February 28, 2022

Rico

A jaguar receiving a root canal

Rico

The Schwarzman Animal Medical Center is honored to partner with the Essex County Turtle Back Zoo to treat their jaguar, Rico!

Rico recently made the trip to the Schwarzman AMC from his home at Essex County Turtle Back Zoo in West Orange, New Jersey, to receive treatment from our Dentistry, Diagnostic Imaging, and Surgery teams.

To ensure a safe transfer, Rico arrived fully anesthetized with the Essex County Turtle Back Zoo veterinary team and an escort from the Essex County Sheriff’s Office. Once at Schwarzman AMC, our team worked together to address Rico’s various medical needs.

“Promoting conservation and raising awareness about the importance of animals are part of our mission at Turtle Back Zoo. The treatment provided to Rico, our jaguar, is an example of the high quality of care we provide to our animal family. Thank you to the Schwarzman Animal Medical Center for partnering with us on a successful procedure,” Essex County Executive Joseph N. DiVincenzo, Jr. said.

Under the direction of Dr. Django Martel, Senior Veterinarian, Specialist in Dentistry, AMC’s Dentistry team performed root canal therapy for treatment of a fractured canine tooth.

“The root canal went really well. Since the fracture was fresh, we first did a temporary root canal and will finish the procedure in a month. Performing a root canal in two stages actually makes the overall quality of the root canal better and is often how root canals are treated in humans,” said Dr. Martel.

Recently, Rico had been showing signs of arthritis in his elbows, so our Diagnostic Imaging team, led by Dr. Antonia DeJesus, Senior Veterinarian, Specialist in Radiology performed a CT scan to better diagnose the issue, confirming serious arthritis and a bone fragment in Rico’s left elbow. Dr. Daniel Spector, Service Head of Orthopedics, Soft Tissue, and Minimally Invasive Surgery then performed arthroscopic surgery to treat the arthritis. This involved threading a small camera into the elbow to observe the damage caused by the arthritis, removing a small cartilage fragment, and cleaning up the joint.

“Once fully recovered, Rico should be much more comfortable,” said Dr. Spector. “I’ll be getting weekly videos from his team at the zoo so we can track his progress.”

The entire Schwarzman AMC team was honored to be a part of Rico’s medical team.

Be sure to follow us on social media for more updates on Rico’s progress.

Update 4/11/22: Rico’s root canal was a success after AMC’s Dr. Django Martel visited Turtle Back Zoo to complete the dental procedure!

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A close up of a jaguar's teeth
A veterinarian taking an x-ray of a jaguar
A jaguar on an exam table
An x-ray of a jaguar's tooth
Veterinarians performing a root canal on a jaguar
Veterinarians performing a root canal on a jaguar
Veterinarians performing a root canal on a jaguar
A jaguar undergoing diagnostic imaging
A jaguar undergoing diagnostic imaging
A jaguar on an exam table
Rico the jaguar has his root canal completed
CT image of Jaguar's normal tooth
CT image of Rico the jaguar's broken tooth