UWEC Day 9

First reptile health check:

Barbara showing me how to take blood

She was pretty big...

Today, we had to do some work on one of the African Rock Pythons. This was my first time really working with a big snake. She was about 4m long and 60kg, so quite a big snake. She was not doing that well, unthrifty. Other than giving her injections of antibiotics, multivitamins and dewormer, Barbara and Hameed were happy to use this opportunity to teach me how to take blood on a snake. First off, I knew it was already difficult to take blood from reptiles. Very different anatomy, usually hard to see blood vessels, so it is mostly going in blind somewhere and just knowing where the vessel should be. There were a couple of different locations that we could have used but the easiest place to start was the vein under the base of her tail. The problem that was encountered was that it took her a long time to relax. Therefore, with her muscles being so tense it constricted on the veins making it very difficult to take blood. I managed to get a little bit, enough for Barbara to do some lab work on it, but that was about it. I was able to practice though finding the right position and such. Because she was such a big snake another spot we could have gone if we REALLY needed blood was going right into her heart. It is not as scary as it sounds. It can be just a more reliable way of getting a large volume of blood. Once finished, Julius (the reptile keeper and my guide for my mini trip) put her back into her enclosure.

Antibiotics

Did get a little bit of blood

Quick assessment - Ostrich:
The keepers looking after the exhibit where the giraffe were, had noted to Hameed that the really old female ostrich with the tumour on her leg was limping more than usual. So Hameed, Barbara and I went in with the keepers for the morning feeding. We observed her and she was bright, alert and not lame at all. Although we did notice a fully fed tick on the underside of the tumour. But otherwise she was fine. For her to have received serious medical treatment for the tumour, like trying to remove it surgically, she would have needed to be immobillized and admitted to the hospital. For a bird that big, and considering how old she was, it was not worth it to put her through that. She has been tolerating the tumour for a number of years now, quite well.

New visitor (but old friend) to UWEC:
Julius had a good friend coming from the UK to stay at the zoo for a while to help the reptile keepers with restraint and immobilization. He name was Pete Prodromou (or Safari Pete). He does a lot of work helping communities deal with human-crocodile conflict, helping to relocate them where they would not be a danger. He also does a lot of education and outreach with other reptile species back in London, where he works. Really cool guy and a serious dare devil at that! He has been coming to Uganda for that past 6 years doing these croc projects as well. 

Safari Pete!