Brookfield Zoo gets inside an aardvark's head

An aardvark getting a CT scan sounds like an April Fool's gag.

But there was no kidding around as veterinarian Mike Adkesson gazed at the 3-D images of 6-year-old aardvark Jessi's teeth at Brookfield Zoo Thursday.

"Looking good," Adkesson said. "We're so thrilled to have this CT scanner here. It lets us move to a very advanced place in terms of the medical care we're able to provide."

Her legs in the air, her chest rising and falling and her long snout under a blanket, Jessi slumbered sweetly, unaware of TV cameras and photographers.

She also was oblivious to the fact Brookfield is now just one of two zoos in America with an on-site CT scanner, which produces 3-D X-ray images. The technology, worth about $1 million, was donated by Loyola University Medical Center. It's a familiar tool to Brookfield vets, who have traveled to Loyola before with sick animals to use the same machine. The CT scanner also will be essential to preventive care as well as emergency cases, vets said.

The machine can handle animals up to 400 pounds - such as tigers, dolphins and gorillas - anesthetized of course.

"It'll even take a zebra," Adkesson said.

Jessi, while weighing about 100 pounds, was anesthetized because "she's a little jumpy, she's feisty, so she wouldn't sit still in a scanner," Adkesson said.

Aardvarks, which are native to Africa, can be confused with South American anteaters but their favorite food is termites, zoo staff said. Jessi's 20 teeth are essential to grind down her meals, so Brookfield staff wanted to conduct a pre-emptive checkup. But because her mouth wouldn't open wide enough for vets to get a good peek, they opted for the CT scanner.

The zoo also received a donation from the Aurelio Caccomo Family Foundation to upgrade its animal hospital to accommodate the CT scanner. So far, vets have scanned a Mexican gray wolf, a ferret and a goat. In the case of the gray wolf, medical staff wanted a closer look at a suspicious mass on its kidney. Using the CT scanner, they determined the lump was benign.

"For the veterinarian world, this is state-of-the art," Adkesson said.