If CSU's Veterinary Teaching Hospital Treated Dinosaurs

In honor of Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, we asked Dr. Tim Hackett, director of the Colorado State University Veterinary Teaching Hospital, "What if dinosaurs were alive today?"

What service at the hospital would treat dinosaurs?

Dr. Hackett: "Since most dinosaurs are lizards and closely related to birds, we’d probably handle through Exotics, like we do the big carnivores from local zoos and rescues. These cases put our “under one roof” philosophy to the test. They always require anesthesia, but we often need to pull large and small animal specialists in depending on the problems we find."

Where would you put the dinosaur wing/facility?

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Dr. Hackett: "We would probably need to have a satellite hospital out of town. Near a rail line or major highway. The hospital could probably handle anything up to one of the large raptors. Anything larger than a buffalo would need Jurassic World level containment and transport. If we went the satellite route, we’d need a separate staff, probably pull from expertise in birds and reptiles with some staff adept at wrangling the biggest and meanest."

What would it take to put a t-rex under anesthesia for surgery?

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Dr. Hackett: "Lots of drugs, some heavy lifting equipment, an enormous oxygen supply and some very fast surgeons. The bigger the animal, the more difficult it becomes to lay them down and get them back up without them damaging themselves (and those around them)."

What types of health issues do you think dinosaurs would face today?

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Dr. Hackett: "Longnecks would likely get arthritis, a stegosaurus could get cancer. I'd think the bacterial and fungal diseases we can get from birds (cryptococcosis, histoplasmosis, tuberculosis, psittacosis) would be a concern as would those we see in pet reptiles (salmonella, botulism, leptospirosis, campylobacterosis). The good news is we probably wouldn’t have to worry about rabies or bubonic plague."

While the hospital doesn't have to worry about dinos (yet), one CSU veterinarian, Dr. Matt Johnston, was the FIRST to discover osteosarcoma in a dinosaur almost 20 years ago.

He was asked to examine a dinosaur bone, and discovered the dinosaur had osteosarcoma.