UW Veterinary Care News

Cooper, a 9-year-old Percheron and member of Madison Police Department’s Mounted Patrol Unit, spent 2½ weeks at the University of Wisconsin Veterinary Hospital due to medical issues. On July 19, Cooper started to show colic symptoms. The UW Veterinary Hospital determined he had a displaced colon that required emergency surgery. Cooper suffered several complications following his surgery, including stomach reflux and an inability to eat.

One of the six horses on the Madison Police Department's Mounted Patrol might be able to come home Friday after an extensive surgery. Cooper was taken to UW Veterinary Hospital on July 19 where he had an emergency surgery for a displaced colon. The horse also suffered some complications after the procedure.

Cooper was rushed to the University of Wisconsin Veterinary Hospital for colic symptoms on July 19. Veterinarians diagnosed the horse with a displaced colon and he went into emergency surgery. MPD said Cooper has made tons of new friends at the UW Vet Hospital with veterinarians and students.

Qasai was lucky. The attentiveness of zoo staff, and the work of the Froedtert Hospital doctors who analyzed his MRI and spectroscopy scans, had ensured the brain abscesses were discovered before they killed him. Zoo veterinarians injected the bonobo in the hip with medication to render him unconscious. Then, Schroeder and a colleague, Kyle Bartholomew, both from the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Veterinary Medicine, injected Qasai with two additional medications, Lidocaine and Propofol. These drugs ensured that in addition to being unconscious, the bonobo would be unable to move while medical staff sutured in place the breathing tube and inserted a catheter into his artery to measure blood pressure. Schroeder had only received the call on Saturday, asking if she could help with Qasai’s surgery the following day. “But this is not something you say no to,” she said. Few veterinarians ever participate in brain surgery on a primate. On the drive to Milwaukee that morning, Schroeder and Bartholomew had confessed to each other: They felt excited, yet terrified.