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Dental Care Continued

Veterinary Medicine still and we want to make sure they are pain-free and stress-free
when we are doing medical procedures,” said Chinnadurai.
“The animal health team knows about an animal’s dental health He is a rarity in the zoo and aquarium world—a board-certified
a couple of different ways,” said Chinnadurai. “We rely on animal specialist in zoological medicine, veterinary anesthesiology,
care specialists for input on how an animal is eating and what and animal welfare. “We feel that with appropriate planning,
it’s eating, so we know when we need to take a closer look.” monitoring, and attention, anesthesia can be safe.” During the
But some animals are really good at masking signs of dental previous year, Brookfield Zoo veterinarians safely performed
disease, he said. “We may catch it on a routine preventative 770 physical examinations on anesthetized animals.
health examination. The majority of animals have routine A full oral examination of an animal often includes a
full examinations done on a recurring basis and during diagnostic imaging study by X-ray, ultrasound, or computerized
those exams, we’ll check a number of things very closely. tomography (CT) scan. X-rays are frequently used for large-
One of those things is their teeth, their oral health.” mouthed animals, said Chinnadurai. Small-mouthed animals—
The vast majority of these examinations are performed while such as rabbits, rodents, kangaroos, and wallabies—receive CT
the animal is under anesthesia. “The animals aren’t able to sit scans. “We can see the entirety of the whole head,” he said.

Below: Male grey seal, Kiinaq, was trained to voluntarily open his mouth
for an oral exam when asked to do so by an animal care specialist.

30 GATEWAYS | DENTAL HEALTH