OPEN WIDE: The first case I ever assisted at the National Zoo involved an elephant with an abscessed tooth. It was around 1980; they called me in because I was the only dental veterinarian in the area. I felt pretty small stepping into the holding facility -- the animal towered above me. Then she curled her trunk around me and started sniffing. Oh, I hope she likes me, I thought. But she was very docile. The handlers would give a command and she'd open her mouth. Ever since then, I've volunteered as the zoo's on-call dentist. The staff does the routine work and calls me with problems that require extra expertise. I've worked on lions, bears, kangaroos -- I couldn't begin to name all the species.
BRUSHING UP: The thing about exotic animals -- as opposed to dogs or cats -- is that there are no reference manuals. You do a lot of the work flying by the seat of your pants. For example, we've used a large syringe case to keep a cheetah's mouth open during surgery. On the other hand, we can apply a lot of the things that we learn from the domestics, especially to the large cats. Other than size, they're exactly like domestic cats -- same number of teeth, shape and position. The most widespread malady? Periodontal disease. Bad breath -- there's plenty.
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_____Previous Columns_____
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Chip Champ (The Washington Post, Nov 21, 2004)
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DISC JOCKEY (The Washington Post, Nov 14, 2004)
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Gourd Guy (The Washington Post, Nov 7, 2004)
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DON'T WEAR 'EM OUT: We have two sets of teeth, primary replaced by permanent. Elephants have six sets. As they lose the old ones, new teeth migrate forward. The Cuban crocodile had the most teeth of any animal I've worked on. Hundreds. And a lot of them were infected. We'd take out a diseased tooth, and a new one would grow up right behind it.
THE ROOT OF THE PROBLEM: The toughest case I ever had was trying to get a tooth out of a tapir, which is like a funny-looking pig with a flexible snout. Their mouths are small -- they can't open very wide. Giraffes are also extremely difficult to work with. Many are very sweet and friendly, but if you give them the lightest tranquilizer, they can stumble, fall and break their neck. All zoo veterinarians fear sedating them.
JUST SWALLOW: The case of Maureen, the sea lion, was one where we felt like we really saved a life. She was deathly ill. She had all these abscessed teeth and wasn't eating. But those teeth were a tough extraction. Sea lion teeth have a flared root, sort of like an anchor. We took them all out. That's not that bad for a sea lion. They're not big chewers; they swallow fish whole. Maureen's become one of healthiest, longest-living animals at the zoo. As told to Ulrich Boser
