Aquadocs

Honoring the life of a beloved pet with a paw print is a beautiful way to remember them. But what happens when your patients have fins and scales? On this week’s episode of Aquadocs, Dr. Michelle Greenfield-Feig interviews Dr. Eric Littman, staff veterinarian for Adventure Aquarium about his novel approach to science communication and art. Tune in to learn about Dr. Littman's artistic process and the way in which he honors both the animal and the teams that have worked so hard to care for them over the years. 

On this week’s episode of Aquadocs, Dr. Greenfield-Feig, interviews Dr. Lara Croft, veterinary scientist over scientific grants programs at Morris Animal Foundation, about the different ways she has positively impacted aquatic animal health within and beyond clinical work. Tune in to learn about the review process for scientific grants. And make sure you stick around to the end to learn about an interesting case where Dr. Croft and her colleagues developed a special milk formula for emaciated manatees.

On this week's episode of Aquadocs, we are discussing all things penguin. SeaWorld San Diego recently successfully hatched a baby emperor penguin for the first time in over a decade. Tune in as Dr. Michelle Greenfield-Feig interviews Dr. Jennifer Russell, staff veterinarian at SeaWorld San Diego, about her experience working with Pearl, the baby penguin, as well as her research studying the ocular anatomy of penguins.

On this episode of Aquadocs, host Dr. Michelle Greenfield-Feig interviews Dr. Jay Sweeney, co-owner and chief veterinarian of Dolphin Quest, about his history in the field of aquatic animal medicine. Tune in to learn about the origins of diagnostic imaging and sampling in marine mammals. And stick around to hear about the unique preventative medicine techniques Dolphin Quest employs as a means of providing high-quality medical care for their animals.

What happens when a stranding response team gets a call about a stranded animal? On this week's episode of Aquadocs, Dr. Michelle Greenfield-Feig interviews Sarah Callan, animal rescue program manager at Mystic Aquarium, about her work completing necropsies on large whales and rescuing and rehabilitating stranded seals and sea turtles. From training a full team of volunteers, organizing colleagues with large machinery, traveling to often hard-to-reach locations, and beating the impending weather, there is never a dull moment when it comes to stranding response. Plus, stick around to the end of the episode to hear the inspiring story of local favorite Shoebert the seal.

Hello and welcome to season 4 of Aquadocs. We've got a great season for you starting up next week October 3rd. This season we’ll be discussing topics including the new Florida Coral Rescue Center, the ins and outs of a marine mammal stranding team, ethical means of euthanasia in blue crabs, the well being of exotic and zoological veterinarians, and so much more. Some other season 4 highlights: we are very excited to announce our new partnership with the Cornell Wildlife Health Center, thank you to Cassandra Demola for serving as our social media intern for the past two years, and welcome to Casey Dunbar as our new social media intern. We are so excited to bring you a new season filled with lots of knowledge and stories from colleagues in the aquatic animal industry. So be sure to follow us and subscribe on Apple, Google, Spotify or whoever you listen to podcasts. And as always feel free to follow us on social media (@aquadocspodcast) and reach out if you have any questions or you’d like to be featured on an episode. Thank you again for all of your continued support! Hope you love season 4! 

Is it possible to monitor, and even predict, a dolphin's health just by looking at recordings of its vocalizations? On this week's episode of Aquadocs, host Michelle Greenfield interviews Dr. Brittany Jones, the Deputy Director of Conservation Biology Sound and Health at the National Marine Mammal Foundation about her research studying bottlenose dolphin vocalization patterns. Dr. Jones and her team are developing a model to classify the health status of a dolphin based on its whistles. In this way, they will be able to classify disease states just from voice recordings and monitor the health of these animals remotely, and potentially even predict diseases prior to clinical signs developing. This is an extraordinary project with huge implications on the future of aquatic animal health!

And a huge congratulations to Michelle Greenfield on her upcoming graduation from veterinary school and her wedding to Aquadocs executive editor and co-producer Zach Feig.

On this week's episode of Aquadocs, host Michelle Greenfield interviews Dr. James Bailey, a board certified veterinary anesthesiologist who specializes in zoo and wildlife animals, particularly marine mammals. Dr. Bailey describes the start of marine mammal anesthesia and how far we have come since its origin (like completing a successful 9 hour anesthetic procedure with an animal receiving a CT and bilateral cataract surgery). This episode is jam packed with zebra mussel clam research, the mechanics of marine mammal anesthesia, and fun facts you definitely don't want to miss.

How do you complete wild health assessments on sharks? Tune in to this week's episode of Aquadocs, where host Michelle Greenfield interviews Dr. Michael Hyatt, associate veterinarian at the Wildlife Conservation Society’s New York Aquarium, about his research with wild sharks. This is certainly a fintastic episode you don't want to miss! 

