…2013 is gonna be a hellacious year. In Jan. 2012, LWR received 6 critters total, for the entire month. As of this week, the Jan. 2013 intake tally is already at 5. This isn’t boding well for the rest of the year…or my sanity (what little is left of it).

The gray squirrels’ eyes are open, but they’re in that nasty little stage of using each other as bathrooms, so they’re not real attractive at this point. By the next update, they will have outgrown that stage and will look decent enough for photos!

The gunshot female red tail’s (RT) follow-up x-ray had us all nearly dancing in the clinic. Her leg is healing beautifully!

To remind you, here’s her x-ray on intake in Dec.:

And here’s her x-ray from early this month:

Makes YOU wanna dance a happy jig, too, doesn’t it?

The gunshot male RT is due for a follow-up x-ray next week, but I’m pretty sure his will also be a good report. He’s holding both wings level, and when I change his paper, he can flare both evenly. He’s a paranoid little rascal (and he IS small next to this big ol’ female). Below is his typical reaction to a paper change.

After a few minutes, he perches normally again:

Shortly after the last update, I picked up a first-year RT, a male, with frounce. Fortunately, he was found in time for it to be treated, and I released him over the weekend. Below you can see how weak he was on intake.

And here are a couple of shots of him on release. Yes, that’s the porch of an abandoned old house on our property. There are rodents galore there and in the hay bales nearby, and trees all around to perch in…once he left the porch!

LWR recently received a Canada goose with an open fracture that had scabbed over. When the scab was prodded slightly, it came loose, taking a large chunk of bone with it, so the poor goose was euthanized.

This adult male red tail was found by the road. It was obvious to the finder that the wing was broken; he just wasn’t sure how badly. I met the finder that night to retrieve the bird, and when I opened the box, I could smell the infection before even examining him. His left wing had an open fracture; about an inch of bone was exposed, and the flesh was already turning black. There was nothing we could do for the poor bird but euthanize.

The next morning, a call came in about an owl found in the road. The caller’s description sounded like a great horned owl (GHO), and sure enough, when I picked up the bird, it was a small male GHO. In addition to a concussion—see  the right pupil?—he had an open fracture on his right wing, with about 2 inches of bone exposed—another case of euthanasia being the only humane choice.

Some people question the “humaneness” of euthanasia, so let me briefly address that here. When the alternative for an animal is a short and pain-filled life, euthanasia is a humane end to its suffering. If the alternative to euthanasia is starving to death, dying from exposure, or being eaten by predators, euthanasia is humane. When an animal’s injuries would preclude its release and its temperament isn’t suitable for an educational animal, euthanasia is more humane than a stress-filled life of captivity.

Rehabbers don’t make the decision to euthanize an animal lightly. It’s a generally touted statistic in rehab circles that some 50% of the wildlife we receive will either require euthanasia or die during the rehab process. We weigh the options carefully and sometimes delay the inevitable, hoping for a miracle. I always say that you can euthanize later if need be, but once it’s done, you can’t take it back. And every now and then, we get that miracle we hope for and watch another beautiful critter take its rightful place back in the wild. It’s my personal opinion that every release is a small miracle, and it’s my privilege to be a part of that small miracle.

Happy New Year, and here’s hoping 2013 is a good year for our native wildlife!

It’s not too late to purchase a 2013 LWR calendar through Lulu.com: http://www.lulu.com/shop/lwr-2013-calendar/calendar/product-20508997.html;jsessionid=9A82168D6909525E23A40D22846C7A80. The calendar features full-color photos of 12 of 2012’s intakes, one per month.  All proceeds ($10 per calendar) over Lulu.com’s printing fees will be used to support our rehab efforts in 2013. Thanks to those of you who’ve already purchased calendars; for those who haven’t—what’re you waiting for? 2013 has arrived; time’s a-wastin’!

The flying squirrels were released shortly after the last update; several nights recently that the weather’s been decent, I’ve heard flyers in the yard and seen one of my feeders swaying when I aimed a flashlight at it. They’re lightning-quick little rascals! I’m pretty sure the two released flyers took up with the colony that frequents my yard at night.

The gray squirrels continue to grow apace, although they’re somewhat smaller than they should be. I’m not sure if this is because of the crappy diet they had before I got them or if it’s just that they were “out of season” babies. As of today, we had one fully open pair of eyes and one pair beginning to open.  All 6 beady little eyes should be open by the weekend.

The sharpie’s wing isn’t healing at all, and because of their spastic temperaments, sharpies are NOT good educational birds, so I’ll be taking her in for euthanasia in the morning. I hate having to euthanize the fighters…

This little brown bat (actual species name; Georgia also has big brown bats among its 16 species of bats) came in Christmas Day with a broken wing. Since I’m not licensed for RVS (rabies vector species), I took him in with the intention of transferring him to a properly RVS-licensed rehabber if he was savable. Of course, lacking the pre-exposure vaccine, the only way I could safely handle this little guy was with gloves, so a really thorough exam on my part was impossible.  I debated and hoped that what appeared to be an open fracture was actually a puncture wound, but  when my vets reopened after Christmas, we discovered that the break was in fact not fixable—there was no need for an x-ray, as when the little fellow began thrashing about in vet Richie Hatcher’s hand, it was obvious that the break was in the joint. Joint fractures in any flying creature, bat or bird, can’t be repaired to allow flight.

Let me digress a bit here and defend bats for a moment. They’ve gotten a bad reputation thanks to horror movies and their status as rabies vectors. They’re beneficial little critters, devouring thousands of insects per bat per night. Bats are actually non-aggressive unless threatened, and the last stats I saw indicated that less than 1% of bats tested for rabies actually tested positive. Annually, only about 2 people in the US die from rabies acquired from bats, and those deaths occur because they don’t know they’ve been bitten—bat bites don’t always leave obvious, bleeding puncture wounds.  I do not recommend handling bats bare-handed, and because you can be bitten and not realize it, I do recommend that you err on the side of caution and assume exposure to rabies should you wake to find a bat in your bedroom or in a child’s bedroom. It’s just common sense. Without prompt post-exposure vaccines, rabies is almost always fatal!

These stereotypical grimaces were a reaction to our exam:

This is a more normal expression for bats:

The gorgeous  gunshot female red tailed hawk is doing well and seems to be attempting to put a little weight on her broken leg now, which is an encouraging sign. I really adore this lady; she’s so laid back and trusting. She goes in for a follow-up x-ray tomorrow.

And finally, just after Christmas, another gunshot red tailed hawk, a mature male, came in. This guy’s wing is broken but not badly displaced, so he should heal well. He’s not nearly as good humored as the female; in fact, he acts downright paranoid.

Over the next few weeks I’ll be working on my annual reports for the state and feds; what I can report to you right now is that LWR received 200 animals in 2012. I can also promise you that nice, even numbers like that don’t often occur in wildlife rehab!