Veterinarians take a wild approach to animal healing.

Veterinarians take a wild approach to animal healing by Evan Haning, WTOP Radio, July 13, 208

WASHINGTON -- Some veterinarians do not treat pets. They treat wildlife. And if you've ever wondered how to treat a rhino with foot disease, the answer is not "very carefully," it's very imaginatively.

Dr. Lucy Spelman practices zoological medicine with the Mountain Gorilla Veterinary Project in central Africa. Spelman and Dr. Ted Mashima are co-editors of "The Rhino with Glue-On Shoes," a collection of medical animal stories written by veterinarians who borrowed ideas from other medical specialties for their very unique patients.

The title story is about Mohan, a rhinoceros at Washington, D.C.'s National Zoo who was being crippled by a debilitating foot disease. Spelman says she turned to equine medicine for answers on how to treat him. Mohan was given shoes -- rhino shoes, rather than horse shoes -- and is now thriving.

Other stories in this collection include the tale of an anorexic eel who had an attachment to its human keeper, a kangaroo whose spinal surgery was performed by a human doctor, and a panda that required a colonoscopy.

Photo Gallery (photos from RHINO posted on the WTOP website)

The Eel and the Bartender
A green moray eel at the New England Aquarium in Boston, Massachusetts, possibly the same one donated to the aquarium in the late 1990s. (These animals are extremely difficult to tell apart!) Soon after it arrived, the eel became a patient of Dr. Beth Chittick Nolan.

Amali's Example
Amali, a Masai giraffe at the Houston Zoological Gardens, in February 2005. She is wearing a special brace on her right foreleg, part of a treatment plan organized for her by Dr. Lauren Howard.