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Zoo Vet - the book
The book Zoo Vet has evolved over a long period of time. It finally took shape as a result of many people nagging him, "just get on with it", and a fortuitous coincidence: meeting Cathi's rhea.
The book is a mixture of tales and autobiographical memories of Matt's work, both at the Zoo and outside in general practice. It describes how he got into filming and the relationships he has forged with both the camera and the people behind the camera. It is a humorous, light-hearted look at the complexities of being a 21st century zoo vet, as the extract below shows.
When I say rhea, I mean the bird rather than Cathi's bottom, though I am sure Cathi's rear is fine. Cathi Poole is a client whose bird became ill one day. I went out to see it, to find it recumbent on the floor and steadfastly refusing to stand. Rheas are ratites, and are related to ostriches. They are desperately inquisitive, in fact they spend their lives just being nosey. Whenever I come across a ratite lying on the ground feeling miserable, a foreign object stuck in their guts is always at the top of my list.
I told Cathi that we would need to bring her bird in for me to check over properly and X-ray, so the following day she arrived with her bird bundled up in the tiny boot of her Smart. At least it wasn't on the back of a bike. The X-ray showed there was no lump of something-that-shouldn't-be-there in its stomach, so I took some blood samples. The blood was thin and watery looking, which meant the bird was anaemic.
My nurse and I found the underlying reason for the anaemia at almost the same time, crawling up our arms. Cathi's rhea had lice. Not just any old little louse, but ratite lice. These enormous blood-sucking beasties are quite vile and will quite literally suck the life out of a bird. They made us feel very itchy.
Fortunately they're very easy to treat. So, with the bird on medication, confident of recovery I sent it home, with Cathi, obviously. Wanting to make sure that there were no other problems, I also sent the blood off for analysis. Two days later the results returned, and so I rang the phone number Cathi had left me.
This telephone call kick-started my career as an author. It was late in the evening, and I was tired. The conversation went something like this.
"Hullo."
"Oh, hello. Is Cathi there?"
"No, she's already left."
"Oh. I was just ringing to talk about Cathi's rhea."
"What's wrong with her rear? It looked fine to me this morning."
"No, her rhea."
"Oh, her ear. Are you a doctor?"
Slightly put out, I decided to try a different tactic.
"I'm sorry, who am I talking to?"
"Duncan, from Shaffron Publishing."
"Shaffron Publishing? Ooooh. I've been meaning to write a book."
"Really?"
"Yes. Can you help?"
"You had better come and see me."
So I forgot all about the rhea and went home excitedly to tell the family that we were going to write a book. So thanks Cathi, thanks Duncan and most of all thanks to Cathi's rhea, without all three of which there would never have been a book.
