Ask Dr. Doug Pernikoff

Dr. Doug Pernikoff

"My work is to serve as a veterinarian for wild animals around the world. I help field biologists in their research, and I invent special medical equipment that is rugged and portable enough to carry through rain forests and deserts. Finally, I try to make sure that zoos and ranches around the world take good care of their animals' health."

I am excited to be able to introduce my science and interests to children anywhere, anytime.

E-mail your questions about his work with wild animals and veterinary medicine to "Dr. Doug" by clicking on his name.

Among other projects "Dr. Doug" works with The Wild Ones parent organization WPTI.

Question:

Dr. Doug, don't you worry about your patients transmitting diseases to you?

Answer:

I get asked about this a lot. No, it is not something I worry about, because viruses are very species specific. If I am going to be concerned, it would be first from other human sources. We worry so much about introduced diseases from imported animals, but we allow humans to cross geographic borders without a quarantine. We mix freely with new human imports all the time. Those are the folks that are most likely to spread disease to us, as *like* species. Certainly, there are legitimate human zoonotic concerns, but again, I think we disregard the real risk of human to human transfer of disease.

Vet Notes

Captive animals require special care. This year I had some interesting cases that were treated at HUMAN healthcare facilities.

1. Bridgette, an adult female chimpanzee with acute abdominal pain, inappetance-fading quickly. I set up a full examination at a local human hospital. We had the support and assistance from an anesthesiologist, 2 surgeons, 1 ultrasonographer and 1 radiologist, several ICU specialists, 1 pathologist and all the appropriate nursing support. All for free and all excited to help.

2. Buckwheat was an 8 month old male chimp I saw on emergency for respiratory distress. We first sent him to his local hospital. They took him into the human respiratory ward as an emergency admission, and he was correctly stabilized. Then, transported to me in St. Louis, about 3 hours away. I first enlisted the local Children's Hospital staff to assist me in his continued stabilization. I took him through the back door of my pediatric allergists office, who performed an examination and allergy testing. We determined the animal to be an allergic asthmatic, sensitive to certain milk proteins. We continued our workup at a human flouroscopy lab to make sure he did not have a possible anatomical problem affecting his esophagus. Buckwheat was trained to use a pediatric nebulizer and has been back to the allergist two more times since then.

3. I worked up an older female, white-handed gibbon from Grant's Farm who had acute onset of neurological disease. We had the run of a new multimillion dollar human research facility and clinical MRI facility. We also had a neuroradiologist interpreting our MRI and CAT scan results. All services 'gratis', simply because most human doctors are anxious to do something special and different. Also, a great deal of fun and good learning for the vets as well.