A Whale of a Patient
How
do you give a five-ton killer whale a checkup? Do you ask
her to open wide and say “ahhh”?
Believe it or not, that’s exactly what the veterinarian does with Vigga, a killer whale at Marine World Africa USA. Here, at this animal park in Vallejo, California, marine mammal trainers have taught Vigga to do an amazing series of things that help the vet keep her healthy.
It can be difficult to tell when an animal is sick. In the wild, an animal that acts sick would become an easy target for predators. To stay alive, wild animals usually hide any symptoms of illness as long as possible.
But in a zoo or animal park, this behavior makes the job of caring for animals difficult. If an animal does become ill, it has a greater chance of recovering if the disease is found and treated early.
Taking proper care of the health of a killer whale would be almost impossible without the whale’s cooperation. The animal is simply too large and too strong to be restrained for a physical exam or any medical treatments. Instead, the trainers have earned Vigga’s trust and taught her that a visit from the vet is nothing to be afraid of.
Big
Checkups
Most
of the medical work done on the whale is aimed at preventing
illness. By watching the whale closely, the veterinarian
can find early signs of disease. Once a week Marine World’s
veterinarian, Dr. Laurie Gage, gives Vigga a routine checkup.
Dr. Gage begins by checking the inside of the whale’s mouth. She looks to see that the gums, teeth, and tongue are healthy. Next, Dr. Gage listens to the whale’s breathing. Whales can hold their breath for a long time, so the trainer has taught Vigga to take a breath when asked.
Dr.
Gage holds a special dish over Vigga’s blowhole to
catch a sample of any bacteria that might be living in the
whale’s airways. The dish contains a food that bacteria
can live and grow on. Dr. Gage will take the dish back to
the veterinary clinic and watch for the growth of any harmful
bacteria.
Dr. Gage also listens to Vigga’s heart with a stethoscope. She must listen carefully to be able to hear the heartbeat through the whale’s thick layer of fat, which is called blubber. A killer whale’s heart beats much slower than ours do, only about thirty beats a minute compared to seventy for a healthy adult human.
Taking
Blood
Every few months, a blood sample is taken from each of the
whales. These samples are important because they can tell
the vet a great deal about the animals’ health. No
one likes getting stuck with a needle, so it’s amazing
to see Vigga stretch out and hold her tail flukes still
while Dr. Gage draws blood into a syringe!
Why
doesn’t Vigga swim away when she feels the needle go
in? Her trainers 
worked
with her for a long time to get to this point.
First, Vigga was taught to lie still with her flukes out of the water. Next, the trainers pressed on her flukes with their fingernails. This process is called “desensitizing.” At first, Vigga would swim away when they did this. It felt uncomfortable to her, but it didn’t really hurt. Over time, she learned to ignore it.
Whenever she would remain still, she was rewarded with fish and scratches. The long months of training finally paid off when Dr. Gage was able to insert a needle and take blood. Many human patients don’t cooperate as well as Vigga does!
If the results of any of the veterinarian’s tests show that Vigga may be getting sick, Dr. Gage might prescribe some medicine, which is given to Vigga in a fish. But usually the tests confirm that Vigga is in the best of health and that she’s a whale of a great patient.
