31.12.69
Clad
in a white coat, teal scrubs and leather clogs, the doctor describes
the case to the group. He explains that 27-year-old Rosie had painful
periods and trouble conceiving. "She just wouldn't get up in the
morning, and she wasn't eating or drinking during her periods," he says.
After a sonogram and consultation, the medical team did what it could:
surgery to remove the uterine fibroid.
This patient, though, is
different from the hundreds of others the doc has treated: Rosie's a
130-pound orangutan at the Los Angeles Zoo.
If her case sounds
familiar, it's because animals and humans often have the same
afflictions. Some experts believe that increasing communication between
veterinarians and physicians might benefit all animals, even the human
ones. That's the idea behind Zoobiquity, a second-of-its-kind conference
held two weeks ago at UCLA and the Los Angeles Zoo.
Dr. Barbara
Natterson-Horowitz, who started the Zoobiquity movement and published a
book by the same name in June with science writer Kathryn Bowers, tells
the audience of nearly 200 veterinary and medical professionals that the
conference is "a living laboratory. Not only is this conference
interprofessional and interdisciplinary, it's also interspecies.
Source: LA Weekly (blog)