Clinical nutrition of exotic pets

SUMMARY Successful nutritional management requires knowledge of the natural history of exotic pets, nutrient contents of foods, and roles of water, calories, and nutrients in optimal health. Unestablished dietary requirements, lack of balanced commercial diets and mismanagement by owners cause nutritional problems that affect health and recovery from illness and trauma. When presented with a sick exotic pet, veterinarians should check for provision of appropriate wholesome water and food in optimal amounts. Malnutrition and dehydration are common in exotic pets and often result from mismanagement. Starvation is common in carnivores eating whole vertebrate prey, whereas specific nutrient deficiencies are more common in herbivores and insectivores. The more common nutritional deficiencies are calcium and vitamin D₃, vitamin A, thiamin, and vitamin E. When treating sick exotic pets, nutrition and fluid support may be critical to recovery.     

Feeding exotic and pocket pets

Nutritional diseases are common in exotic species. Some animals fail to thrive in captivity and may die of inanition. At the other end of the scale obesity is frequently seen. Specific deficiencies and imbalances occur - for example, metabolic bone disease, vitamin C deficiency, thiamine deficiency and vitamin A deficiency. Guidelines for feeding exotic and pocket pets are needed. It is particularly important to know and understand the natural history of the species in question, to take into account the importance of acceptability and palatability of food items and to ensure that the diets offered are as varied as possible.     

Preparation and equipment useful for surgery in small exotic pets.

Because many exotic pets are so small, the instrumentation and equipment used for surgery are different from in larger animals. Magnification greatly improves the surgeon's ability to accomplish surgeries in small patients and helps to provide hemostasis because small amounts of blood are significant in these tiny patients. Microsurgical instrumentation is important to allow for proper tissue handling and suture placement. Various other considerations, instrumentation, and equipment are useful when performing surgery on small exotic pets.     

Transfusion medicine in veterinary emergency and critical care medicine

Transfusion medicine is a vital part of veterinary emergency and critical care medicine. The goals of this article are to review blood banking and the transfusion principles surrounding care of the critically ill or injured small animal, to highlight the differences in emergency/critical care transfusions compared with standard transfusion medicine, and to discuss traumatic blood loss and sepsis as unique entities in emergency and critical medicine.     

Barriers to exotic animal medicine.

The obstacles discussed in this article can be overcome as training and continuing education in this field become more readily available, making work with these fascinating species a part of the repertoire of the small animal clinician. The scientific literature concerning these species is growing rapidly, and medical standards are improving steadily.