UPDATE: Zoo Worker Whose Care Was Criticized Fails Exam for U.S. Veterinary License

Carlos Sanchez, shown examining panda Tai Shan, fell six points short. (2005 Photo By Jessie Cohen -- Smithsonian Institution)

The National Zoo veterinarian whose animal care was called into question last summer has tried, and failed, to get his U.S. veterinary license. He plans to take the exam again later this year.

Carlos Sanchez provided much of the care for five animals that died at the zoo between December 2003 and December 2004. The deaths, which were criticized by four outside veterinarians, including the zoo's former associate pathologist, and two other animal experts, were examined by The Washington Post in a June 2005 article.

Sanchez, who received his veterinary degree in Mexico in 1992, has worked at the National Zoo since 2000, first as a resident and then as a veterinary trainee. He has a master's degree in wild animal health from the Royal Veterinary College in London and was a licensed staff veterinarian at the zoo in Mexico City.

But Sanchez has never obtained a license to practice veterinary medicine in the United States, which normally would be required for long-term employment at U.S. zoos. The Smithsonian Institution, which oversees the zoo, is considered a federal operation and thus is not required to have locally licensed veterinarians.

The issue of Sanchez's licensing was raised last summer after the deaths of the five animals, including a lion with pyometra, a common uterine infection that zoo veterinarians failed to spot. Veterinarians who criticized the lion's care said diagnosing pyometra should have been "Vet Medicine 101," but Sanchez had speculated in clinical notes three weeks before the lion died that its troubles might be psychological.

Zoo officials said last summer that Sanchez is supervised daily by licensed veterinarians. They said he would take exams at the end of last year to become a licensed doctor of veterinary medicine in the United States and to become board-certified in zoo medicine, one of only 80 or so such specialists in the country. But he had problems obtaining his transcripts from Mexico, the zoo said, and didn't take any exams until this spring.

In response to a query from The Post, Peper Long, a zoo spokeswoman, said Sanchez took the North American Veterinary Licensing Examination to get his D.C. license. He needed a score of 325 to pass, she said; he scored 319.

"This was a test of general veterinary medicine, and Dr. Sanchez has been out of vet school for 10 years," Long said. "He's been in zoo medicine all that time."

Sanchez, one of five veterinarians at the zoo, and Suzan Murray, the zoo's chief veterinarian, declined to comment.

Long said Sanchez plans to take the exam again at the end of the year.

"He's a great vet," she said.

-- Karlyn Barker