Wildlife Rehabilitation in Utah/Second Chance Wildlife Rehabilitation: A wonderful release and some sadness.......

Monday, December 20, 2010

A wonderful release and some sadness.......

It's cold, wet and gray here today....yuck! I think I'd like to migrate south.

Our three Great Horned owls, Willow, Boo Boo and Aretha are all doing well. I've included photo updates on Willow,

who will need her eye removed and Boo Boo who is also blind in one eye, but that eye can stay in place since it is not deteriorating at this time. As soon as he kills successfully, he can go, but it's just to wet to attempt that right now. Hopefully very soon, however.

Boo Boo is the one with the cloudy looking eye. Aretha just needs time maneuvering in the flight.

We recently got in another Great Horned owl, this one from Lake Powell down in southern Utah. He had been electrocuted and was found floating in the lake. How he survived the initial electrocution is just amazing. Unfortunately, what an electrocution does to ones insides is usually fatal and he died two days later. I hope we provided him with some peace and comfort for his final hours.

A few weeks ago we picked up a Western Grebe. Amazing creatures, those Grebes. This little guy, like most of my Grebe cases, went down while migrating.

They migrate at night and cannot stand and walk on land, they need water, so if they see a wet road or parking lot at night, with the moons light or street lights, this can appear to be a body of water and they come down and BANG...hard pavement. Then they are stuck. Sometimes they can become injured hitting the ground, but usually they need and exam and a day or two just

to monitor their behavior and then put back onto a large body of water.
They need around a hundred feet of water to take off, running along until take off. It's wonderful to watch. We released this little guy out on Utah Lake, just in the nick of time.

The lake was freezing over quickly. I took him there because others of his kind had been spotted the day before by a local birder, so that was the best choice for him. Here Connie is putting him in the water at a boat ramp.

When I get calls for these types of birds, the finders always say the bird has a broken leg (since they can't move on the ground). They are built to dive and float for the most part!

The last post I had mentioned a new Red-Tail hawk coming in. She had a compound fracture in her left wing that was two weeks old, yes, two weeks....idiot people. When she finally arrived, I made plans right away for surgery. Just as I knew would be, the bones had already started to fuse together. My vet was able to re-break them and spread them back into their correct position, in spite of all the calcification already building up around the broken areas. This took more time than a normal surgery of this type that didn't have all of the "healing" already taking place. This was just too much for the bird and she died after the surgery. She never came out of her anesthesia. The people who found her didn't do right by her. They fed her, but this could have been prevented. This is why there are laws prohibiting what they did. She needed to get medical help immediately, not two weeks later!

I need to take a moment to yell...............idiots!

Last, but not least,
Keep your bird feeders full and remember, during the cold months, water is just as important as the rest of the year, so provide a clean, shallow source of water for your backyard birds. They'll appreciate it!

Debbie

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ATTENTION

Spring is a very active wonderful time for all animals. Babies are born and learning what it takes to be wild from their parents. Unfortunately, many may end up in trouble and often times humans may try to intervene, whether or not it is necessary. The inexperienced human finding a baby bird, for instance, more than likely cannot tell if the bird is truely in need of help, or is learning to fly, something that can take a few days to master. Leaving the baby to learn what it needs is something an experienced birder can spot, but taking that baby home, thinking you're helping, when in fact, it is the worst thing possible for that baby, has now changed it's life forever.
Call a rehabilitator for answers. Yes, we want that baby to be safe from predators, but give that baby a chance. The worst thing that happens in these situations is an improper diet being fed by the 'rescuer'. This will result in death, if not right away, then in time, due to improper development. Different birds require different diets and different amounts of food at different times. Here is where a wildlife rehabilitators knowledge and experience makes all the difference. Don't try to do this yourself, only to attempt to find a rehabilitator as the baby is dying due to your 'efforts'. When they are at this stage, there is very little that can be done AND it is also illegal to attempt raising wildlife. Only a permitted wildlife rehabilitator can do this legally, for we know how to keep them wild and ready for release as well. Making them pets, besides being illegal is very selfish and is not what's best for the wildlife. They need to be free and have learned how to find the food they will need to survive in the wild and know what to avoid and learn the language of their species. There is a lot that goes into a successful rehabilitation and the orphans out there deserve the best chance possible. Don't you agree?

DID YOU KNOW...........

Wildlife rehabilitation is a profession borne of a love and concern for wild things everywhere. We wildlife rehabilitators have taken this many steps forward, increasing our knowledge, skills and techniques into a career that most people do not know exists. Most people assume that the work that a wildlife rehabilitator does is something all state wildlife agencies perform as state employees. This could not be further from the truth.
The reality is, all wildlife rehabilitation is done, in all 50 states, by us, wildlife rehabilitators. State and federal officials MAY occasionally pick up the patients that come to us, but they bring them to us at our homes and facilities, not their state or federal offices or vets offices.
Ours is a specialized field that primarily involves vet/medical expertise. No, we are not veterinarians, but many of us have extensive backgrounds in medicine (people and animals).
We also have vast backgrounds in the natural history of the patients we care for. Our work involves many fields. State and federal wildlife folks just don't have that training or background.
The other aspect of our work that is not known, is that we are not paid by anyone. Our patients don't 'belong' to anyone. They are wild beings. So when they have medical needs, there is no one to step up to this challenge except wildlife rehabilitators. Most of us work basically 24/7. Holidays are no exception. When an animal is hurt, it needs help now!
To top it all off, whatever expenses these patient incure, the bills are paid by us, for vet care, surgeries, medications, all of it. We build their homes and repair them as needed. All of our patients need something. They are not here to visit, they are in trouble. So imagine if you will......going to work everyday, driving your own vehicle to do that work and never getting a paycheck. OK, so maybe you can do that.....now imaging having a source of income from somewhere, now, this is where things get really different. When you get that money, you just turn it over to other people to pay for what your patients need, regardless of your financial needs!
This is wildlife rehabilitation.
We also are constantly pursuing continuous education of the latest finds in our field. We strive to be the best we can for those entrusted to us.
So please, support your wildlife rehabilitator in your area. They need it and believe me, it is very much appreciated.

Wildlife Rehabilitation in Utah/Second Chance Wildlife Rehabilitation

Monday, December 20, 2010

A wonderful release and some sadness.......

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