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October’s awareness month highlights support for survivors and pet-friendly shelters.

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The young Pacific walrus is one of only 11 walruses to be admitted to Alaska SeaLife Center’s Wildlife Response Program since 1998.

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Jb Minter, DVM, MS, DACZM, shares how he got his start in zoo medicine and what led him down this path

A passion for zoo medicine

Jb Minter, DVM, MS, DACZM, director of Animal Health at the North Carolina Zoo, told 

 in an interview, about why he decided to pursue veterinary medicine, and specifically follow his passion for wildlife and exotic animals. He explains the many options he was faced with and how he ultimately landed at the North Carolina Zoo.

 I was always the one I was finding the lizards and the snakes and the turtles, and was always in the ditch looking for some type of critter that I could bring home. And that kind of sparked my interest in wildlife. I think, 

Okay, well, I really like doing these types of things.

 But as you get older, and you start to develop out what is a career, what is a path that you can do with animals? The biggest thing that came to mind was I could be a veterinarian. Okay, well, that makes sense. In my experience, with veterinarians growing up, were that they did dogs and cats.

I went to undergraduate at Virginia Tech, which is out in the mountains of Virginia. So that exposed me to more of a rural background, more of a rural setting. I was an animal science major, so my experience there was very much not dogs and cats, but cows and horses and pigs and things of that nature. I really developed a fondness for cattle. Cattle and horses and those types of animals. And I was like, 

well, maybe dogs and cats are not what I want to do

, maybe I what I want to do is large animal medicine.

I decided to pursue that master's degree in wildlife biology. So I moved out to Utah and I pursued it and finished a master's degree in wildlife biology working with wild canids.

Conference

Jb Minter, DVM, MS, DACZM, explains what makes zoo medicine challenging and how different species pose unique obstacles

The rewarding challenges of a zoo chief veterinarian

 in an interview, about the most challenging species to work with and some of his favorites. He also explained how, as a director at the North Carolina Zoo, he can work in multiple areas of the profession.

 Some of the ones that are a little bit the most complicated are actually some of the the either the largest or the smallest. So when I got a 2g dart frog—so this is something that's about the size of your little pinky finger—and you're trying to do a workup on that, that's extremely difficult because a lot of the diagnostic tools that we would have don't work. I can barely get a blood sample from a 2g dart frog without exsanguinating it. So those little, subtle differences make those animals very complicated. The same thing goes true if we start bringing the size of the animal up. So, if I start working with an elephant diagnostically, I can't do a lot. I mean, they're well-trained, we can get, obviously, get a blood sample from an elephant, and you can usually do that with the animal wake. But radiographs really don't work. You can potentially get some radiographs of the distal periphery, so limbs, toes, things like that. But if you wanted to get a full chest radiograph, it doesn't work. You can't. There's no radiograph machine that can go that far, or shoot through that much tissue.

Obviously, I practice medicine, I'm a veterinarian, but on the flip side of that, some of the other things that we do really depends on the size of the zoo that you're working in, where you may wear different hats. And some of those may be still within the medicine aspect; we act as a nutritionist. But some of the things that stepped outside of the field that most people don't do is I helped with exhibit design. Obviously, I'm a big teacher. I work in West Africa, probably about 2 to 3 months out of the year working with elephants in West Africa. So those are the big aspects of the reason that this job to me is I mean, I can't complain. I love my job. It's one of the greatest jobs in the world.

Jb Minter, DVM, MS, DACZM, explains how zoo animals have a lot of anatomical similarities to small and large animals

How zoo medicine is a lot like small- and large-animal practice

 in an interview, about the similar principles veterinary professionals can apply to zoological medicine. Equine medicine can be a very similar medicine for a rhinoceros and feline medicine can be similar for a lion or tiger.

 The word zoological medicine scares a lot of veterinarians because they say, 'Well, I don't know anything about any of those animals.' And I would turn that on its head and say, 'Yes, you do. You know a lot more than what you think you do.' There are some intricacies and nuances that you may not know, but myself and a small- and large-animal [practice], and we have the same foundational veterinary knowledge, those are the same tools that I'm utilizing.

That's the great thing about veterinary medicines, we all have a very, very broad understanding of anatomy, physiology, pathology, [and] how to use those disciplines to diagnose and treat health issues in the animals that we treat.

