Preventing medicine exotics medicine

Question 1

What are different strategies of preventative medicine?

Answer 1

• Husbandry/diet review and advice
• Routine health checks
• Vaccination
• Parasite control
• Disease testing and quarantine
• Surgical neuter
• Hormonal implants – chemical neuter
• Routine procedures – beak, nails and wing clips

Question 2

What is husbandry review?

Answer 2

• Used with new patients

Routinely check at each visit:
◦ Current diet provided
◦ Any dietary supplements used
◦ Any new animals in the household
◦ Reptiles – Temperature, Humidity, UV-B bulb replacement, etc
◦ Birds – cage location, time spent outside cage, toys, etc
◦ Mammals – substrate, toys, exercise, social interactions
◦ Fish – Temperature, Water parameters (ideally test a water sample), etc

Question 3

What is husbandry advice?

Answer 3

• Verbal
• Client handouts
• Directing owners to reliable sources of information – careful!
  ◦ Websites
  ◦ Books and magazines
  ◦ Organizations

Question 4

What would you vaccinate rabbits against?

Answer 4

• Myxomatosis
• Viral haemorrhagic disease (VHD) 1+2
• yearly boosters

Question 5

What should you vaccinate ferrets against?

Answer 5

• Distemper - yearly boosters
• Rabies - boosters every 18months

Question 6

What can happen to ferrets with vaccine reactions?

Answer 6

Anaphylactic reactions (5-25 min after vaccine):
◦ Hyperaemia, vomiting, hypersalivation; occasionally diarrhoea
◦ More severe cases dyspnoea + cyanosis
◦ Independent of previous vaccination history
◦ Can happen with any vaccine

Question 7

How can you prevent vaccine reactions in ferrets?

Answer 7

◦ Careful selection of vaccine
◦ Reconstitute vaccine with sterile water/saline
◦ Diphenhydramine 2mg/kg PO, SC 15-30 min before vaccine
◦ Give Distemper and Rabies vaccines 3-4 weeks apart
◦ Monitor ferrets 20-30 min post-vaccination

Question 8

How can you treat vaccine reactions in ferrets?

Answer 8

◦ Adrenaline 0.01-0.02mg/kg IV, IM, IT
◦ Diphenhydramine 0.5-2mg/kg IM, IV, PO TID-BID
◦ Dexamethasone 0.25-1mg/kg IV or Prednisolone 5-10mg/kg IV
◦ Supportive care: Supply O2, IVFT, etc

Question 9

What would you vaccinate racoon-dog, foxes?

Answer 9

• Distemper

Question 10

What would you vaccinate racoon + coati against?

Answer 10

• Distemper
• Panleucopaenia

Question 11

What would you vaccinate meerkat for?

Answer 11

• Distemper

Question 12

What would you vaccinate pigeons for?

Answer 12

• Avian pox
• Paramyxovirus

Question 13

What would you vaccinate canaries for?

Answer 13

• Avian pox

Question 14

What would you vaccinate poultry, turkeys, ducks, geese?

Answer 14

• Same as invaccination
• Newcastle
  *mareks
  *IBD
  *Egg drop syndrome
  *AE
  *ILT
• Salmonella
• Infectious bronchitis
• Cocci

Question 15

What are different strategies for parasite control?

Answer 15

1. Adequate husbandry – patient’s immune system
2. Regular cleaning/hygiene – reduce environmental parasite load
3. Routine faecal testing – early infection detection; 1st consult, then every 6-12 months
4. Preventive worming/ectoparasiticides – on a case-by-case basis

Question 16

What animals are oxyurids (pinworms) found?

Answer 16

• Reptiles
• Rabbits
• Occasional rodents
• increased in immunosuppressed patients
• asses patient, environment + egg count before dispensing medication (usually commensal)

Question 17

In what animals are ciliates commensal / low pathogenicity?

Answer 17

• Tortoises
• Herbivore lizards
• significant in any other species

Question 18

What are common option for wormers in exotics?

Answer 18

• Praziquantel - tapeworms - oral / injectable / spot-ons
• Oxfendazole - nematodes - oral
• Fenbendazole - oral - (can cause toxicity + immunosuppression)
• Ivermectin - nematodes - injectable / oral / spot-ons

Question 19

What are ivermectins toxic to?

Answer 19

• Chelonias
• Skunks
• Some snake species

Question 20

What can be used for external parasite control?

Answer 20

• Fleas = imidaclopride (DO NOT use Lufenuron in rabbits / rodents)
• Flystrike = cyromazine
• Lice / mites = Ivermectin
• Feather lice = permethrin powder / sprays

Question 21

What can be used to prevent heartworm in ferrets?

Answer 21

• Moxidectin applied monthly

Question 22

How should you quarantine birds and reptiles?

Answer 22

• For breeders - medium / large collectors
• Ideally 2 months
• Separate facilities and objects
• 2x faecal testing (Start + end of quarantine)
• Species specific disease testing

Question 23

What would you look for with PCR testing in Psittacines?

Answer 23

• Bornavirus
• Circovirus / PBFD
• +/- Polymavirus
• +/- Chlamydophila psittaci

Question 24

What would you look for with PCR testing in snakes?

Answer 24

◦ Arenavirus/IBD
◦ Ferlavirus/Paramyxovirus
◦ Reovirus
◦ Adenovirus

• Faecal testing = cryptosporidium

Question 25

What animals are neutering routines carried out in?

Answer 25

• Rabbits
• Male guinea pigs
• Male rats

Question 26

What are main benefits of rabbits spays?

Answer 26

• Population control
• Reduces unwanted behaviours
• Prevent uterine neoplasia

Question 27

Why would you not neuter ferrets?

Answer 27

• Increased risk of adrenal gland disease

Question 28

What happens to female ferrets if not mated?

Answer 28

• Hyperoestrogenism = bone marrow suppression + aplastic anaemia

Question 29

What do the adrenal glands do in ferrets?

Answer 29

• Produce mostly androgens
• Corticosteroids produced diffusely in several other tissues
• Affected by circadian rhythms / photoperiod
• Gonads provide negative feedback to hypothalamus-hypophysis, hence suppressing adrenal function - if no gonads = negative feedback disappears

Question 30

How can you neuter male ferrets?

Answer 30

• Deslorelin
• Apply every 18-24 months
• Needs brief GA

Question 31

What are other routine procedures of birds, mammals + reptiles?

Answer 31

• Birds =
• nail clipping / burring
• beak burring / corrections
• Wing clipping - clip 1ary/ 2ary flight feathers
• ID chip
• Mammals =
• nail clipping
• ID chip (rabbits + carnivores)
• Reptiles
• Nail burring
• ID Chip (++tortoises)
• Beak burr in chelonias