Why Your Petting Zoo Needs a Large-Animal Hospital
Posted on: 10 August 2017
Owning and operating a petting zoo seems like a lot of fun. However, you have to address the health needs of many of the large and exotic animals in your petting zoo. Sure, they could see a regular veterinarian, but chances are your regular veterinarian has never treated bears, gorillas, tigers, and giraffes before. What you need is a large-animal hospital. Here are a few reasons why having one would be beneficial:
Large-Animal Hospitals Have Specialists on Staff
Large-animal hospitals make it their business to focus on the needs of bigger animals. This includes everything from cows and horses to elephants and gorillas. The veterinarians they have on staff have also chosen to specialize in large-animal care, which means that your petting-zoo animals will have the most knowledgeable vets taking care of them.
Some Large-Animal Hospitals Have Appropriate Large-Animal Ambulances
In the event that one of your large and exotic animals has an accident that leaves it in severe pain, you are going to need a very quick way to get it to the hospital. Some large-animal hospitals have their own ambulances, which are fully equipped to sedate these animals and treat them en route to the animal hospital. This could very well save the life of an animal that is already in a critical state by the time the animal ambulance arrives.
The Hospital Has Rooms for Each Type of Large Animal
For obvious reasons, you would want to engage the help of a large-animal hospital that keeps predatory animals and prey animals separate. At the hospital, there are lots of rooms and pens to hold animals safely, and to keep the predatory animals away from the animals that might otherwise be food. Staff do everything possible to keep the animals and people in the hospital safe.
Hospitals Provide "House" Calls
Some large-animal hospitals will also provide "house" calls to your petting zoo. This is fairly common in bigger cities where other larger zoos exist. Rather than remove the animals from their pens or cages, the vet sedates the animals with a dart gun and then performs the exam or diagnosis on the animal in question. If the animal shares a pen or cage with others, your staff will have to find a way to separate the possibly sick or obviously injured animal from the rest. Then the visiting large-animal vet can do whatever needs to be done in safety.
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