X-raying a snake, deworming a tortoise, inspecting a gecko’s poo – it’s all in a day’s work for Fife Exotic Vets director Dr Kevin Eatwell.
Kevin is the vet for Fife Zoo and has recently opened his own practice in the grounds of the attraction near Ladybank.
While most vets spend their days attending to dogs and cats or horses and cows Kevin’s more likely to be treating a bearded dragon, an axolotl or a tarantula.
What’s it like tending to all creatures great and small, all animals weird and wonderful? I went along to Fife Exotic Vets to find out.
Among Kevin’s patients as I visit is tiny Egyptian tortoise Bob who is in to be dewormed.
This critically endangered species is one of the smallest types of tortoise, with males growing to only four inches.
Aged 20, Bob is a relative youth, his life expectancy 70 to 100 years.
He is dwarfed by his living companion, Lola, a Tunisian spur-thighed tortoise who has accompanied him.
Bob the tiny tortoise is dewormed
Kevin, 53, explains: “Bob gave us a poo sample which we checked the other day and he has parasites.
“He’s come in today so we can give him a liquid dewormer.
“We’re treating Lola as well because if one has worms everyone could have worms.
“We’ll test his poo afterwards to make sure he’s negative.”
Also in Kevin’s surgery is mini lop cross, Wilbur. The rescue rabbit recently joined Sarah Scobie’s four other rabbits.
As three of Sarah’s rabbits are female Wilbur had been castrated and she is bringing him back for a check-up.
“He’s healed my heart,” Sarah tells us. “He is just the most lovable thing.”
Animal lover Sarah, who runs a dog boarding business in Auchtermuchty, had recently lost another rabbit Thumper.
Kevin also looks after her parakeet Rio.
He explains: “For rabbits, neutering is recommended as routine. They like to be in bonded pairs and mixing together and you don’t want them to breed.
A snake with a tumour
“So we want to make sure Wilbur’s settled, happy, integrated with the group as quickly as possible.”
Wilbur is currently living in a dog crate in Sarah’s bunny room. But Kevin gives him the all-clear to join the rest of the brood.
“His surgical wound has pretty much all healed and he’s looking good,” he says.
But some inspections find more serious ailments.
An x-ray Kevin shows us of a corn snake he treated reveals a tumour.
“This snake had a lump on the back of its neck.”
The snake was anaesthetised to allow the x-ray to be taken, with a breathing tube inserted into its windpipe.
“We needed the snake to be really still so we could get a picture of the lump. The swelling here has damaged the spine.”
The next image he shows us is of a guinea pig with ureteral stones.
“This guinea pig has got some stones that are basically stuck between the kidney and the bladder, causing pain and discomfort.”
Next we head over to the zoo enclosures where Kevin performs regular check-ups on animals including meerkats, lemurs, monkeys, armadillos and zebras.
A carrot lures porcupine Travis in close enough for Kevin to check his quills and have a look in his mouth.
Coaxing a prickly patient with carrot
“All the animals at the zoo need routine health checks,” Kevin explains. “Their body weight and body condition is carefully monitored to make sure they are getting enough food or that they aren’t getting overweight.
“Then there’s a visual inspection looking at how they are moving, breathing, which is what I’m doing now. We’ll physically examine those that are happy for us to do that, distracting them with food.
“Some need to be anaesthetised or sedated for more detailed examinations.
“You’re reducing the stress as much as you can when you are treating them.”
Contrary to common belief, zoo director Michael Knight tells us, porcupines like Travis don’t shoot their quills when threatened.
The quills on top are simply for bravado, puffing up to make it look big, he says. It’s the sharp ones on its rear you need to be wary of.
“They’re more likely to run away if they feel threatened,” he says. “But if they do decide to stand their ground they make themselves big and make a lot of noise, stamping their feet, chattering their teeth, rattling their quills. Then if that doesn’t work they will charge backwards.”
Has Kevin ever been injured by the animals he treats? Yes, he admits, but more frequently by cattle than those animals people would regard as dangerous.
“Dealing with venomous snakes there are obviously very clear danger points,” he says. “But because we know how snakes behave and how to handle them the risk factor drops.
“There are risks but they are minimised because you put all the measures in place and their response is predictable.
‘It’s not a horse. Treat it like a zebra and you’re fine’
“You don’t go to a zebra assuming it’s not going to try to kick you or run away. It’s not a horse, it’s a zebra. So you treat it like a zebra and you’re fine.”
He and his colleagues at Fife Exotic Vets have their own exotic pets, and have combined experience of more than 100 years in treating animals.
Kevin himself has two tortoises and 200 budgies.
“I’ve had birds and reptiles since I was a small child,” he says.
“We’ve kept and bred these species ourselves so we have good insight into the husbandry side, how you handle and deal with them from a behavioural point of view, that maybe you don’t get in other clinics.
“Others might say, ‘oh, it’s a snake, we don’t deal with snakes’. We know everything about snakes.”
Kevin started in mixed practice after graduating as a vet in 1995.
Gorillas and giant tortoises
Since specialising with exotic animals he has worked with the likes of Bristol Zoo, where his patients included gorillas.
At Paignton Zoo his charges included giant tortoises. (“That was fun trying to work out how to get a 180kg tortoise to sit still for surgery!)
He headed the exotics department at the Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Medicine at Edinburgh University.
Since 2017, Kevin, who lives in the Borders, has been the vet for Fife Zoo.
In November he opened his practice within the zoo grounds, allowing him to be on hand for the zoo animals while welcoming his own clients.
Fife Exotic Vets is said to be Scotland’s only round-the-clock clinic dedicated to exotic animals.
His team includes fellow exotics vet Dr Shona Dury and exotics vet nurses Monika Nawrocka, Beth Singer and Erika Feilberg.
“We all want to provide the best service we can for the animals we love, which is exotic animals.
“From rabbits all the way through to reptiles, birds, fish, amphibians, zoo animals, we do all of them.
“We see guinea pigs, other rodents, ferrets, birds like parrots, macaws, cockatoos.
“We see lots of snakes, hognose snakes, pythons, corn snakes, right through to the larger snakes like Burmese pythons.
“Lots of lizards, from bearded dragons and chameleons to some larger species of lizards, and, of course, tortoises. We’ve had frogs, amphibians, axolotls, fish, invertebrates.
“We literally do everything and we adore them all!”
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