Laurens Wildlife Rescue
  • Home
  • I found a wild baby - what do I do?
  • How can I help?
  • Contact us
  • FAQ
  • This week in wildlife

Squirrels out the wazoo…

9/4/2009

0 Comments

 
Yep, this late summer/early fall is more than making up for the dearth of squirrels in rehab during the spring. So far I’ve released one baby and have 14 more at the moment, one of whom goes back to Smalley’s today to have a broken leg splinted, assuming the second set of x-rays doesn’t show any worse break than yesterday’s did—vet Jim Hobby wants to do another set to be sure, because she wasn’t real cooperative for us yesterday, so he’s planning to sedate her for today’s work. Why no sedation yesterday?  She was “shocky” and traumatized, so we opted to get her stabilized first and then worry about the leg—splinting the leg does no good if your patient dies from stress/shock in the process!
Picture
Here’s a shot of the former pinkie, the one you’ve watched grow over the past 6 weeks or so.  In another few weeks, she’ll be in the pre-release pen!

Picture
And here’s our new pinkie from last update, on August 24, a week after the last update…

Picture
…and here she is on Sept. 2. She’s growing nicely—can you see her rotund little belly?

Picture
This is just a cute shot of six of the squirrels that have come in recently. They’re all bedding together in a soft, warm “nest,” but in order to make sure everyone gets fed, I have to transfer ‘em somewhere as I feed each one—and all my carriers are currently occupied—so this little container that someone  brought me a bird in was sitting there…hey, it works!

Two of these babies had aspiration pneumonia and were extremely dehydrated and malnourished when they came in, as a result of being fed the wrong diet for a week and inhaling some of it into their lungs (aspirating). The person they came from basically decided they were dying and called me to take them. With fluids, meds and a proper diet, they’ve recovered and are slowly gaining weight.

Folks, this is a common occurrence in wildlife rehab: some member of the general public finds a wild baby and decides to try and raise it without the first clue what they’re doing, or they search the Internet and find some cobbled-together, nutritionally unsound diet and use it—and then, when the baby is at death’s door, they decide that they’re out of their element and contact a rehabber. Basically, we get to clean up someone else’s mess, or watch in frustration as a baby we could have saved (had we gotten it in time) dies or must be euthanized.

Don’t be this person; contact a wildlife rehabber immediately upon finding a wild baby or an injured wild adult of any kind.  Humane issues aside, it’s against the law to possess wildlife without a permit, as I’ve repeated ad infinitum, ad nauseum…

 

Stepping off the soapbox now, let me explain that while the possums are still doing well, there’s no photo of ‘em because they’re doing typical possum stuff; that is, they sleep all day!  Actually, the female does wake up late afternoon and run all over the pen. I’m calling these two Manic and Depressive. Manic, the female, is well, manic—running all over the pen frantically, etc. Depressive wakes up long enough to hiss and growl at me from his bed and presumably eat and poop at night, given his weight gain. Honestly, I almost never see him out of bed!
Picture
The Cooper’s hawk from the 8-17 update had bacterial pneumonia in her right lung; after a course of antibiotics, she was released last week.

Picture
The tailless red-tail is now with Steve Hicks of Bubba & Friends. Here’s a photo of Steve and his wife Angie the night they picked up the gorgeous lady and brought me a much-appreciated possum release pen that had been donated to Bubba & Friends. Raptor rehabbers don’t need possum release pens, but small mammal rehabbers most definitely do!

Picture
I apparently jinxed myself by mentioning late-season mourning doves in the last update, as I now have two at LWR, a fledgling and a nestling.

Picture
Picture
I also received a cat-attacked first-year bluebird Monday. Look at his color—male bluebirds are so much brighter than females!  See those few tail feathers?  The others were lost in the cat attack, those remaining feathers are broken and he’s managed to finish snapping off all but one of them as of today, but the remaining broken shafts will still have to be removed so that new feathers can come in properly. His puncture wounds are healing nicely, but he also has a broken scapula, which appears to be an old injury and possibly the reason the person’s cat was able to snag him in the first place.  At the moment, he can’t fly; he can only break a fall. We’re giving him more time to see what happens.  We’re not giving up easily on this gorgeous bird.

