There is a place where a dentally-deficient groundhog gets braces and an arthritic giraffe tries acupuncture – and it’s not on the Cartoon Network.

When the Brookfield Zoo’s tenants show signs of wear, their keepers are often called on to find creative solutions.

“The life expectancy of animals in a zoo setting, where their food and housing is provided for them, is a lot longer than it is in the wild,” said Tom Meehan, Brookfield Zoo’s chief veterinarian.

Advances in health care for zoo animals mean that many more are reaching a ripe old age, replete with old-age staples such as arthritis and hip trouble.

Meehan is one of four staff vets responsible for keeping all of the zoo’s members, young and old, in healthy working order – a challenge that sometimes requires a little outside help.

“Clinical vets are sort of the most general of general practitioners,” Meehan said. “You’re dealing with every different system – the GI tract, the eyes, ears, whatever – of 450 different species.”

Though most of Meehan’s time is spent on preventive measures - administering vaccines and conducting routine blood tests - part of his job entails designing custom care for unique medical cases. Surgeries often require the help of specialists and sometimes require consultation with anatomy books or skeletons from the Field Museum.

When Makonnen, an African lion, needed a root canal last summer, Meehan called on a veterinary dentist from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

When Aussie, a burly male polar bear, needed surgery to remove a painful umbilical hernia in 2005, the ordeal required a forklift to move him, carpenters to build an operating table large enough to hold him and an equine surgeon to operate on him. Because a horse’s organs are similar in size to a polar bear’s, an equine specialist was deemed the best fit.

When Stormy the groundhog's bottom incisors grew in crooked and left him unable to chew, Meehan fitted him for braces. And when Jewel, an arthritic giraffe in her 20’s, proved unresponsive to medicine, the zoo called in an acupuncturist.

“According to the keepers, it did seem to help,” Meehan said.

And seeming to help is sometimes the most scientific assessment the vets are likely to get in such unusual cases. The animals often attempt to hide their injuries from the doctors, symptomatic of their survival instinct, which discourages them from showing signs of weakness.

It’s the keepers who are usually the first to identify a health issue.

The Brookfield Zoo’s 106 keepers are as innovative as the veterinarians. The close bonds they forge with the animals in their care often allow them to recognize even slight behavioral changes.

The keepers train the animals to present their paws or open their mouths on command, enabling smoother health exams. They also train them to accept injections, a measure that allows for easier anesthetizing before surgery.

“It’s less stressful for them than being shot with a tranquilizer gun,” said Tim Sullivan, the Brookfield Zoo’s behavioral and husbandry manager. “And it’s less stressful for the animals around them, too.”

Sullivan takes a holistic approach to the animal’s health, spending a significant amount of his time designing enrichment programs that keep them stimulated and let them express some of their natural instincts and behaviors.

For the primates, Sullivan developed a special feeding tray with a mesh cover. He hides the nuts and raisins among wood shavings and leaves in the tray, forcing the primates to pick for them through the mesh, much as they would forage on a forest floor.

But some are simply too smart.

“We hid the gorillas’ food in a huge pile of wood shavings, but instead of digging through it, they grabbed handfuls at a time and blew at it,” Sullivan laughed. “They figured out the food was heavier than the wood, and the wood would blow right off and leave the food in their hands.” 

Sullivan and the keepers he manages continuously change the enrichment programs to keep the animals from becoming bored.

“Zoo animals have much more leisure time than wild animals,” he said.

Many of the animal enrichment programs are long-term projects that require a trial period and an approval chain that includes Sullivan, the keepers, the veterinarians and sometimes a nutritionist. But one-time events entertain them as well.

During a recent Cinco de Mayo celebration, the bears and the big cats received food-filled piñatas in their habitats, just for fun. And two years ago, in the heat of August, the polar bears got a special treat with a two-inch dusting of snow.

“I’d do that every day if it was less expensive,” said Sullivan, who takes obvious pleasure in programs that delight the animals.

Delighting humans is an equally important part of his job, and Sullivan is constantly working on new exhibits to keep visitors from getting bored.

“We’re very selfish as a species,” he said. “You can watch as much Animal Planet as you want, but if you don’t have a connection with the animals, you’re much less likely to be motivated to buy a hybrid car or do any of those other things that promote conservation.”

For the upcoming Great Wild North exhibit, which will house polar bears and buffalo, Sullivan is brainstorming with exhibit designers and experts from other zoos. He also consulted with a Native American who is knowledgeable about wild buffalo.
 
Sullivan and Meehan strive to stay abreast of the latest zoo research as the growing field continues to present ways to improve the animals’ quality of life.

“The expectation in the field of zoo animal medicine has [been] raised to the point where we’re expected to do more with more different species,” Meehan said. “We’ve really broadened the breadth and the depth of what we do.”