Furries, Feathers, and Scutes

Today vet school treated us to something extra special! As part of our Avian, Fish, and Exotic Animal Diseases class, we had an exotics handling lab. Today's critters included 4 guinea pigs (3 babies that were about 5 days old!), several red-footed tortoises, an 85 lb sulcata tortoise, and a beautiful parrot. Obviously my favorite part was playing with the guinea pigs! I miss my Penny! :( They were so sweet though and very collected during the whole event despite the fact that 70 eager vet students wanted to cuddle them, listen to their hearts, open their mouths, and palpate them. Can you tell they live with a our professors?

The tortoises ranged in size from small plate to dinner plate sized. They were also very cool about us poking and prodding them. Lucky for them, the physical exam didn't really go much farther than us examining them from the outside and using our eyes.

Dozer is one of our professor's pets. He LOVES to have his giant shell scratched and will wiggle just like your dog does when he's getting a good back scratch! He loves to just cruise around the room looking for the exit, ignoring everything in his path. He'll knock chairs out of the way, step on people's toes, and basically do whatever he wants.

And lastly, we got to hold Major. She also belonged to my professor as a pet. She was so gentle and calm with us! You can imagine the amount of noise a room containing 70 people has. She "stepped up" on command, minded her manners, didn't go after any jewelry, and didn't try to bite or peck us! Bird beaks definitely make me nervous!