[chattering]
[children shouting]
[Mylniczenko] Hi, sweetheart.
Peri is a prehensile-tailed porcupine.
She's been trained to allow us to do ultrasounds on her.
Giving us an opportunity to track her pregnancy from conception until birth.
That way we could tell that she was healthy, that the baby was healthy.
So, when there's a fetus, it makes it a lot easier to see.
And right now, we're just being able to see her urinary bladder.
And then you can see a hint of her uterus popping in.
Now we're just doing checkups on her,
but we're also going to be preparing for a second pregnancy.
Ever since I've been a small child,
I've just tried to help animals and help heal them.
And so that's just been an innate part of my growing up.
There we go.
[Mylniczenko] I came here for a visit during a vet conference,
and I was just impressed.
I loved the facilities.
I loved the opportunity to care for the animals as well.
As I got to know all of the veterinarians, I just thought it was an amazing team.
And because of all of that, I was really enticed to come here.
I think that's what I love most.
We have a diversity of animals, both terrestrial and aquatic.
It allows people to really get close.
It allows people to understand the animals,
and it gives them an opportunity to care and bond with those animals.
We have folks that come up here regularly that... know all of the different animals.
Like the gorillas. There are some people that know all of the gorillas by name.
And the guests will just visit them, which is a unique opportunity.
We do routine examinations on many of our animals.
And today we did an examination on a southern stingray.
-...at 950, so we got a good mark on her. -Perfect.
This is a female that's been with us. Her name is Dexy.
pH is 8.6.
So, right now we're measuring the oxygen level
of the... area that she's in.
Today she's getting her routine exam.
And so, because of that, we need to do a little bit more.
Let's go ahead and look at her gills.
So, her cardiac contractions are great. Her rhythm and rate are great.
So, I have no concerns right now.
We took an ultrasound as well,
which gives me an excellent view of all of her organs
so I can determine health of her, you know, from the inside.
Yeah, it feels like it's actually healed.
A typical day can mean anything from doing a pregnancy exam on a scorpion,
to a bird gets an injury in one of our aviaries.
You do have to get quite creative.
Every day we have to figure out
how to put a bandage on an animal that wouldn't normally have a bandage.
So, how would you put a bandage on a fish?
Or a very tiny bird that has a broken leg? How do you fix that broken leg?
And so you come up with toothpicks and tape, sometimes to make splints.
And then the conservation piece. Disney really cares about conservation.
All of us have an opportunity to work with conservation that Disney supports.
I'm particularly interested in working with gorillas
in the Democratic Republic of Congo, with a program called GRACE.
And that's the Gorilla Rehabilitation and Conservation Education Center
that cares for orphaned gorillas.
We can then have those gorillas rehabilitated,
and then placed into a family group of gorillas,
with the ultimate goal of reintroducing them to a safe environment.
-[Mylniczenko] What do you think? -[keeper] Probably.
-[Mylniczenko] Okay. -[keeper] I could leave her right there.
-Does that work? -[Mylniczenko] That can work.
All of our animals have bitey parts and scratchy parts. [chuckles]
Yeah, there are times when you just need to make sure you understand the animal.
But we also have keeper staff that really know the animals well
and can help us with safety issues.
[keeper] Oh, yeah.
[Mylniczenko] Good job.
They choose. Right?
They can make the decisions to come and participate if they're--
with their medical care or they can choose to go.
[keeper] Hey, girl.
-[Mylniczenko] What a good job. -[keeper] Good girl. That's very nice.
Sometimes what we do is really amazing. We get to see animals through birth.
-[Mylniczenko] What a good girl. -[keeper] Good girl. Good girl.
She's doing such a good job.
We get to see them overcome issues, and those are amazing things.
Being a veterinarian is probably one of,
in my opinion, [chuckles]
the most rewarding jobs you can have.
Sweetie. It's just for you. I know. It's just for you. Yummies. Yummies.