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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (April 11, 1986)
Friday, April 11, 1986/The Battalion/Page 3B Vet for Dallas Zoo pays house calls to exotics DALLAS (AP) — In an era of medical specialists, Dr. Bonnie L. Raphael is an extraordinary general ist. Among her 2,000 regular pa tients, she counts no less than 450 different species, arising from all corners of nature’s kingdom. Lions and lizards and venomous snakes, tapirs and tortoises and mona mon keys, she sees them all. At 35, Raphael is the staff veteri narian at the Dallas Zoo and one of only 17 people in the United States certified by the American College of Zoological Medicine for her medical knowledge of exotic animals. Among her regular patients are more celebrities than a Beverly Hills M.D. could ever hope to claim. The zoo’s collection includes more than 100 endangered species, including rare okapis, lowland gorillas, East African bongos, grevy’s zebras, Sibe rian tigers, black rhinos and reticu lated giraffes. House calls, a vestige of another generation in the medical profes sion, are still as common as penicillin in her practice. “I try to make round through the zoo almost every day,” Raphael says. One of only 126 full-time zoo vets among approximately 20,000 veteri narians in the United States, she earned her special certification after completing a residency program and passing a two-day examination. “Where I go just depends on who’s sick,” she says. “One afternoon 1 may visit the snakes and reptiles. But then, if one of the primates gets sick, I’ll head over to the monkey house.” She also practices preventive med icine. One recent afternoon was spent giving physical exams to the zoo’s mona monkeys. During the checkup, Raphael collected blood samples from the feisty 4-pound pri mates, ran TB tests, dental exams and checked for intestinal bacteria. X-rays help her assess each monkey’s heart and lungs. As a matter of survival, Raphael has cultivated an impeccable bedside manner. It’s little wonder why. She’d pay dearly if she caused a patient like Rosco, a 3,500-pound black rhi noceros, any personal offense. As Raphael climbed into Rosco’s pen one recent afternoon, she sounded like a doting mother at tending to a child’s skinned knee. “Hey son, they say your foot’s sore,” Raphael said in a voice as smooth as honey. Like a Swedish masseuse, she gin gerly poked and kneaded Rosco’s ponderous hind foot while a zoo keeper scratched the rhino’s back with an industrial scrub brush. All this attention was more than Rosco could endure standing up. He obli gingly lay down on his side, shut his eyes and seemed ready to purr like a pussycat. “He likes my tender fingers,” Ra phael said as she searched for an ab- cess or some other injury that might explain why zoo keepers had earlier observed Rosco limping. From this endangered black rhino, Raphael continued her One morning may require Dr. Bonnie L. Raphael to perform surgery on a rep tile while in the afternoon she might have to spend several hours vaccinating baboons. The wall cal endar in her tiny clinic is clutter of appointments with bison, addax, gorillas and large cats. rounds, moving next to an assembly of giraffes. “This is Bonnie,” she said, paus ing to watch an elderly giraffe. “She is old — 33 or 34 — and real ar thritic. Her lower joints are really slowing down on her.” This day Bonnie looked OK, and so Raphael continued on her rounds. Rambling through the zoo, she later looked in on Cape buffalo and flamingos, klipspringers and orang utans. It is her job to keep the zoo’s 2,000 residents — many of which cannot easily be replaced — healthy and whole and, when possible, reproduc ing. Often Raphael must work by in stinct, led only by careful obser vation and common sense. Medical research pertaining to many of the animals is scant and for many others there is no reference material at all to consult in time of illness. Her days are often as motley as the creatures in the zoo. One morn ing may require her to perform sur gery on a reptile while in the af ternoon she might have to spend several hours vaccinating baboons. The wall calendar in her tiny clinic is clutter of appointments with bison, addax, gorillas and large cats. The constant flux of a zoo vet’s life is its own vexation and reward. She is on call 24 hours a day and her work is never done. When the zoo’s small herd of suni, miniature antelope indigenous to Southeast Africa, were stricken two weeks ago with an epidemic of pneu monia, Raphael had to drop nearly everything else. Three of 20 sunis died in one week. She began administering a series of antibiotics and the experimental drug interferon to help the rest of these rare creatures, which are the size of poodles with pencil thin legs, fight off illness. The strategy seems to be working. Raphael says she recognized early in life what was her chosen course. “Sometimes when I was about 5 years old and we were taking our boxer to the vets, I said, ‘Gee, I want to be a vet,’ ” she recalls. Her parents were supportive, and she eventually earned her degree, in veterinary medicine from Michigan State University. After several years of ordinary private practice, she be gan her focus on exotic animals. Then, in 1981, she was chosen to become the Dallas Zoo’s first full time veterinarian. Working to gether, Raphael and a cadre of pro fessionally trained zoo curators have made major improvements in ani mal management at the zoo. One of these advances is that the survival rate of newly born zoo ani mals jumped from 20 to 75 percent during the four-year period between 1979 and 1983. In addition, Raphael has ex tended the zoo’s involvement with a variety of research programs, in cluding an embryo-transplant pro ject to help bolster the declining populations of rare and endangered animals. $5.00 Spring Formals in a tuxedo from Al’s Formal Wear $5.00 off Al’s Formal Wear is helping you celebrate Spring! Celebrate with a $5.00 discount on the rental of any complete tuxedo ensemble. FORMAL WEAR OF HOUSTON. INC 1609 Texas Avenue, 693-0947 CULPEPPER PLAZA Any complete tuxedo ensemble This offer is valid until May 31, 1986. Not valid with any other discounts. Coupon must be presented at time of rental. One coupon per rental. Battalion Classified 845-2611 MEN'S SPRING WARDROBE SALE! Buy one item at regular price, get 50% off second* item Thursday, Friday, Saturday only. When you purchase any suit sport coat slacks, shirt or other item from our Men's Department at regular price, you may purchase a 'second item of equal or lesser value at savings of 50%! 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