Higdon Large Animal Services

What day is it? It’s hump day!! This is Dr. Higdon with his favorite camel patient, Abu. Unfortunately Abu was a little under the weather last week and needed some urgent care, but he was able to make a very quick turn around. Abu is what is known as a Dromedary camel. These are the single hu**ed camels we see as opposed to a Bactrian camel which has 2 humps. Do you know what is in a camel’s hump? It is a common myth that they use their hump much like a 50 gallon drum to store water but actually their hump contains fat. Camels originate in very arid desert climates where food tends to be scarce. To cope with this, when a camel is out in the desert without food, they are able to utilize the fat in their hump as an energy source. Given enough time without food, their hump will begin to sag and fall to one side or the other, but once they have a good source of food again, their hump will return to normal. Abu is an incredibly friendly, loving camel who thoroughly enjoys his chin scratchies. Want to meet him in person? You can! Ocoee Riverside Farm in Benton, TN is an AirBNB with multiple unique experiences. Choose a place to stay including 1 of 3 Conestoga wagons or a very nice cabin right along the Ocoee river, stay in the barn loft right above the horse stalls OR (now this is my personal pick) the CAMEL CONDO! Sleep in a fully furnished very nice apartment right above the camel and kangaroo stalls. You can watch Flash the sloth as he crawls along the branches of his 2 story enclosure just inside the door of the camel condo and watch the swans swim in the pond from a large whirlpool bath tub. This is a very family friendly stay with many unique opportunities to interact with animals. Look them up on Airbnb or visit their website at www.ocoeeriversidefarm.com

These little girls had a rough start into the world. Their momma went into labor with them Sunday evening but was unable to have them on her own. We went out to help her have them. We could get one set of feet up and one head but pulling the feet didn’t make any progress so a c-section was performed. Turns out the grey baby was coming head first and the little black one was backwards coming feet first. Momma and both babies are doing well now.

Sometimes you have to get a little mud on the tires to get to your patients.