Thursday, February 26, 2009

Doodle for Wildlife Registration

Don't forget to make your reservations for Doodle for Wildlife! Our annual fundraiser will be held on March 7th at the I Hotel and Conference Center this year. Technically, all reservations were supposed to be made by Friday, but I hear that the website will still be open at least through tomorrow (March 2nd).

Monday, February 23, 2009

American Crow Update

This American Crow originally presented with a fractured left metacarpal. The fracture had unfortunately broken through his skin, resulting in what we call an open fracture. His wing was wrapped and he was started on pain medication and antibiotics. He progressed well for a few weeks, but then injured his wing while he was trying to pick through his bandage. Self-injury is a common complication in the WMC, since the stay in the ward can be stressful for wild animals. Some animals cannot survive the stress of being indoors and handled by human beings, while others continually try to pick at themselves or their wounds. This Crow is still improving, with the team now incorporating some physical therapy into his treatments to try to ensure he retains movement in his wing. In these photos, members of Team 10 are changing the bandage that covers the Crow's wound and re-wrapping his wing to continue to stabilize his fracture.

Neil Wound Cleaning (2) 2/11/09

Neil Wound Cleaning 2/11/09

Saturday, February 21, 2009

WMC on The Morning Show!

This morning Amber Jenne of WCIA 3 did two live segments from the ward to help promote Doodle for Wildlife. If you missed it, you can check out the videos here! (Scroll down the the Amber Jenne Morning Show Segments and click on Doodle for Wildlife.) Thanks to all the volunteers who were in the ward early for the show and to the managers who did a great job promoting the clinic on air!

Friday, February 20, 2009

Resident Education Events

The resident raptors have been really busy lately. Last week, they had two visits to after-school programs in Mahomet, and this week they visited U of I students at Newman Hall and first graders at Unity East Elementary school. On February 28th, the birds will be at the Krannert Art Museum for their Kids@Krannert family festival. Krannert is displaying prints from the university library's copy of John James Audubon's Birds of America. Stop by and say hello!

Odin, our resident Red-Tailed Hawk
Photobucket

Barred Owl

This barred owl presented to the clinic with neurologic signs. You can see the head tilt in the photos, and we were also unsure if the owl could see. Over the last week, the team has been providing her with supportive care and anti-inflammatory medication. They even had to hand feed her for a few days. Our opthamology department looked at her eye and determined that she is visual. Her other signs have been improving and will hopefully be able to go to a rehabber early next week!

Barred Owl
Barred Owl

Barred Owl

Hand Feeding the Owl
Barred Owl Force Feed

Barred Owl in Her Cage
Barred Owl Team 3

Thursday, February 12, 2009

Fox Squirrel

The Wildlife Medical Clinic accepts injured animals 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. To make this possible, all of the clinic volunteers share the responsibility of being on-call. Once we admit an animal, the team on-call does a thorough physical exam and any immediately necessary treatments for the incoming patient. Sometimes, in order to do a complete physical exam, we need to anesthetize the animal. Wild animals are usually not very cooperative and can become dangerously stressed during them exam. Yesterday, the on-call team did a physical exam on this adult Fox Squirrel under anesthesia.
Physical Exam Pager Squirrel

Monday, February 9, 2009

Doodle for Wildlife Website


The Doodle for Wildlife website is now active! You can look at some of the celebrity doodles we have received and buy tickets for the event. Click here to check it out!

Fox Bandage Change

This Red Fox was recently hit by a car. She has a fractured front limb and a laceration on one hind limb. Here, the team has anesthetized the fox so they can change the bandage on her hind limb.

Red Fox Bandage Change

Wednesday, February 4, 2009

Clinic Update

The wildlife ward is still pretty quiet this week, though we have added a couple of cases. We now have a Canadian Goose with injuries most likely due to trauma. The goose had surgery on her fractured leg this morning to place an external fixator to help stabilize the limb. By this evening, she was back to her feisty self.


Team 2 with their goose.
Team 2 Goose
Julia, Canada Goose

Team 10 re-wrapping their crow's fractured wing with a figure 8 wing wrap
Figure 8 wing wrap