Veterinary Work Isn’t Just for the Dogs These Days

Dogs and cats still dominate the patient list at UW–Madison’s School of Veterinary Medicine, but they’re sharing more space with a new breed of companion critters, from ailing ferrets to sick lizards.

Interest in unconventional pets has exploded in recent years, and the UW–Madison school’s teaching hospital and students are keeping up with the trend. In practice, veterinarians can expect more and more contact with pet lizards, snakes, ferrets and tropical birds, so the school is readying the next generation for “special species” medicine.

Although Elmo, a 3-foot-long American alligator, wasn't in the mood for eating, he cooperatively gnawed on a plastic pipe while veterinarians searched for the cause of his malady.

Joanne Paul-Murphy, a clinical assistant professor at the school, estimates that the number of nontraditional species treated at the school’s teaching hospital has jumped by 400 to 500 percent over the past five years. “Certainly people are more intrigued than ever by nontraditional pets,” she says. “The numbers are really increasing among reptiles and birds, and they seem to go neck-and-neck as the most popular new pets.”

The school’s exotic-animal medicine program also has taken off in recent years. It now has a team of four faculty devoted to nontraditional animals, including Paul-Murphy, Keith Benson, Jan Ramer and James Morrisey, who was hired last fall. The school also has a required course for all third-year students on exotic-animal medicine.

Beginning in 1999, the school has plans to help its facility match the demand for nontraditional pet medicine. A $3.2 million renovation project for the teaching hospital’s small-animal medicine program will double the existing space and consolidate the treatment and housing areas. The renovation will help isolate these species from the noisy din of barking dogs and provide the specialized living conditions they require.

Although an academic major doesn’t exist, veterinary students are seizing the opportunity to hone a specialty in exotic-animal medicine. Katherine Lewandowski, a third-year student in the school, says the background can open doors in numerous fields beyond veterinary practice, including work with zoo animals and conserving threatened animals in the wild.

“Some students just have a real fascination with birds and reptiles, and they like the uniqueness of working with those species,” Lewandowski says. “Other people see it as a way to develop a professional niche for themselves.”

Lewandowski leads a student group called the Wildlife, Exotic and Zoo Animal Medicine club, which at 60 members is the largest special-interest club in the school. It organizes a professional conference every spring that brings in national experts on exotic species, and is highly regarded by practicing veterinarians around the Midwest.

Medical information on exotic species is improving as veterinarians get more basic research and case studies to draw from, says Benson, who has expertise in reptile medicine. “It’s becoming more like dog and cat medicine,” he says. “Caring for these animals is different, but doable. I always maintain that the average veterinarian is better at working with these species than they think.”

Frequently, Benson says people buy exotic pets with the assumption that they are low maintenance, and problems can be handled with a call to the pet store. Most exotic-pet owners don’t realize that veterinarians provide care for these animals. “People are just stunned sometimes that we actually work on lizards – that we take X-rays, do cultures and put them on medication,” he says.

In addition to seeing cases, the team answers an average of more than a dozen phone calls a day from practicing veterinarians around the state, many of whom need advice on a rare animal in their care. For tougher cases, clients are referred to UW–Madison’s teaching hospital from all over the state.

But veterinarians also see a down side to the exotic-pet trend. Many people get more than they bargained for when the pet grows to an unexpected size or requires special living environments. Benson says shelters are beginning to show up for constrictors, iguanas and larger tortoises that people have abandoned.

Paul-Murphy adds: “I don’t think some people realize the commitment they are making with reptiles. They look at it as a $10 pet, when in reality their living environments are much more expensive and need to be carefully recreated.”

Making pets out of wild animals is a greater dilemma. Paul-Murphy says she and most veterinarians adamantly oppose having species such as primates for pets. Yet a surprising number of pet primates are out there, and breeding services are still feeding the market. “These are our patients, and once they become pets they need to be cared for,” she says. “But philosophically, I know that it’s not always the best thing for the animal.”

Recent federal rules outlaw the possession or trade of any birds taken from the wild, and veterinarians continue to push for legislation that extends to other species, including reptiles and mammals, she says.

Animal conservation and protection is a central part of the group’s work. The four faculty consult regularly with the U.S. Wildlife Health Laboratory based in Madison, the Milwaukee County Zoo, and are on call year-round with the International Crane Foundation in Baraboo. Other collaborations have helped survey and monitor endangered species, such as trumpeter swans, black-footed ferrets and paddlefish.