Week recap

Its been a very busy week - I worked 6 days as I covered someones shift, and in the middle also celebrated the 4th of July and a baby shower - thus the lack of posts. Here are some highlights.

We had a turtle come in who had swallowed a fish hook. The end of the fishing line was tied to a dock, and she was stuck for 2 days before someone rescued her and brought her in. The vet took an xray to see where it was, and saw that she was chock full of eggs! The vet performed surgery, but she started hemoraging. He left friday night saying he wasn't sure if she was alive or not, he'd come back in the morning to check! Apparently with turtles its hard to tell. Well, Saturday morning she was walking around looking fine, so we are going to release her with the fish hook still inside her, so she can lay her eggs.

The nudist owl should be released this week, he passed his live prey test. All of the canadian gosslings now look like geese! We have over 50 waterfowl right now - something like 40 ducklings! They are quite adorable as usual. We also have a few wood ducks.
This is what a wood duck looks like grown up, ours are still quite young (Click here for pictures of ducklings).


We got down to only 6 raccoons being tube fed, with the rest up on the hill, learning how to be adults. Usually we have a cap at 40 raccoons, but we just extended the limit, as we've been having a few orphaned babies trickling in that we don't have room for, and right now some of our runs, usually reserved for animals like Bears and Coyotes have room. So we are now accepting up to 58 or so. When I tube fed this weekend, I saw two little raccoons in a cage that was totally clean, spic and span - no spilled food or water or smeared feces, and they were just sleeping in the back of the corner. I knew they must be new to us - since the rest are such messy little guys.

For some reason we have been getting in a ton of Northern Flickers. A bird I didn't know before Paws.

They are all cute - perching on their logs and pecking up their food... BUT they are total escape artists! Even just trying to put new food into their cage, one has gotten out on me. Catching them is not fun... And it seems like we just keep getting them. A lot of them we think are window strikes - so some of them are healthy once they get over the shock. Then they get to move up to the hill - to a big room, and they fly madly back and forth overhead when you go in there.

We also have a few tiny birds, like wrens and chickadees. That I think I've finally figured out how to catch and hold them for meds. And in the ward (where the sicker animals start) we have another young hawk. He's super cute and hungry. When you put his mice in he eats them right away. You'll throw one in while he's swallowing another, and he immediatly stomps on it with one tallon, and holds it ready, until he's done w/ his first one (these are already dead mice).

Up in the raptor mews (bigger rooms outside they can fly in) the Barn own we assist fed is doing better and flying now, but still not eating, so we still shove mice down his throat. We have a young bald eagle - so young his head is black. And he lies down a lot, cause he's so heavy and his legs don't support him well yet. When you go in to feed or clean he honks at you! ("Hey, get out of my palace!"). We also have a falcon and a hawk up there, and two great horned owls (the nudist one and a fluffy younger one).
Oh! we also have a mountain beaver. Its like a giant plump rodent! so funny looking (from wikipedia):



And finally - the bears are still super cute and active. This week their enrichment involved ropes tied to the ceiling and they loved them! swinging and biting and chewing on them. So adorable. Here is a video of the actual cubs at Paws, borrowed from the paws blog (http://blog.paws.org/). Watch the little guy get down from the carrier:

Raccoons

Before I get to the raccoons... Today we got in a young great horned owl. He came in because someone found him tangled in a volley ball net. At a nudest colony...
We're thinking he must have been awfully distracted by all the naked people and then flew into the net... (he was looking for other hooooters. Ha!).

Anyways... I spent most of Friday helping out raccoons. First we started getting one of the silos ready for some of the raccoons to move up to the hill. At paws the young guys get to stay inside in little cages, and once they weigh over 1200 g and are self feeding, they move to a large outside enclosure. This year we hung tarps below the ceiling - because they like to climb and this way it would catch them if they fell. But it turns out they really love sleeping up in the tarps. The nice thing about it is the cages are easier to clean, because they spend so much time up there. Bad thing - it must be super gross and full of poop!
We have 4 silos that can each hold 10 raccoons - I was getting ready the 3rd one. Once that was ready I went down and tubed some of the remaining raccoons - we have about 20 left, only 12 or so getting tubed. Raccoons are so cute.
Once we replenish their water dishes they get so excited and run to dunk their little paws in it, and knead the water. They often stand in the water, just moving their feet. Here is a video if a raccoon in water from youtube to give you an idea of them:


Right now they are pretty young still - and they are curious but timid. So you open the door and they try to dash out, then you reach in and they shrink back, not sure what to think. Up in the silos I found two of them curled up in a big dog food bowl (which had food in it that morning). So cute! They just glanced up at me and went back to sleep. They also like to sleep in their "hammock" which is a black piece of canvas hanging from its four corners, folded in half, and they all pile up in it on top of each other. To get in they have to climb the fence, and they do so slowly, while eyeing me, not sure if I'm interesting or terrifying. At this age cleaning their cages is sorta fun!

