Fiction: Zoo

I quickly go over what I need to do to tend to the sheep, goats and pigs at the Cool Zoo Petting Zoo. I realize that according to the pharmacology, although none of the animals need any prescription drugs or over the counter drugs. Since there is no drug regimen, I decide I should at least take vitals and ensure the animals are healthy. I take measurements of their heart rate, respiration, weight and temperature. I take the temperature rectally and discover one of the pigs is running a fever at 104 F.

The pig seems normal in all other aspects. I quarantine, or separate this pig from the others since it may be ill and could pass along the illness to the other pigs. I alert my supervisor and I begin treatment on the pig. Since I wasn’t sure if he was refusing feed, I tested his appetite and he didn’t seem very interested in food. Concerned it is pig pneumonia, I administer antibiotics to the ham muscle through intramuscular injection. I administer 4cc of the antibiotics q12h, or every twelve hours. I clear out the pig’s anal glands and I am pleased to find them normal and the excretion is normal as well. To be thorough, I also check the anal glands on the goats and pigs. The other animals seem to have good constitutions.

I notice another pig problem though. One of the other pigs is practicing coprophagy, which means he is running around eating the feces of the other animals. I separate him and feed him separately, giving him some B12, since it is usually a sign of deficiency. I administer the B12 orally.

One of the Angora goats is dull and needs to be cleaned up, so I spend some time getting her clean and ready to be petted. The black self sheep is looking a little lonely so I administer a healthy dose of love and encourage her to wander back to the sheep herd which got lost in a corner of the paddock between two parts of the fence. After backing up the sheep and leading them on to a more reasonable grazing area, I give them all a quick once-over to make sure they are clean. I notice there are mongrels and purebred among the sheep, goats and pigs. One of the goats is ticked. The animals are all very docile and easy to handle.