Saturday, September 20, 2003
Orphan Feeding
Okay-- this is the deal on the Wildlife Clinic at UI Vet Med:
It is managed by students and staffed by a resident UI veterinarian and student volunteers. There are ten volunteer teams of about 8 students each, and each team is assigned case animals that they assess and treat daily. Team members take turns doing morning and evening treatments. I usually like to morning treaments, so I come in about three mornings a week.
The Wildlife Clinic is located on the lower level of the Small Animal Clinic
A few days of each month, each team has pager duty; there are two pagers, and two volunteers at a time carry a pager for a four hour shift (but the overnight shift is 12 hours--8:00p.m. to 8:00 a.m.). Technically, each volunteer only has to carry the pager for three or four shifts each month. When paged by the reception desk or by the ER after hours, the pager person returns the call to find out what new animal is being admitted. Then said volunteer rushes to the scene to admit, assess, and treat said animal. The volunteer then assigns the newly admitted critter to one of the volunteer teams and contacts that team leader. Diagnostics (such as radiographs or blood work) can be requested in writing.
Another few days each month, each team has orphan duty. Very young, orphaned animals need to be checked and fed every three to four hours, so team members sign up for feeding times throughout the three day tenure of orphan duty. Since orphans require so much attention and care, they don't usually stay long at the clinic; a
wildlife rehabber comes to pick up orphans about once a week. (Click
here to see what you should do if you find injured or orphaned wildlife. Click
here to see a list of rehabbers in Illinois.) Just to clarify, the Wildlife Clinic is a
medical facility, not a rehabilitation facility. You see a doctor when you initially get injured, but for long-term rehab you see a therapist--right? Veterinarians know medicine and will initially diagnose and prescribe treatment, but the
rehabbers care for and treat the animals because they can better prepare them for release back to the wild.
We currently have only two orphans: a squirrel and a pigeon.
Kim, one of my teammates, is stimulating the squirrel with a cotton ball to make him poop.
(Remember, very young squirrels, racoons, kittens and puppies need mom to lick their groin area to help them eliminate because their little muscles aren't yet stong enough to do it alone.)
Now she checks his lungs for "crackling"--a sign of respiratory congestion.
What a face!
I tube fed the pigeon by placing a small rubber tube down its throat into its crop and pushing warmed, liquefied baby bird food through with a syringe:
I know you're thinking this is a face only a mother could love--but I think she's adorable!
See the little yellowish "pins" all over her head? Those are new feathers. If you massage one between your fingers, the delicate white sheath flakes off and a fluffly feather emerges. Birds groom themselves by picking at these with their beaks, but they also like to be groomed by each other--it's a social thing and a bonding thing--just like when monkeys pick and eat bugs off each other. This little baby loved getting her feathers massaged. I let her walk around and flap her wings a little, since she spends most of her day in a plastic ice cream bucket inside an incubator. The exercise is good for her muscles.
