Today we had a rather prickly patient. Blondie the cape crested porcupine came by for a check-up. The keepers had noticed she seemed to be losing her sight, and with Blondie being an albino this is a very normal side effect of having no pigmentation. Being albino means a complete or partial absence of pigment in [...]

This week we had another unusual patient in the vet department. Bonito the Giant Anteater stopped by to have a general health check and a few x-rays. He is an old chap, and we suspected he, as other elderly patients do, had back problems as he has appeared stiff some mornings. We were lucky to [...]

This week we’ve had a pygmy goat and a colobus monkey visit the vet department! Widget, the pygmy goat came in today with Rob his keeper, to have his horns trimmed. He is a young goat, only 4 years old, and he was disbudded (had his horns permanently removed) before he came to the zoo [...]

  Today the vets were health checking all the flamingos. This is an event that takes place twice a year and usually correlates with the move of the flamingos from their summer pond to their winter house or vice versa. It is not surprising that Flamingos do not like the winter we get in this country [...]

De-worming is a procedure most pet owners are familiar with, but did you know that ZSL London and Whipsnade Zoos de-worm many of their animals on regular basis? This week the Reptile Section’s quarantine area was visited by Heather the veterinary Nurse and she gave de-worming treatments to three collared tree lizard (Plica plica) and [...]

This week we performed more pre-export health checks. This time they were on a significantly smaller species than last week; three meerkats. These juvenile meerkats were born here in ZSL London Zoo and have now reached an age where they can leave their family group. In the wild they would often stay within their family [...]