And folks, let me preach a little more here: I love cats; three spoiled-rotten felines share my life. And because I love them, they’re indoor-only—it’s safer for them and for the wildlife around my house. If you want to enjoy the companionship of your cats AND the beauty of birds at your feeders/birdbaths, keep your cats inside. It helps prevent incidents such as the one that brought this young man to me…

 

Picture
Sometimes, the “neat” factor does kick in at LWR, when an unusual guest arrives, and that happened last weekend with the arrival of a first-year Great Blue Heron. These birds stand four feet or more high when they fully extend their very long necks, and they have dagger-like beaks which they know how to use as weapons.

Picture
This guy was lucky in that he had no injuries; he’d apparently just been pushed to a marginal food area by older and more dominant birds, so he was hungry and on the thin side. Watching him eat was a real hoot: he’d spear the fish with his lethal beak, toss them back into that  very long throat—which expands to accommodate larger fish, by the way—and you could watch the fish wiggling as they travelled down his throat! After a couple of days of eating well—VERY well—he was good for release. The morning of his release, he expressed his gratitude by attempting to scalp me and pierce my eyebrow—such a lovely personality!

As of this writing, LWR has received 172 animals for the year, and the fall slowdown is nowhere in sight. I’ve gotten used to operating on a severe sleep deficit; I’ve accepted the fact that my bloodshot eyes probably make me look like a drunk or a drug addict; I’ve adjusted to rehabbing all day and editing all night, assuming no wildlife calls come in at midnight—and they have, believe me, they have. I promise you, dignity and self-consciousness are the first casualties for a rehabber: I toss on whatever has the least animal poop on it to run to the vet; on late-night calls, people are likely to see me with sopping wet hair, no makeup and glasses; my house hasn’t been cleaned in nearly a month now (the rehab area is relatively tidy; my living area looks like it’s been condemned!); clothes get washed as I reach the last pair of clean underwear…

So why do I do this? It’s all about the animals—human activity destroys their habitats daily; they’re forced into marginal areas to feed and breed; they’re hit by cars as they hunt in a long-established hunting area that now hosts a superhighway and/or a strip mall; people make no attempt to control their domestic animals until after they’ve attacked and seriously injured some wild animal... Taking in these injured, ill and orphaned critters is my way of attempting to make up for human stupidity and short-sightedness.  Yeah, most of the birds and mammals I take in are as common as dirt, but I like to think that it’s the efforts of rehabbers like me who help to keep them common.

 
0 Comments

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

    Archives

    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012
    May 2012
    April 2012
    March 2012
    February 2012
    January 2012
    December 2011
    November 2011
    October 2011
    September 2011
    August 2011
    July 2011
    June 2011
    May 2011
    April 2011
    March 2011
    February 2011
    January 2011
    December 2010
    November 2010
    October 2010
    September 2010
    August 2010
    July 2010
    June 2010
    May 2010
    April 2010
    March 2010
    February 2010
    January 2010
    December 2009
    November 2009
    October 2009
    September 2009
    August 2009
    July 2009
    June 2009
    May 2009
    April 2009
    March 2009
    February 2009
    January 2009
    December 2008
    November 2008
    October 2008
    September 2008
    August 2008
    July 2008
    June 2008
    May 2008
    April 2008

    Categories

    All
    Baby Birds
    Baby Deer
    Baby Opossums
    Baby Possums
    Baby Rabbits
    Bluegray Gnatcatchers
    Carolina Wren
    Common Loons
    Epd
    Fawns
    House Finch
    Mbta
    Migratory Bird Treaty Act
    Mockers
    Mockingbirds
    Orphaned Birds
    Orphaned Deer
    Orphaned Fawns
    Orphaned Opossums
    Orphaned Possums
    Orphaned Rabbits
    Orphaned Wildlife
    Squirrels
    Wildlife
    Wood Ducks

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.