On Call to the Wild

Dr. Raymond Isaza is working his dream job. As one of four full-time veterinarians at the Los Angeles Zoo, the 36-year-old Burbank resident has a client load of more than 1,200 varied animals, from the anaconda to the lion to the “moustache guenon.”

Isaza, who wanted to work with animals since high school, has certainly found variety at the zoo. He has revived a baby giraffe from near death, performed surgery on a California condor and treated a siamang monkey with severe liver disease.

Each species has its own treatment schedule. As part of routine elephant care, Isaza will trim the thick soles of their feet. The sole is similar to a human foot callus and, if not cared for properly, can develop soft spots, irritating the animal and making it vulnerable to infection.

“In the wild, elephants walk many miles a day, so the soles wear down naturally,” Isaza said. “But since the animals don’t walk as much in captivity, we have to keep an eye on their feet.”

Recently a 20-year- old chimpanzee had his teeth cleaned, but if more dental work had been needed, Isaza would have consulted a human dentist to perform complicated procedures, such as a root canal.

Sometimes, Isaza says, he has to remind himself that he doesn’t know everything about animal care, so he spends a lot of time talking to other vets and doctors. “Vets are the quintessential generalists,” said Isaza. “We have to be dentists, doctors and anesthesiologists all wrapped into one.”

After treating an animal, he gives it a full physical examination before moving it back into the general zoo population.

Unlike his counterparts at the big HMOs, Isaza will make the occasional house call on his clients. He recently checked the condition of a rare Galapagos tortoise suffering from a runny nose and pneumonia. Most lay people and even some human doctors are surprised to learn that animals can get the same diseases that people do, he says.

Later, Isaza traveled to Malibu to treat a moustache guenon, an arboreal monkey from Africa, with a broken bone in its tail. Both the monkey and the tortoise are recovering well.