Veterinarians at Chicago's Brookfield Zoo discovered Jessi the aardvark has a full set of 20 healthy teeth, thanks to the zoo's newly acquired CT scanner, according to news reports.
In the past, the Brookfield Zoo would take animals to Loyola University Medical Center to undergo CT scans, but Loyola recently donated the CT scanner to the zoo and it was installed through a gift from the Aurelio Caccomo Family Foundation.
Brookfield Zoo is the second zoo in the U.S. to own an onsite CT scanner and, with its recent adoption of digital radiography, is the only zoo animal hospital in North America to combine digital radiology and CT technology in the same facility.
"Having the CT scanner onsite allows us to provide high-quality animal care in a quick and efficient manner," Dr. Michael Adkesson, a veterinarian for the Chicago Zoological Society, stated in a press release. "With this new addition to our imaging suite, we are able to conduct more advanced diagnostic testing and perform highly involved procedures with accuracy and ease."
Jessi, the 6-year-old, 100-lb female aardvark, was anesthetized and underwent the 3D examination in the zoo's Aurelio Caccomo Imaging Suite.
 |
| Zoo veterinarians load Bernard, a 26-year-old aardvark, into the CT scanner. Image courtesy of Brookfield Zoo. |
With aardvarks, less than an inch separates their upper and lower jaws when their mouths are wide open. Dental exams are impossible because their teeth are deeply recessed in their long, pointy snouts.
"Even with x-rays we don't see the surfaces and roots of the aardvark's teeth," Dr. Adkesson told the Chicago Tribune. CT gives veterinarians a perfect 3D look, he added.
Since December, the zoo has used the CT scanner to image many patients, from a Mexican gray wolf to a ferret. In the cases of Bernaard, a 26-year-old aardvark that has had issues of tooth decay, and Ruby, an 11-year-old goat, "the images from the CT scanner helped us provide better treatment for their medical problems, by making corrective surgery faster, more accurate, and lower-risk," Dr. Adkesson said in the release.
Tooth decay is a common problem in older zoo aardvarks, according to Dr. Adkesson. In order to watch for the onset of dental problems in aging aardvarks, the CT images of young, healthy teeth will be valuable in the future, he said.
Copyright © 2010 DrBicuspid.com
