It’s Really a Zoo Out There for Cautious Veterinarian

PITTSBURGH, Pa. — He’s been bitten by a monkey and kicked by a zebra. He has even stared down an angry leopard.

He’s not Tarzan, and he’s not crazy. He is Dr. Robert Wagner, veterinarian at the Pittsburgh Zoo.

“The job is real safe compared to a lot of other professions,” he said.

But Wagner is “somewhat of a brave soul,” according to zoo director Charles Wikenhauser. “Many of the zookeepers are recognized by the animals,” Wikenhauser said, but when the animals see the veterinarian, “they’re not too friendly.”

Wagner, Pittsburgh Zoo veterinarian since 1980, said: “I only take calculated risks. You can only examine an animal when it’s anesthetized.”

That’s why he laughs when he recalls a recent incident during an operation on a leopard’s infected tail. The animal started to wake up midway through the surgery.

“He was almost completely awake, and he just looked up at me with that fire look in his eyes and he gave me one of those loud growls.

“He flopped off the (operating) table and was trying to walk around. Everybody ran out of the room and here I was with this 130-pound leopard between me and the door.”

He said the leopard had been just groggy enough for him to give it another shot of anesthetic, and the operation continued without incident.

Wagner says he applies the same techniques as a neighborhood veterinarian, or even a family physician, because usually there are no prescribed ways to treat exotic animals.

“You have to apply the basics. When a leopard gets sick, I think of how a house cat gets sick. Or when a monkey gets sick, I wonder what (similar symptoms) make humans get sick,” he said.

EKGs, blood work, physical exams, surgery, Wagner does it all for the more than 3,000 animals and birds at the city’s zoo and aviary. Whether he is tending an elephant’s sore knee or performing abdominal surgery on a monkey, Wagner said: “I have to be a jack of all trades.”

The key to the animals’ health is the zoo’s 20 keepers, he said. “They tell me (the animals’) symptoms, if they’re not eating or if their breath smells.”

Wagner, one of only 60 full-time zoo veterinarians in North America, says he also treats Pittsburghers’ exotic pets. He either makes a house call or has the animal brought to the zoo.

“Only a handful of vets in the Pittsburgh area do bird work. Most others won’t do exotic animals other than a ferret or a rabbit.”

And if the zoo animals suffer from a rare disease or one that’s difficult to cure, Wagner says he gets help from specialists and doctors at area hospitals.

Wagner received degrees from Pennsylvania State University and the University of Pennsylvania. He worked at two animal clinics in Uniontown, Pa., before replacing Dr. Michael Nuzzi at the Pittsburgh Zoo.