On this week's episode of Aquadocs, host Michelle Greenfield interviews Dr. Robert Martinez owner of Aquatic Veterinary Consulting in Utah. Dr. Martinez had a non-traditional route to the aquatics world and describes to listeners the importance of always being open to anything and being willing to read from the textbook if you want to succeed. Plus, tune in for an epic, or should we say, electrifying, case about Frankie, an electric eel. Frankie was first noticed with his tail hanging at the surface, and a worm coming out of his back end. Listen as Dr. Martinez describes this case and discusses the lessons he learned along the way (like the voltage you need to lower the eel to safely hold them). And wish Michelle luck as she takes her NAVLE this week! 

Ever thought about doing knee surgery on a frog? On this week's episode of Aquadocs, host Michelle Greenfield interviews Dr. Bill Van Bonn, the former vice president for animal health and welfare at Shedd Aquarium. We'll discuss the experience of doing an innovative procedure on frog as well as the important microbiome research that Dr. Van Bonn and his colleagues are completing. 

This podcast episode is dedicated to Dr. Mark Greenfield and his OR team. Thanks for all of your support and for always tuning in to new episodes. 

Ever wondered if you could save an animal's life just with honey? Well tune in to this week's episode of Aquadocs where Michelle interviews Dr. Brittany Stevens veterinarian at the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach, California and veterinarian at the California Science Center in Los Angeles, about just that. In this episode, we discuss the case of Eelana, a California Moray Eel who suffered from a gnarly xanthoma. After removing the mass and doing her best to get the skin to heal, Dr. Stevens was nearly out of luck. She had thrown everything at Eelana, but Eelana wouldn't heal and even months after the procedure, you could still see through the incision all the way down to the skull! Then, Dr. Stevens had the crazy idea to try manuka honey. Can this work on an eel? You'll have to listen to find out! 

What do you do when 1,801 cold stunned turtles show up in your area? Well, you set up a giant assembly line to provide physical exams and treatment until they can be released back into the wild. On this week's episode of Aquadocs, host Michelle Greenfield interviews Dr. Lydia Staggs, senior veterinarian at SeaWorld Orlando about her experience responding to wildlife disasters as well as working for SeaWorld Orlando. From cold stunned sea turtles to  the Deepwater Horizon oil spill to providing top notch veterinary care for killer whales, there are so many amazing stories in this episode you certainly won't want to miss! And make sure you stick around to the end of the episode to hear about the incredible rescue and rehabilitation efforts SeaWorld is providing for injured aquatic animals. 

On this week's episode of Aquadocs, Host Michelle Greenfield interviews Dr. Roy Yanong and Dr. Hugh Mitchell, members of the executive board of the AAFV (American Association of Fish Veterinarians). Tune in as we discuss the history of developing this organization and the incredible progress we have made for fish veterinarians at large. (such as a credentialing program in the works). 

Hi everyone! I’m excited to launch season three of Aquadocs this week. From rehabbing pinnipeds, to saving over 1,000 cold stunned sea turtles, to solving the mystery of the electric eel, we’ve got lots of great stuff in store for you. Be sure to tune in every other Tuesday to stay up to date on the latest Aquadocs episodes! And as always feel free to reach out on social media (@aquadocspodcast) if you have any questions or you’d like to be featured on an episode. Thank you again for all of your continued support! Hope you love season 3! 

FishTracker is a student-oriented citizen science project based at Cornell University that records and maps the presence of several species of fish, both endangered and invasive, in New York State. What is awesome about this program is that K-12 students and teachers from New York collect environmental DNA (eDNA) from water samples and send these samples to Cornell for analysis. FishTracker team members then use quantitative PCR to analyze these samples and incorporate their findings into a fish species database and send their results back to the classrooms. This is an incredible program so tune in to learn more and be amazed at ways you can involve young children into important scientific endeavors. Want to get involved, check out their website: https://fishtracker.vet.cornell.edu/. 

Thank you to the Cornell University Serve in Place Fund for supporting this episode. 

There are fewer than 400 critically endangered North Atlantic right whales left in the world. Human impacts, specifically entanglements in fishing gear and vessels strikes, serve as the biggest threats to the survival of this species. On This week's episode of Aquadocs Podcast, host Michelle Greenfield interviews Dr. Michael Moore, senior scientist in the biology department of Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution about his long-term work with this species. Dr. Moore recently published a book titled We Are All Whalers: The Plight of Whales and Our Responsibility that documents his work with these animals and what he believes we need to do to protect this species. Tune in for a conversation about the stories behind this book as well as a discussion on our social responsibility to step in and help save these whales. 

