantastic story about how medical care and the dedication of hundreds of people kept this apex species from extinction and now on the road to recovery. So for a bird nerd? Yes, the elective of a lifetime.

The biggest source of mortality for the condors is still lead poisoning from bullets left in carcasses by hunters. Medically, most of the work done revolves around treatment for lead poisoning. At least twice a year, the condor crew try to trap every condor in their management area and check their lead levels, then chelate them if need be. Sadly, their lower cutoff for birds that need chelation has to be well above what we consider acceptable in other raptors, because otherwise, nearly every condor would still be in captivity for treatment, and the goal of this project is to return these birds to a life in the wild that does not require human intervention. 

Capturing and restraining an easily-stressed bird with a ten-foot wing span is not a job for the faint of heart!

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Experience at TRC: Tambopata Research Center, Peru

This edition's Life as a Vet Student category: Each day the veterinary profession becomes less national and more global. The AVMA states, "In recent years the AVMA has turned to the global stage to advance its strategic goals, particularly in the areas of animal welfare and veterinary education, and has worked hard to ensure that the U.S. veterinary profession's voice is heard in international settings." Are you interested in global health? How have you contributed or plan to contribute in international veterinary medicine?

Entry, Life as a Vet Student
Lauren Thielen, Texas A&M University

TRC, Tambopata Research Center, is a macaw conservation research facility located in south-eastern Peru, deep within the beautiful Peruvian Amazon, along the Tambopata River. The lodge is about 100km from the closest city, Puerto Maldanado, an 8hr boat ride upriver from the town. The research is lead by Texas A&M’s Dr. Donald Brightsmith, supported by Texas A&M Veterinarians and many volunteers from throughout the world. The lodge serves as both a research facility as well as a site for ecotourists to become immersed in the Amazon.

Over Christmas I was given the unbelievable opportunity to volunteer at TRC as a veterinary student. TRC’s research is focused on the long term monitoring of macaw and parrot biology, research first began in 1999. The location of the TRC lodge is no coincidence, as it is located only a 2 minute boats ride to the clay lick. The clay lick is a huge part of the research, as it is a location where thousands of birds can be observed at once. The purpose of animals arriving at the clay lick is to ingest the sodium-rich clay not provided in their diet. Additionally, by studying the clay lick the social order and behavior of different parrot species can be observed.

Breeding season is during the rainy season, December to June, and that is when the veterinarian comes into play. Chick growth data is taken to better understand the reproductive success of both Scarlet and Red-and-green Macaws. The data sets are used to help understand the fluctuations in clay lick use related to nesting, food supply, and bird abundance. As a veterinary student I spent my days walking throughout the Amazon Rainforest to different macaw nest sites to check on the development of the chicks.

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