Jb Minter, DVM, MS, DACZM, shares what he hopes attendees takeaway from his session at the Fetch Charlotte conference

Takeaways from a zoo medicine session

Jb Minter, DVM, MS, DACZM, director of Animal Health at the North Carolina Zoo, will be speaking at our upcoming Fetch conference in Charlotte, North Carolina and told 

 in an interview, about what he hopes attendees can learn from his session. He aims at underscoring the similarities between zoo medicine and small- and large-animal medicine so that zoo medicine appears more accessible for any veterinary professional. 

Dr Minter will be speaking tomorrow, March 15, at the Fetch Charlotte conference.

 I think the biggest thing I want people to take away from this session is that zoo medicine is not that scary. It sounds scary because again, most of you don't learn about a lot of the critters that we have here. And I'm going to use a term zoological medicine in a much broader sense, because people think zoological medicine—to them that's bears and lions and elephants and rhinos. But there are there are going to be patients that people are going to potentially see in private practice. Take fish, for example, take snakes for example, or birds for example, those kind of fit under the umbrella of zoological medicine. So I want people that are in small- and large-animal medicine, not to be fearful of those animals. They are a little bit different, but I think we all have that basic understanding of veterinary medicine, and how veterinary medicine works. We have a basic understanding of just anatomy and physiology.

There are some nuances, and it may take some additional continuing education or a book or some journals to read, but it's still medicine and I think everybody has the skill set to practice for that.

Jb Minter, DVM, MS, DACZM, shares what he hopes attendees takaway from his session at the Fetch Charlotte conference

Jb Minter, DVM, MS, DACZM, shares his excitement for our Fetch Charlotte conference

How conferences like Fetch can help zoo medicine

 in an interview about what he is most excited about including seeing keynote speaker, Temple Grandin, Phd, MS, speak on Sunday, March 17. If you would like to see Dr Minter or Dr Grandin speak at our conference, 

 My name is JB Minter. I am the director of animal health and chief veterinarian for the North Carolina Zoo. And what that means is I oversee the animal health and welfare for basically 250 different species and about 1300 different animals here at the North Carolina Zoo.

One, I'm really looking forward to hearing Temple Grandin speak at this conference, she's going to be one of the keynote speakers. I actually have heard Temple Grandin speak at a couple other conferences, I really liked some of the work she does.

Also, the small and large animal conferences is where a lot of the new things are happening in veterinary medicine...I go to a lot of zoo conferences, obviously, and the new stuff is not happening there. The new the cutting edge stuff is happening in the small and large animal conferences. So, I'm always interested in going to the small animal conferences, because those are the places that I'm learning, hopefully, about some of the new things that are coming out and that people are trying in small animal medicine.

Jb Minter, DVM, MS, DACZM, shares his excitement for our Fetch Charlotte conference and what he is most looking forward to

Jb Minter, DVM, MS, DACZM, explains when anesthesia is needed to perform exams and procedures on lions

Administering anesthesia to lion patients

DVM, MS, DACZM, director of animal health and chief veterinarian at the North Carolina Zoo, explains when anesthesia is needed to perform exams and procedures on lions. He also shares that at the North Carolina Zoo, the animal care team is making strides in this area by incorporating behavioral training and Fear Free approaches so the lions are comfortable and easily comply to the veterinary care. 

The following is a partial transcript of the video.

: A lot of people still dart lions. You get a dart gun, you administer the anesthetic drugs through a dart at some distance, because the lion doesn't like you. We have really been working in the last probably 10 to 15 years here at the North Carolina Zoo, to really ramp up our behavioral training program, which means both of our lions now are trained to come up alongside of the mesh, that's basically a piece of protective mesh that keeps you away from the lion, the lion will present its butt. And you could administer the drugs just because the lion just comes up alongside, it knows it is going to get a treat, you administer the drugs, it gets a little bit of a piece of meatball or something, and then you walk away, and then the drugs take effect. And then you have to go in to make sure that it's fully asleep. 

So honestly, the most challenging part is just administering the drugs. Anesthesia in lions, and I'm going to knock on wood, is pretty straightforward. It's not that difficult. It's the administration of the drugs and then the safety aspect, realizing that you are dealing with a cat, a large cat that could hurt everybody in the room if it started to wake up. It's not going to be, 'Oh, just physically manually restrain it and get it back under control.' It's get the drugs, get out of the room, and hopefully things will kick in. 

How North Carolina Zoo is leveraging behavioral training and Fear Free methods 

Zoo Medicine

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