Exotic and Wildlife Medicine: Dolphin Husbandry

Dolphins are kept for a variety of reasons. It is important that they be kept in a way which is appropriate. Zoos, water animal parks, aquariums, private practices and more have all been known to keep dolphins. Training a dolphin to accept administration from a trainer is important so that proper health is maintained and monitored. One natural behavior of dolphins for instance, is that they hide sickness to prevent themselves as being viewed as vulnerable prey. Although useful in the wild, this makes husbandry a challenge and therefore training the dolphin to receive daily handling is important.

Dolphins should be handled daily and trained to receive a general physical. This may include looking over the teeth, mouth, tongue and head. Some places train their dolphins to allow gastric tubes down their throats into their stomach to obtain gastric samples. The daily handling may be an ideal time to tend to the animal, such as brushing its teeth. Brushing their teeth may be done often to ensure the dolphin is used to having its mouth and teeth handled. Dolphins should be trained to voluntarily “lay out” for blood extraction from a convenient tail fluke vein. This can help monitor them and ensure they are healthy as well as make things convenient for the veterinarian. Training them to accept ultrasound layouts is important for breeding female dolphins. Getting them to lay out has other benefits especially when the ventral side is up and can be easily visualized. This may aid in obtaining fecal samples, semen collection, obtaining heart rate, mammary milk collection, vaginal samples and more. Respiratory samples can be obtained from the blowhole. Training them to have desensitized blowhole is important for this. There are many nerves near the blowhole and they are often sensitive of it. When a dolphin is stressed, it may skew test results, therefore they should be trained to cooperate as smoothly as possible. Usually food is offered as the primary reward for compliant behavior.

Training and behavior is important. It is important to know some basics of dolphin behavior and personality. It is important to train the animal to receive shots and for processes such as urine collection. Asking a dolphin to “present flukes” for instance so they will turn around and lift up their two fins may be part of this process. This may help when training for handling, obtaining blood or checking the health of the fins.

Other husbandry techniques vary from training, medical, dietary and housing considerations. This may include include training the dolphin that keeps its head above water to allow the trainer to apply zinc oxide sunscreen. This provides protection when it is hot and the sun could damage them. This is an advantage they would have over wild dolphins who may get complications such as cancer from sun exposure. A sprinkler could also be installed to help keep the dolphin’s head damp. Dolphins are intelligent and need mental stimulation therefore their environment should be enriched to provide entertainment.