Atlanta traffic is stressful on its own; try it with an anesthetized orangutan hooked up to medical monitors in the back of a van while driving from downtown Atlanta to Sandy Springs for an emergency CT scan.
That’s the recent memory Dr. Sam Rivera, vice president of animal health at Zoo Atlanta, recalls when asked about his staff’s working conditions before the Rollins Animal Health Center opened in October.
The former facilities consisted of a 1,600-square-foot hospital built 40 years ago and related facilities in scattered locations — a separate quarantine area, disjointed offices and another space for medical records. For CT scans, Rivera had to transport fragile, sometimes dangerous, animals off-site to a partner facility. That meant only critical cases, not preventive ones, would warrant the trip.
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Those days are over now. The new 17,000-square-foot, state-of-the-art veterinary complex has its own CT scanner. The machine, which would cost about $1 million if purchased new, cost roughly a quarter million refurbished. Just a few weeks ago, Rivera, 56, of Canton, used it on one of the zoo’s most beloved gorillas, Kuchi, a 40-year-old female. There was no emergency and no need to brave Atlanta traffic. Riviera unloaded Kuchi at the center’s backdoor and used the imaging machine to aid him in his treatment of her arthritis and dental health.
“Now, not only do we avoid taking those sensitive, sick, dangerous animals out of the zoo, but we can provide that service to more animals. CTs are far better than X-rays. So we can do that here now,” said Rivera…