To Max: true friend, companion and teacher
CONTENTS
List of Illustrations
Preface
Introduction
1 Armadillo
2 Giraffe
3 Swan
4 Snow Leopard
5 Goat
6 Elephant
7 Chicken
8 Maned Wolf
9 Holstein Cow
10 Rhinoceros
11 Donkey
12 Ferret
13 Giant Panda
14 Pig
15 Iguana
16 Crocodile
17 Kangaroo
18 Zebra
19 Sugar Glider
20 Wildebeest
Acknowledgements
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
Aged 2 with my grandparents’ dog Ben on holiday in the New Forest; we were inseparable.
Helping out with lambing in North Devon, aged 8.
Proud of my chicken-wrangling skills, aged 3.
A Brazilian three-banded armadillo – the nine-banded armadillo’s little cousin.
The Wildlife Vet’s capture team walking a giraffe to the trailer.
The head collar allows for some control as we drive the giraffe out of the bush to the waiting trailer and with a blindfold on and ear plugs in, he is much calmer, but I still had to be careful that he didn’t knock me off the platform with an effortless swipe of his neck.
Bjorn demonstrating successful cardiopulmonary resuscitation on a giraffe.
Leopards are very cuddly when they are asleep! This was a young female leopard we worked on out in Africa.
I had to get a quick photo with her before she was woken up.
No surprise that these Boer goats were more interested in their food than posing for a photo with me!
Job done! Elephants successfully sedated for relocation, there’s just time for a quick photo with Derek, Wayne and Lotter before they wake up.
Standing on the trailer with Lotter at our final destination, just before we unloaded and woke him and his fellow elephants.
The first elephant I ever worked on (a 30-year-old bull elephant), having just finished replacing his tracking collar.
Two beautiful, fully-horned rhinos. I took this in Kruger National Park in 2013. On my last two trips to Kruger I have not seen a single rhino; their absence a tragic reality and proof of how hard the park has been hit by poaching in the last decade.
A successful humane dehorning; a good team can carry out the procedure in about twenty minutes with minimal stress to the rhino, but sadly even dehorned rhinos are now being targeted by poachers.
Riding one of my grandparents’ donkeys, aged 7. Noddy, Tizzy and Carole gave me a real love for these wonderful animals from a young age.
A selfie with my famous friend Pollyanne.
This Simmental calf suffered a broken leg after his mother accidentally trod on him, but a month in a cast ensured the bone could heal fully.
Not the famous ferret Freddie, but still equally cute.
Large White sows can weigh up to 300 kg so need to be respected, particularly when they are nursing a litter.
At 4.6 metres long and weighing over 700 kg, this fella (an African Nile crocodile, which we were relocating) was seriously intimidating up close.
Conducting my clinical examination on a panda cub.
She took some persuading, but the bamboo shoots convinced giant panda Xi-Xi to pose for a photo with me.
My first encounter with a grey kangaroo was out in Australia. Little did I know then that I would be chasing one around a vet practice one day!
Final checks before taking off to dart some zebras.
Relieved and happy, posing with one of the male zebras I successfully darted.
Shane the sugar glider being positioned for surgery, pom-poms clearly on display, moments before the incident happened!
A Blue wildebeest, like any wild animal, is much less intimidating when it’s asleep. This one was from another capture.
Aerial view of the large tarpaulin enclosure, funnelling down towards the truck. Several of the curtains are closed, separating off the different sections.
Max and Mungo, my faithful companions.
PREFACE
Animalia. The term incorporates an untold number of eclectic animals that inhabit our planet. Estimates of individual species range from 2 to 50 million. For many people, they are simply the sporadic cohabitants of their world – the spider in their bathtub, the bird in their garden, the rat in their garage, or the monkey that plagues their market stalls. For me, though, they have always been an intrinsic part of my life. I trace my conscious desire to become a vet back to the age of six.
Fast-forward thirty-one years, and now eleven years after qualifying, my passion is if anything stronger than ever. Annual trips to Africa, and the wide range of species I have been fortunate enough to work with, have only served to broaden my horizons as to how spectacular the animal world is. Where my three-year-old self was once content with chickens, lambs and dogs, his thirty-seven-year-old counterpart now deals with giant pandas, giraffes, leopards and rhinos – wonders at them, in exactly the same way. For just as an addict craves his next fix, or a surfer longs for that next big swell, my drug of choice has always been the animal kingdom. I have always been captivated by meeting and treating any new species, so to experience them at first hand in their natural environment, learn about them, and make a positive contribution to their propagation, has been a constant privilege.
What started off as the dream of a six-year-old boy to become a vet has now evolved into a desire to travel the world and encounter the spectacular diversity of animals that share this planet with us. From the prehistoric Nile crocodile to the endearing sugar glider or enigmatic snow leopard, the more variety I encounter, the more it fuels my passion.
Yet this evolution in my interests has not detracted or diminished from the joy and thrill I still get every day as a rural veterinary surgeon in the UK. Eleven years in, and the job is still as fascinating and challenging as ever. No two days have ever, or will ever, be the same, and when I go into work in the morning I never know what the day will hold, or which animals or situations I will encounter. Dog, cow, rabbit, horse, chicken, pig, alpaca or tortoise; death, life, tragedy, triumph, hilarity, solemnity, routine or bizarre – mine is a completely unique profession. Every day is an emotional rollercoaster, where the minute you think you’ve cracked a problem, something always pops up to remind you of how much you still have to learn.
There’s a common misconception that being a vet is all about working with animals. The truth is that it is as much, if not more, about working with people. The best vets in the world will only have a reputation to match their skill if they can communicate well with people. But it’s only when this is fully comprehended and embraced that the beauty and power of the human–animal bond can be fully appreciated, as wonderful and unique a relationship as any individual human being on the planet. The Inuit who relies on their pack of sled dogs for transport, or the Nepalese farmer on their ox to plough; the Mongol who requires their eagle to hunt; the farmer who knows every one of their cattle by name; the zookeeper who daily feeds and cares for their collection; the widow whose only companion is her dog; the child with their first pet: whatever the circumstance, veterinary intervention invariably involves understanding and managing this relationship, sharing the joy or sadness, gently correcting or encouraging, asserting or humbling yourself, as the situation demands.
For me, this relationship adds great joy and interest to my job, and although I have witnessed some incomprehensible acts of animal cruelty, the vast majority of my experiences have highlighted the very best in human nature, and I have felt as privileged to meet the people who care for this vast array of animals as I have to treat the animals themselves.