On this week's episode of Aquadocs, host Michelle Greenfield interviews Dr. David Scarfe PhD, DVM, MRSSAf, CertAqV, a veterinarian and an extraordinary professor at the university of Pretoria in South Africa and Ludwig Maximilians University in Germany. Dr. Scarfe shares his experience working for the AVMA and documents his perspective of the evolution of aquatic veterinary medicine. 

Coral are such an important species that most people probably don't even recognize need veterinary attention. On this weeks episode of Aquadocs, host Michelle Greenfield interviews Dr. Ilze Berzins, an aquatic animal veterinarian who has worked with a number of coral health issues. In particular, we focus on Stony Coral Tissue Loss Disease (SCTLD), of which over 40 species of Atlantic coral are currently facing an unprecedented infectious epidemic. We’ll discuss why this disease is different from other crises facing coral and what possibilities exist for protecting and saving these coral.

On this weeks episode of Aquadocs, Michelle interviews Dr. Ashley Emanuele, owner of Oak City Aquatics Mobile Veterinary Service, a mobile fish practice that serves hobbyists and fish enthusiasts in North Carolina. During our conversation, we explore the value, potential and need in the hobbyist community for veterinary support. And also we discuss a case (aka showdown) she recently worked on involving a koi fish and a bobcat. Spoiler alert, the bobcat wins this one :-(.

This week on AQUADOCS, Michelle speaks with her good friends Dr. Danielle Godard, Dr. Nicole Nietlisbach, and Willow Smith from the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources Fish Health Team. Fun fact, nearly all of the lakes and rivers in Wisconsin need to be stocked with fish species including Trout, Muskellunge, Walleye, and Sturgeon. In order to reduce the spread of disease between habitats, the Wisconsin DNR monitors and supports fish farms across the state.

On this final Aquadocs episode of 2021, Michelle interviews Dr. Shelly Marquardt, veterinarian at Clearwater Marine Aquarium, as a special tribute to Winter the Dolphin. Winter, one of the bottlenose dolphins at Clearwater was found in the coastal waters of Florida in 2005. She was caught in a crab trap that resulted in the loss of her tail. Over the years, her team has worked tirelessly to provide unique enrichment for her unique  morphology, including a silicone tail to help with her unnatural swimming patterns (tail moving side to side instead of up and down). Sadly, Winter recently passed away on November 11, 2021. Despite incredible life-saving efforts by Dr. Marquardt and experts from around the country who flew in to help her, Winter passed away from intestinal torsion. This episode was recorded a few weeks prior to her passing and tells her incredible rescue story from a veterinary perspective. We are releasing this episode as a tribute to her and her animal care staff.

On this week's episode of Aquadocs, Michelle speaks with Dr. Jenessa Gjeltema, Assistant Professor of zoological Medicine at the UC Davis School of veterinary medicine and Head veterinarian at the Sacramento Zoo, about one of her special patients Coconut. And stick around to the end to learn about the UC Davis zoological medicine residency program.

On this week's episode of Aquadocs, Michelle joins fellow podcasters Shaun O'Loughlin, Justin Grant, and Maddie Cassidy of Aquademia Podcast hosted by Global Seafood Alliance for a discussion about seafood regulation and sustainability. And check out their episode of Aquademia featuring Michelle, which aired in July 2021.

Podcasts about aquatic medicine for homework? #BestHomeworkEver! Tune in this week on Aquadocs as Dr. Heather Harris, faculty at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, explains how Aquadocs has been a critical resource for her and her students during the times of Zoom University. And stick around for amazing stories about research with Leatherback sea turtles! Dr. Harris is a wildlife veterinarian for Upwell and the NOAA Marine Turtle Program as well as an associate vet at the Marine Mammal Center. On this episode, we'll highlight some of the important work she does with these programs.

This week on Aquadocs, Dr. Hugh Mitchell, Owner of AquaTactics Fish Health, now part of the Bimeda Animal Health family, discusses the development of fish vaccines and how important they are to the industry. He also shares his experience as a foodfish veterinarian for private, state, federal and tribal aquaculture facilities throughout the United States.

Have you missed Aquadocs? Well, get excited! Season 2 launches next Tuesday, October 5th. We've got lots in store for you this season. Here's a little sneak peak. 

Is it possible to monitor the health of dolphins and other cetaceans just through sound? On this week's episode of Aquadocs, Dr. Laura May-Collado, senior lecturer at the University of Vermont and research associate at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama, discusses her research on  marine mammal acoustic communication in Panama. And stick around to the end to listen to some special Aquadocs surprises!