Dr. Lamar Hunter has just joined the Carolina Tiger Rescue team as a wildlife veterinarian. After he graduated from NC State’s vet school, Dr. Hunter studied under Dr. Angela Lassiter at Carolina Tiger Rescue. He helps with physicals, medical procedures, and loves seeing the animals improve under the care of the awesome vets at the rescue. Dr. Hunter enjoys working with all the animals at Carolina Tiger Rescue, but his favorite is the lions.
Dr. Hunter’s Blog 2/14/21
Happy Valentine’s Day! What better day to talk about hearts? One of our jobs as a sanctuary for our animals is to make sure they are healthy and well taken care of. We can not do this without monitoring the health of their hearts. Hearts pump blood through our bodies. Our blood carries good stuff like oxygen and nutrients to all our organs and body parts. It then carries unwanted things like carbon dioxide back to the heart and lungs. You can even feel your heart pumping by holding your fingers on your neck just below your jawline. When you have been to the doctor for a check up, they have listened to your heart by holding a stethoscope to your chest. We also use a stethoscope on our animals!
Each of our animals is sedated for a physical so that we can be safe while performing the check up. Being sedated means they are given medicine to go to sleep. At this time, we look over their whole body, including using a stethoscope to listen to their heart. Unusual sounds made by the heart are called heart murmurs. If our veterinarian hears any of these, she can determine what type of murmur it is. We will then know to monitor that in the future and treat it if needed. This is just one way we show our animals love – by keeping their hearts healthy as can be!