How zoo medicine is a lot like small- and large-animal practice

Jb Minter, DVM, MS, DACZM, director of Animal Health at the North Carolina Zoo, told dvm360 in an interview, about the similar principles veterinary professionals can apply to zoological medicine. Equine medicine can be a very similar medicine for a rhinoceros and feline medicine can be similar for a lion or tiger.

Below is a partial transcript.

Jb Minter, DVM, MS, DACZM: The word zoological medicine scares a lot of veterinarians because they say, 'Well, I don't know anything about any of those animals.' And I would turn that on its head and say, 'Yes, you do. You know a lot more than what you think you do.' There are some intricacies and nuances that you may not know, but myself and a small- and large-animal [practice], and we have the same foundational veterinary knowledge, those are the same tools that I'm utilizing.

That's the great thing about veterinary medicines, we all have a very, very broad understanding of anatomy, physiology, pathology, [and] how to use those disciplines to diagnose and treat health issues in the animals that we treat.