Vet Day

There is a big difference between medical care for pets and wildlife.  Pets are more frequently being thought of as family members and the medical care available represents that shift in values.  For instance, there are increasing numbers of pet medications that are being manufactured and prescribed for arthritis and general pain relief.  Even if a dog's hind legs are paralyzed, there are options to help him move around on his own and enjoy a relatively good, if somewhat controversial, quality of life. 

Wildlife, on the other hand, must be better than well enough to live and seem happy.  They have to be able to survive in the roughest and most unforgiving of circumstances.  The role of a wildlife rehabilitator is to use available resources in such a way as to give the animal a chance to heal and, if that is not possible, then to allow them to leave this world in a safe, comfortable environment and in a humane manner.  This may mean euthanizing animals that seem healthy but due to an injury or imperfection would not be able to survive in the wild.  This is especially true for birds.  Birds must be in peak mental and physical condition in order to succeed in the wild.  They must be able to fly, perch and feed themselves perfectly. 

The Wildlife Center does not have a veterinarian on site full-time so every few weeks the assigned wildlife vet will make a visit to give his/her opinion on those cases that are a little more complex than others.  Because of this, "Vet Day" at the clinic means that some animals will be put down since there are always cases where the rehabilitators aren't confident of the next course of action and/or would like another opinion.  These days are invaluable since the vet is able to answer questions and impart a good amount of knowledge to the rehabilitators during the evaluations.  

Today, we evaluated around 20 birds.  We caught each of them, looked over their wings, feet and feathers and took blood on most of them.  In the end, we euthanized three birds - two Laughing Gulls and a Northern Gannet.  One of the gulls had a severe wing injury that was beyond repair and the other had some sort of infection or contaminant that caused his feathers on one wing to be of no use and even the new growth feathers were no good.  After he was put to sleep, the vet took a few feathers to send to a lab so we could find out what the problem was exactly.  The gannet had a foot injury that was not responding to antibiotics and appeared to be getting worse and more infected.  Without use of his foot, he would be unable to stand or support his weight on land not to mention the chance of the infection spreading.  The feet of a bird are extremely important.  Without strong legs and feet, a bird will be forced to fly or swim continuously and will eventually die from exhaustion.  For some reason I had never thought of this before working with wildlife and it is still one of the hardest things for me to see - a beautiful, strong, healthy bird that must be put down because of his feet seems so unjust, even if it's the right thing to do.


These are the days that are sad.  Everyone's heart breaks a little when having to euthanize an animal that we have spent several days or weeks caring for and trying to nurse back to health.  In fact, I'm not sure that I ever want to work with someone that is able to euthanize with little or no feeling for the loss of a life.  The only way I'm able to deal with it is to say a little prayer, move forward and think about the 30-35 other birds that are ready to be fed and still have a chance at a better life because I'm here. 

After I had helped with the evaluations, I chose to spend the rest of the day in the aviary even though it was raining and I was getting soaked.  I fed the pelicans (which is so fun!!) and cleaned pools.  It was somewhat therapeutic to stand silently siphoning out the pool in an enclosure while surrounded by chirping gulls.  They were very excited about the rain and continued to talk for the entire time.  The pelicans make me laugh every time I go in to feed them.  We have a juvenile that is so cute but gets very upset when anyone comes in - and he tells you in no uncertain terms how unhappy he is that you are there.  The adult pelican just hangs out in the corner but is very happy to catch a few fish if you have the time to toss them.  He will eat 10 or so before letting you know that he is bored with the game by spitting the last one out and then turning his attention elsewhere.

Overall, I had a wonderful day and learned several new things.  I'm starting to adapt to the 12 hour days and although I still hate hearing my alarm go off, I am so excited about going to do something so fun and rewarding everyday.  There is a lot of speculation as to the length of time that this clinic will be needed (i.e., how long I have a paying gig).  No one really knows and I think we are all waiting to see how things look after a couple of heavy storms move in from the Gulf.  I've started wondering what I want to do with my life once the clinic closes and I'm no longer needed here.  The truth is that I have no idea what the future holds and it is a huge stretch for me to not have a workable plan but I think this adventure is the best thing I could ever do for myself - and the fact that I'm helping while doing a job I love with a cause I'm passionate about is just icing on the cake. 

Day One

The Wildlife Center looks like a giant warehouse - in fact, that is exactly what it is.  You can still see the faded name of the previous tenant on the awning above the door.  I had grand plans to come down the day before my first shift to get my bearings and make sure that I knew how to get to the center.  Of course, like so many good intentions, that didn't quite work out.  So at 6:45am I could be found making a mad rush from the hotel toward the right part of town but making all types of wrong turns and continuously cussing at Google Maps.  My closest friends and family will not be surprised at all by this revelation since I am somewhat notorious for pushing everything to the last available moment and then wondering why I am always 10-15 minutes late.

So I finally arrived at my destination and came busting through the front door with my backpack and purse in hand.  I had the strangest sensation that reminded me of the first day at a new school - you walk in going through the list in your head of all you would need for the day and suddenly it feels like the whole room turns to look at you while all you can do is smile and hope that you don't look like too big of a dork.  As it turned out, everyone was very nice and helpful although some were a little slower to warm up than others.  The other "rehab-ers" are all women as of now- three from California and one other Alabama girl.  Once we started working together it was much easier to get to know them all - there's nothing like a bunch of girls bonding over injured birds!

The front room of the warehouse serves as the meeting room, break room, business office and file room.  As you walk through the next set of doors, you enter an enormous space that has been divided into a "kitchen" (for the animals' food, i.e. fish in a refrigerator), two exam areas-one for initial intake and one for medical evaluations and testing, and lots of smaller spaces for housing critical patients.  Each area is enclosed with large blue tarps that serve as dividers.  Outside there is a large covered solarium with 12 individually divided aviaries.  Each of the aviaries has a small pool for swimming or wading, depending on the type of bird that will be inhabiting it.  This is the halfway point for recovery since the birds need both water and dry areas to build up the waterproofing on their feathers once they have been thoroughly cleaned.  There are also 6 open air pools that serve to allow the birds to acclimatize to the heat while staying mostly in the water. 

My first day consisted of washing dishes, cleaning out pools, feeding birds and generally trying to get a feel for the routines.  I've never been around seabirds much but they are such amazing creatures.  The one thing that I definitely noted, in case you are curious, is that they all eat fish.  This fact was somewhat hard to ignore since I was constantly tossing fish to gannets, restocking bowls of fish for the pelicans and gulls, cleaning fish out of the pools and force-feeding fish to one very strong-willed juvenile pelican.  By the end of the day, I had been splashed and soaked so many times that my clothes smelled like fish all the way down to my running shoes.  I had been standing for the great majority of 12 hours (my back and feet were so tired), I had been in and out of the 100 degree temperature all day (I now have a lovely farmers' tan and red neck) and my hands were dry from the water and Dawn detergent.  And did I mention that I smelled like a fish????

It was the best first day at work I've ever had......