Star Treatment

His patient was late for her appearance in the Hollywood Christmas parade. All medical tests had failed to find the cause of the TV star’s unexplained fever, so she would have to undergo exploratory surgery.

Within an hour, veterinarian James Peddi would save another famous life. This time it was Happy, the mutt on the WB series “7th Heaven,” who had a twisted and dying spleen.

Peddi, an instructor at Moorpark College’s Exotic Animal Training and Management Program, is a top vet to animal stars. His four-legged patients have included Eddie from “Frasier” and Murray from “Mad About You.”

Peddi, 59, has taught animal health care classes for 23 years, helping more than 1,100 students begin careers working with animals. Many of his former students have gone on to work at exotic animal parks such as Marine World, the San Diego Zoo and San Diego Wild Animal Park.

“There have been times I called him instead of my own [personal] doctor, just because he’s so good,” said Cheryl Harris, a trainer who has worked with animals in the films “Out of Africa” and the original “Dr. Doolittle.” “He has the unique ability to explain everything in layman’s terms.

“Some vets don’t take the time or have the ability to do that. He gets down to what’s wrong with the animal just by talking about it on the phone.”

Those who know Peddi say he has a remarkable ability to understand and anticipate animal behavior.

One day at the teaching zoo, Peddi was interacting with a 120-pound mandrill. The primate, a member of the baboon family, accepted a chunk of banana from Peddi and nodded her head, suggesting she was being agreeable.

Forget it.

“It’s a threat,” he said. “She may be angry I didn’t give her the whole banana.” An important point, considering a mandrill has two-inch canine teeth and can intimidate an attacking leopard.

Peddi has learned to gauge animal behavior during his 35 years as a veterinarian--a skill he credits for keeping him safe. He has only been bitten once.

“He constantly pounds it into you to know the norm and invest your time in learning your animal,” said Tom Gunderson, a former student who is now one of Peddi’s clients as manager of the Animal Actors Stage show at Universal Studios Hollywood. “If you know the norm, you can easily recognize when something goes wrong.”

Deborah Fahrenbruck, an animal behaviorist and veterinary technician for Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus, said Peddi was a great career influence. “He greatly impacted my future,” said the 1999 Moorpark College graduate.

“He has a very high standard of care and the students learn that and the animals’ lives are better,” said Fahrenbruck, who oversees 300 animals.

But it’s in his private practice that Peddi works with his most well-known patients. He and his wife, Linda, who is also a veterinarian, diagnose celebrities like Eddie, the terrier who scampers around TV psychiatrist Frasier Crane’s apartment.

In the mid-1990s, the animal’s drooling and constant licking were a tip-off that he needed a root canal--one of 17 the dog has received for teeth ground down by excessive chewing. Peddi shipped his patient off to a canine dentist who got him back to normal.

Animal handlers credit Peddi’s success to his ability to “read” what is on an animal’s mind.

“He actually listens to what we have to say,” said Gary Johnson, co-owner of Have Trunk Will Travel, an elephant entertainment and breeding company. “If there’s something he’s not familiar with, he’ll get on the phone and find out. He doesn’t pull something out of the air. He actually researches it.”

Peddi said you get to know how animals respond after more than three decades in the business. “Animals use body talk and eye contact to let you know what they’re thinking,” he said. “If you are going to work around animals, you have to develop that. If you don’t, you will be hurt.”

The Peddis also attempt innovative medical care to return an animal to health so it will not have to be put to sleep.

When Ike, a Rottweiler that worked as part of a K-9 unit for the Ventura County Police Department, damaged his legs by repeatedly jumping out of police car windows, Peddi rebuilt the dog’s knees so he could continue his career.

“He is a gifted surgeon. And he has been able to do some pretty amazing things,” Linda Peddi said.

The couple met while they were veterinary students at Cornell University in the early 1960s.

“There was one woman and 59 guys in the class. She graduated with honors and married me--I was the big honor winner,” he said.

In addition to the typical dogs, cats and tortoises, the Peddis raised their two daughters, who were constantly exposed to more exotic animals--including baby leopards, lions, bears and chimpanzees that were occasionally overnight guests at the family’s Thousand Oaks house.

In the early days, James Peddi worked at the Jungleland amusement park in Thousand Oaks, which closed in 1970.

“In vet school at that time, you dealt only with domestic species. We received no instructions for exotic animals,” Peddi said. “The transition from domestic to exotic was fraught with a lot of problems. But it was excellent training.”

In the late 1960s, Peddi headed a team that developed a new technique for declawing cats--the 700-pound type. Before that time, improperly declawed lions, tigers and leopards suffered from cut tendons and were able to only bear weight on a small part of the paw, causing the animals to become prematurely lame.

Peddi’s technique enabled big cats to have full use of their paws, and the procedure, which was later adapted for house cats, remains in use by many vets.

Peddi was instrumental three years ago in developing a method to diagnose and monitor treatment of elephants with tuberculosis rather than put the animals to sleep.

“He never tells anyone ‘no,’ ” Linda Peddi said. “He’ll always try. That’s what has gotten him into all these unique situations.”

Peddi was called on to help in shipping an elephant by air freight to Thailand in 1994 for the filming of the Disney movie “Operation Dumbo Drop.” Peddi and the animal’s owners began a mental conditioning program for Tai, a 26-year-old Asian elephant.

Expecting her to remain in her crate for up to five days during travel and quarantine, they arranged for Tai to watch her crate being built then play and sleep in it, getting ready for the big trip.

And Peddi sent her off with a first-aid kit and bottled water not only for drinking, but also for play time in her baths. When the animal got sick in a Thailand jungle during filming, Peddi found a way to diagnose the problem by sending blood samples to the nearest lab--hundreds of miles from the shooting location.

Peddi said mental conditioning in animals is just as important as dispensing medicine. And for exotic animals in captivity, mental stimulation can nearly double their life span, he said, because the tricks animals are taught are actually part of their medical treatments.

Peddi discusses how such tricks are used to treat animals with diabetes. In the past, such animals needed twice-daily insulin injections that require an animal’s full cooperation.

But using a tranquilizer dart to calm the patient was not an option.

“It’s like being shot with a gun,” he said. “It’s not pleasant at all.”

Consequently, diabetic animals were often destroyed. Now, Peddi teaches his students tricks or “medical behaviors” to make treatment easier.

“This allows the vet to pull a blood specimen on a sick animal that could become angry and dangerous,” Peddi said.

Peddi’s interest in animals began in childhood, when he was raised on a farm in Montoursville, Pa., working with his grandfather.

“He had a great fascination with animals,” Peddi said. “He and I were always interested in how things work. I have a mechanical mind. How bones and systems fit together are all very clear in my mind.”

Despite working with animals all day, Peddi still includes them in his free time. He likes to take his yellow Lab puppy, Della, on walks “just to get the edge off her.” He said he and Linda like to unwind by hiking in the Santa Monica Mountains. He also enjoys fishing trips to places such as Alaska, Santa Cruz Island and the Sea of Cortez.