I ended the evening helping out with meds and tubings again. I tube fed a gull - who is very bitey. And did manage to bite my finger once (bad gull).

Second week - big birds

My second week at paws was short again - only two days, as I then took the weekend off to go do my first half iron-man triathlon! (But that story belongs to another blog...)

This week the laundry and cleaning situation was way more under control, and we finally caught up from last weeks mountains of dirty items. I learned that Wednesdays are nice - because we have a ton of staff - it is the day of the week a lot of us overlap. Even so, my days are so busy that I come home and I can barely remember what I did and saw - all I know is that a lot of it was exciting!

We have a juvenile Hawk - and I watched him get fed his dinner of mice, since he doesn't want to eat on his own yet. He is super cute - he's got the the big sharp looking talons of a mature bird, but his head and fluffiness gives away his young age. He looks a little like this young hawk:



Up close his mouth doesn't look that big (though sharp!) and the rehabbers simply open it up, and shove a whole half mouse down his throat! He then closes his mouth, does a little swallow, and *poof* its gone. Though once or twice there was a tail sticking out of his mouth, and he had to be prompted (rub his neck) to remember to swallow the rest. Young Hawks are pretty cute - not quite as intimidating as the mature ones.
The next day I once again tube fed a bunch of Raccoons - though now we're down to only 24 as the bigger ones are weaned and eating on their own (yay!). One of the seasonals showed me how she holds the raccoon still and the tube in place, and it seemed to work well for me. I think I finally got the hang of it! Also once again, baby raccoons sure are cute! (I'm pretty sure the theme of this blog is that baby animals are cute...).
In the evening I got to feed a great horned owl. It mainly just means I threw some (dead) mice into his cage, but I got to see him - and he was so fluffy. He seemed less excited to see me - and clicked his beak at me.
I also got to do subQ on an oppossum - which is different than an raccoon as they are smaller and the skin is less thick. But at least it didn't scream at me!

I think those are the highlights of the week. I'm leaving a lot off, but its hard when we fit so much into the day...

The first week

I'm going to try and summarize my first week (only 3 days) as an intern at Paws in just one blog.

A week before I started I had "advanced volunteer training" where we learned/practiced on dead animals how to tube feed, and give subQ and IM injections. I've never done anything with needles before - and this was oddly exciting to me. Something about giving an injection, and breaking through the skin of an animal with a needle makes me feel closer to becoming a vet. Anyways, training went well, and I was ready to start the next week.

On the first day I helped with a lot of cleaning and preparing diets (and I presume I will spend a lot of the summer doing that), and at 8pm it was time to tube feed 44 raccoons. Since it was my first day, and I'd never done that, I drew up the syringes and helped clean, and then R my rehabber helped me tube held the last raccoon and let me do it. I was nervous and excited, but it went well! Then I got to help give subQs of fluids to 10 of the raccoons - This made me even more nervous. It also doesn't help that while you're poking them with the needle and pushing the fluids in, the raccoons enjoy screaming. And it is a high pitched loud scream, that sounds like they are in so much pain! BUT - I had to keep reminding myself, they also scream even when they're just alone in their cage, or just being held - so it probably was not my fault! I got a little more comfortable as I went, but I think it will take me a few more times to feel totally confident doing it.
The second day I tube fed two raccoons all by myself, and continued to help cleaning putting stuff away, etc. It really is amazing how much laundry and dirty dishes are generated by running a wildlife hospital.. Its never ending!
At the end of the day we watched the two baby harbor seals get tube fed, and OMG are they adorable. First things I've ever seen that are cuter than puppies! Those big seal eyes! Here is a picture of one I found off the internet (not ours) so you can see, our are cuter of course.


Sunday morning I started off preparing food for and feeding a bunch of our birds (and baby birds). We have 9 little gosslings who are in a big area with a Geese who came in w/ a hurt wing, and now gets to play mother. Its funny watching them all follow her around in a pack. And the baby mallards are just so adorable. Fuzzy and yellow. I'll be honest that the crows sometimes scare me - when you come in and five of them are on a perch staring and cawing at you, its hard not to think of some scenes from Hitchcocks - "the birds."
I then tube fed all 44 raccoons myself! Yes, I went from help doing one, to doing two alone, to doing 44. I'll say that by the end I was definitely getting more confident and comfortable with them, though I'm still not quite up to snuff. I'm sure by next week I will be! I keep watching other peoples techniques as I'm trying to find the best way to hold the tube in their mouth while pushing down on the syringe. I'll get it soon!