How to Examine a Jaguar.

A better title would be' How to Restrain a Jaguar Cub'. Very recently I bumped into one of my lecturers at university. She told me that the State Department of the Environment had received two jaguar cubs. She didn’t know much more about them, except that one was docile and the other potentially dangerous. She mentioned it because she knows that my final year paper is going to be on wildlife and she was kind enough to pass me the telephone number of the man in charge. I gave him a call, explained that I was a final year student of veterinary medicine and that my final year project is on wildlife and that I would like to know if it was possible to carry out a physical examination on the jaguar cubs he is currently responsible for. To my delight he said next week.

The appointment is next week I firmly believe in seizing opportunities when they present themselves, and this occasion was no exception. It does present me with a number of challenges which I set out in the following thought experiment.

Some research on carrying out a clinical examination of a Jaguar has revealed very little on-line. My personal library on this occasion let me down. The Human Society’s Veterinary Medical Association has some useful material on-line regarding physical restraint methods designed to reduce stress for both patient and veterinarian.

When I was last home in the UK for Christmas my terrific parents took me to a hardware store after learning that I would be handling an Ocelot on my return to Brazil.  They were worried that I would be mauled and bought me some equipment.  Tomorrow I need to augment these purchases with some new equipment.  

It is impossible to know in advance what circumstances I am going to encounter. My objective is to carry as full as clinical examination as possible, involving

·         History-taking

·         Weighing the animal

·         Checking eyes, ears and nose for secretions or obstructions

·         What is the heart rate

·         What is the respiratory rate

·         Checking the pulse rate

·         Checking the colour of the mucosae

·         Body temperature

·         Lymph nodes for swellings, indicative of disease.

·         Check teats for alterations.

·         Check Anus

·         Check tail.

·         Check skin.

·         What is the animal’s sex?

The physical examination begins whilst I am taking the animal’s history. I have to be able to approach the animal safely.  I am going to have to be very careful because I have no experience with Jaguars and have to very carefully assess its weight-to-strength ratio.  I don’t know how thick a Jaguar’s fur is, and it may be very time consuming to check its body condition if its fur is thick.

I hope you have enjoyed this article and found it interesting. For me it served as a valuable ‘thinking-through’ exercise. Right, I am off to buy a big net now.