Veterinary

Initial training is the same as that for domestic veterinary surgeons, with studies at one of the four French veterinary schools (Alfort, Lyon, Nantes and Toulouse). 

In France, although the schools now offer courses on NACs (new companion animals), there are still very few on wild species. Additional training is therefore mainly provided through placements with experienced practitioners and attendance at national and international conferences on zoological medicine. 

Finally, there is now a European College of Zoological Medicine, which trains specialists in this field. There are, however, only a limited number of job opportunities for vets working in zoos.

As far as I'm concerned, it's a vocation that has driven me since childhood. A passion for the living world, the desire to feel useful, to see animals live on a daily basis and contribute to their well-being, to act directly and indirectly for the conservation of species... And teamwork, which is really at the heart of our profession.

Our initial training teaches us to adopt a clinical approach that is applicable to all species, even if we then have to understand the specific characteristics of each one. 

You can't treat a giraffe and a piranha in the same way! So there's no mystery to it: you have to constantly challenge yourself, learn from the experience of your peers, research the literature, attend conferences on zoological medicine... 

You learn every day in this profession. And it's also essential to pass on our experience to others through scientific publications, training young vets, etc.

We are fortunate to work in a zoo with a very strong scientific vocation, as part of the Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle. There have always been vets who, generation after generation since 1934, have improved the working conditions, the equipment in the clinic and the expertise of the team. 

The renovation of the zoo and its reopening in 2014 were a great opportunity to completely renovate the clinic: we now have a large 130 m² building dedicated to the care and hospitalisation of animals (including the surgery room visible to the public), as well as a quarantine area for receiving new animals and a separate autopsy room. 

We have state-of-the-art equipment: digital radiology, high-quality ultrasound, resuscitation and anaesthesia monitoring equipment, medical analysis equipment, surgical laser, etc. All our equipment is transportable, so we can go to the bedside of a large animal that we cannot transport to the clinic: rhinoceros, giraffe, etc.

We are three vets, including a resident who is currently doing her specialisation for the European College, and we are helped by two veterinary assistants (our "nurses"). 

The clinic is open 7 days a week, all year round. We carry out most of the care and prophylaxis operations ourselves, but some special cases require us to call in outside specialists: for example, to remove a tooth from the jaguar Aramis, a specialist dentist came to the zoo; for abdominal surgery on a zebra, we took the animal to the École Vétérinaire to be treated by equine surgeons...

Professional associations have existed for several decades, at French, European and international level. They organise forums for exchange, as well as annual conferences. This is an environment where the sharing of experience and collaboration are truly paramount.

We plan certain medical interventions in advance, and then adapt to the day's emergencies. We arrive at around 8 o'clock in the morning and review the planned operations with the chief animal keeper. He then goes "on tour", collecting all the observations made by the carers about the state of health of their animals (lameness, births, etc.) and gives us feedback. We then finalise the organisation of the day, prioritising the most urgent and time-consuming interventions.

It's extremely varied: the most classic are wound care, dressings and sutures (baboons are good 'customers'!), routine examinations such as when an animal arrives or leaves, and pregnancy monitoring. 

Exceptional treatments include anaesthesia for mega-herbivores such as rhinoceroses and giraffes. These operations involve a huge number of people and require a great deal of organisation and team coordination beforehand.

Yes, we're learning every day. It's a discipline in which there's still a lot to discover. 

What's more, it's extremely important in our profession to take into account not only an animal's medical condition, but also its psychological state: sometimes the stress of being separated from its group for the duration of a treatment, for a social animal, will be worse than letting a small wound heal on its own. 

We pay a great deal of attention to the well-being of our boarders, and listen carefully to the carers, who are the ones who know best the particular characteristics and personality of each animal.