{"id":474284,"date":"2026-03-13T23:45:22","date_gmt":"2026-03-13T23:45:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/474284\/"},"modified":"2026-03-13T23:45:22","modified_gmt":"2026-03-13T23:45:22","slug":"giant-hairy-armadillo-checks-into-nottinghamshire-vets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/474284\/","title":{"rendered":"Giant Hairy Armadillo checks into Nottinghamshire vets"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Nottinghamshire veterinary practice has had an unexpected visitor from Valley Wildlife when Brutus, a 12.5-year-old Giant Hairy Armadillo, was brought in after keepers noticed sudden lameness and an unusual amount of weight gain.<\/p>\n

Despite eating normally, Brutus had stopped coming out as much, prompting zoo staff to contact Sutton-in-Ashfield Vets for Pets.<\/p>\n

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Exotic vets Steph and Gabi at the practice carried out a full-body X-ray with support from veterinary nurse Ruth. The X-ray revealed Brutus had early arthritis affecting multiple joints, including his back left knee and both front elbows.<\/p>\n

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– Advertisement –<\/a><\/a><\/p>\n

Brutus was prescribed pain medication and, since his treatment, he has become active again and returned to a healthy weight. As a practice with multiple members of the team who have an interest in exotics, they have treated a range of birds and reptiles.<\/p>\n

However, this was their first patient from a zoo collection, and with Sutton-in-Ashfield Vets for Pets already working closely with Valley Wildlife, the team hopes that Brutus will not be the last exotic visitor.<\/p>\n

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Practice owner and head veterinary nurse Faye said:<\/p>\n

\u201cBrutus really was something you don\u2019t see every day. Seeing as we work with cats, dogs and small animals most days, it is a real shock when you look up and see an armadillo being carried through reception.<\/p>\n

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\u201cBut he was a character who took it all in his stride; it was lovely to see him perk up after we gave him his pain relief.<\/p>\n

\u201cCaring for animals as unusual as Brutus is one of the best parts of our job, and he has definitely earned a spot as one of our all-time favourite patients.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Nottinghamshire veterinary practice has had an unexpected visitor from Valley Wildlife when Brutus, a 12.5-year-old Giant Hairy…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":474285,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[90,56,54,55,4407],"class_list":["post-474284","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-science","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/474284","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=474284"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/474284\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/474285"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=474284"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=474284"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=474284"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}