exotics

Thanks to corporate and private donations, the nation’s largest veterinary house officer (residents, interns, fellows) program at the UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine just got even larger. The advanced training programs for veterinarians range from one year (fellowships and internships) to two-four years (residencies). Following completion of residency programs, veterinarians are able to sit for rigorous testing procedures to seek board certification in a specialty area of veterinary medicine (internal medicine, surgery, dermatology, cardiology, etc.).

Detection dogs trained to sniff out the scat of an endangered lizard in California’s San Joaquin Valley, combined with genetic species identification, could represent a new, noninvasive sampling technique for lizard conservation worldwide.

Mohave, a 61-year-old desert tortoise, was recently brought to the UC Davis veterinary hospital for a recurrence of bladder stones. Thanks to a minimally invasive procedure that saved his shell, and a UC Davis alumna connecting with her alma mater, Mohave is on the mend.

Dr. Jackie Gai ’01 serves as the director of veterinary services for the Performing Animal Welfare Society and works with elephants, lions, tigers and bears. But she still has a soft spot for ducks.

The 2019 edition of the Silicon Valley Tour de Coop has been scratched due to Virulent Newcastle Disease (vND), a highly contagious and fatal viral disease affecting all species of birds – including poultry.

Ginger, an 8-year-old female eclectus parrot, was not feeling like herself a few months ago. Over the course of several days, her decreased appetite caused her to skip a meal of kiwi—her favorite fruit—and she no longer danced around her cage like normal. Her owners thought she was having trouble with egg binding, a condition she suffered from previously. As regular clients of the Companion Exotic Animal Medicine and Surgery Service at the UC Davis veterinary hospital, they brought Ginger in for an examination.

Hedgehog owners should refrain from kissing their small, spiky friends, health officials warn. Since October, 11 people across eight states have been infected with a particular strain of salmonella, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported, and all but one of those infected said they had contact with a hedgehog.