: The Tamil saying aamai puguntha veedum ameena puguntha veedum uruppadathu warns people against keeping ‘inauspicious’ turtles as pets, but one of the patients treated at the Avian and Exotic Pet Unit (AEPU) at the Madras Veterinary College on the day of its inauguration was a tortoise.
“It was suffering from anorexia and was not able to eat, and we treated it successfully,” said K. Senthil Kumar, Associate Professor, Department of Wildlife Science at the college. “Some people keep them [tortoises] as pets even though it’s not allowed under the Wildlife Protection Act.”
The unit, which was inaugurated on August 20, 2016, has seen at least ten exotic visitors a day, among them a bantam hen, an aseel, a race pigeon, a silky fowl, hamsters, guinea pigs, mice, rabbits and, of course, the turtle. S. Sujatha of T.Nagar was in the clinic with a cockatiel (a cockatoo endemic to Australia) ailing from an eye infection caused by avian mycoplasmosis, a chronic respiratory disorder in some avians. “Normally, we prescribe syrups and give an injection only when it is extremely necessary, taking into consideration the weight of the bird species,” said Dr. Pradhipa.
Clearly, there’s an increasing interest in keeping unusual pets and the need for a place to treat them. “We decided to launch a separate unit as we received a lot of wild animals with injuries and diseases on a day-to-day basis,” said S.Prathaban, Professor and Head, Department of Wildlife Science.
“Turtles injured by fishing nets are being brought here and, after treatment, we will hand them over to the Guindy Children’s Park.”
The clinic has nebulisers and oxygen tanks for pets. It has treated mice paralysed by dietary deficiencies, ear infections leading to wry necks (a condition that causes the animal’s head to be tilted) in rabbits, fluid accumulation in the abdomen of a sun conure (a brightly coloured parrot native to South America), parakeets with external parasites, surgical corrections of the comb (or crest) of a rooster, and the potentially fatal and contagious ranikhet or pacchaparudu disease in aseel cocks, which needs vaccination every six months.
Dr. Senthil Kumar explained that between 80 to 85 per cent of the animals recovered fully, and they can survive against odds if treatment is given on time. “Dehydration is the major problem in birds and it requires immediate attention,” he said. Not too many macaws make it here though, since the owners often handle their problems by themselves.
This clinic, the brain child of Dr. S. Thilagar, Vice-Chancellor of the Tamil Nadu Veterinary and Animal Sciences University (TANUVAS), functions between 8 a.m. and 11.30 a.m. on all days, including government holidays.
