Tuesday, May 26, 2009

Current Orphans

Over the summer, the clinic gets in a lot of juvenile animals. Some of them are injured, some are just too young to fend for themselves and their parents have been injured, some are being removed from dangerous situations (like after being dug up from their nest by a dog or cat) and some of them are healthy orphans who would probably do best if left alone. Our recommendations are to call us only when:
1) you know the parents are dead (evidence of a dead adult nearby)
2) the animal is obviously injured, weak, thin, very cold or sick
3) the animal is covered with flies or insects , or
4) the animal is in unavoidable, unnatural danger.

Cygnet (Juvenile Swan)
Cygnet
Cygnet with his surrogate "mom"
Cygnet with his "mom"
Juvenile American Kestral
Juvie Kestral
Two of our volunteers feeding fawns
deer
Fawns
deer

Wednesday, May 20, 2009

Summer!

Summer has begun at the wildlife clinic. All of the students have finished finals, and most of the volunteers have left to begin their summer adventures. During break, the clinic is kept running by the two managers, two interns and a couple of super devoted volunteers. There are quite a few cases in the ward right now, including a couple of mallard ducks, a juvenile swan, some squirrels. rabbits and a great horned owl. A garter snake just presented after being closed in a door and is currently down getting radiographs. With fewer volunteers and the continual influx of cases, summer is always exciting in the WMC!

Juvenile Swan
Juvie Swan

Mallard
Mallard

Examining the Garter Snake
Garter Snake Pager
Garter Snake Radiograph
Photobucket
The arrow points to the spinal fracture. (Click on the picture to enlarge.)