Squirrel season!

Squirrel season is officially in full swing. Last night we had no volunteers show up, so we got to work, moving efficiently and speedily, to accomplish the nights chores. 6pm - feed all the nocturnal animals - I made a delicious meal for all our raccoons, that included dog food, sun flower seeds, apples, and some fish.
Then we tubed a few of the animals not eating on their own, did a few cleaning chores, and got started on the evening med list early. Luckily the med list was shorter than in past weeks, and we got through it in record time, finishing by 8:30.
So I felt like we were doing ok to get out of paws on time at 10pm... Then I remembered the squirrels.
A week ago we had about 5 squirrels, we now have over 20. All getting fed formula/milk out of little syringes, which is not a fast process. Its lucky baby squirrels are so cute!


(Someone on youtube feeding a baby squirrel).

Some of the volunteers from the bird nursery came up and helped, since they are running low on baby birds (their season ends as our second squirrel season begins). But feeding them just takes a long time, no matter how cute they are. Especially when one of them says he's not hungry, and squirms and screams at me instead. I finally discovered he prefers being wrapped in a towel like a burrito, and then he was willing to drink his 8ml of formula.
It was around 9:30 by the time we finished with the squirrels (overall it took maybe 2 hours, since other people started at 7:30). Then we rushed through the evenings chores, and head home after 10:30. It was a full, squirrel filled day. And it may only get worse in the next few weeks :).

Necropsys

My first day back at Paws after the horse vet proved very exciting. While with the horse vet I had realized just how little animal anatomy I knew, and decided I definitly needed to do some studying up on that so I could follow their conversations/diagnosis better before I go back. then I show up at Paws and the vet is doing a necropsy on a seal! We have gotten in 5 orphans this year, and 4 of them have died! Its very sad as you can imagine - seals are hard to rehab, but we don't usually have that low of a success rate. But getting to see the insides was cool - after cutting it open they found that the stomach had somehow twisted around (similar to colic in horses) and thus it couldn't keep food down and had died. Horses however show the pain right away - and we can treat it, sometimes with surgery, but the seal looked fine the night before, then was dead in the morning.
I was reminded again how little anatomy I knew, as the vet asked us what different organs and parts where. They send off a little bit of each organ to a pathologist who will analyze them and see if anything was abnormal about the seal. Its pretty cool that we just send a little tiny bit of unlabelled organs and they can tell them all apart. The vet even took out the brain and part of the tongue. It was also interesting to hear more about our wildlife vets background and how he got into wildlife - there where not a whole lot of wildlife vets back when he was finishing vet school.
(Long tailed weasel, picture from wikipedia)

In other Paws news - we got in a hybrid duck we call "mega duck" - we think she's a cross between a domestic duck and a wild one. And she is giant.
We have so many raptors that some of them have to share cages - two hawks are in a enclosure together. The barn owl is still not eating on its own - but may have passed a live prey test. Before releasing something like an owl we let them catch a mouse to make sure they have hunting skills. BUT. we left the mouse in the enclosure in a tub obernight, and now its gone. but so is all the mouse food. And there are lots of rats who live up there, so we are giving the owl the benefit of the doubt.
Mr. Bitey gull is still with us, and not eating on his own. And he got me real good this week - I'm very careful about holding his head as I get ready to tube, and then tube him, but as I was finishing he snacked down on my hand. Big jerk!
We have a douglas squirrel that was being hazed cause he's too friendly - and everyone had been impressed his food bowl is licked clean each day. Well. someone went in to clean his cage, and found his little hideaway box full of food! He was sooo stocked up for the winter :).

We also got in a Coyote this week - she was very out of it and lethargic - probably hit by a car. she looks like a small dog and is very cute. As of sunday she was improving, but her prognosis is still guarded. As the vet did his initial exam he'd hold her head up to check out damage (a broken tooth and some cuts on her face and one side of her body), when he let go she'd just lay her head right back down and sleep. any time she wasn't being bothered she'd sleep, and barely had the energy to hold her head up. It made me wonder how someone even found her, I bet by the side of the road she looked close to dead... Poor girl.

And we have a long tailed weasel.
The bald eagle is still big as ever and honking at anyone who walks by.
I've been so busy that its taken me a little while to keep caught up on the blogs - so I may be forgetting cool animals. Hopefully I'll remember and add them as I go.

Stupid Chipmunk

Today started off normal enough - I fed all the baby birds on the hill, then all our ducklings, then tube fed the few remaining young raccoons (only 5 left). 2 of which are quite bitey and growly. Then... I went to weigh and move the chipmunk to a clean cage. It took a few minutes to catch him, as he darted around his cage, but he finally hit under a towel and I scooped him up and put him in a box on the scale. AS I'm closing the lid on the box, he literally FLIES out of it, like 3 feet in the air, but the scale is on a counter, so he's like 6 feet in the air. He lands on the ground, looks around for a sec, and then takes off.
I then proceeded to spend the next 30 minutes trying to catch him. I had a net, but he had lots of hiding spots and was tiny and speedy. After about 10 minutes, I finally got him cornered into a little box (a trap I set for him) and netted him. I am super careful, briging him, in the net, over to the scale, I put him in, keeping the net over the box, lower the lid, and SPRING. He somehow flies from the box again! I wish I had a picture of him 6 feet in the air. So I then caught him twice more. On the third catch I decided to skip weighing him, so as to not loose him again. I put him in his living quarters, which as about 2 feet tall sides, lower the lid, and again, he FLIES out. WTF, I mean, this little guy is like an inch tall. And he can jump with a foot clearance over a 2 ft wall??
I then recruited help to catch him for the fourth time, we weighed him, then locked him in safe and secure. The rehabber who helped me catch him said he was going to go to a giant room on the hill today, where he would not have to be caught daily, BUT he had lost 2 grams since yesterday, so he must remain one more day at least in the building... After that I weighed and moved the squirrel and held him soooo securely, even though I doubt squirrels can fly like that little guy...

Our seal is doing well, and growing big. He finally is learning how to feed himself. Seals need to eat their fish head first, and parallel to their body. Our little guy picks up the fish perpendicular, than can't figure out how to get it rotated around, so while swimming in the water he tries to smack it w/ his flippers, and gets frustrated. Eating is hard!
Before he fed himself, the rehabbers had to shove fish down his throat. I found a video on youtube of a seal in England going through the same "treatment" here is what it looks like:


That is it for now. If I have free time in the next day or two I'll post a recap of the week.

Owls and herons

Today started off pretty slow at work. I spent a while on the cleaning pad scrubbing astroturf, and folded like 8 loads of laundry... (once again - animals sure are messy).

Then I got to hold the barn owl as he was "assist fed." Like the young hawk a few days ago - this involves shoving mice down his throat. I'd never held a raptor before, so it was quite exciting for me. You enter his box (which is like a little room) and he starts schreeeching loudly and spreads his wings to scare you. I'm told that he can't hurt me really... (sure) but his scaring tactics are pretty good. This video I found on youtube gives you an idea of his tactics:


Only in my case he's in a much larger enclosure - and hops around trying to escape me. The general tactic is to throw a sheet over him - once their heads are covered they usually hold still. Then secure his talons - his weapon of defence, and then pick him up, while keeping his talons and wings restrained. I finally got him after a little chasing - feeling bad for stressing him out. I sure was happy to have gloves on - his talons grip hard! Once I had him, he was well behaved, and ate his mice. This owl seems to be healthy other than not eating - so we're hoping he'll start eating soon so he can go free!

THEN I got to hold a great blue heron! He was much easier to catch - again we just threw a sheet over first. With the heron his weapon is his beak - so we made sure to always keep control of his head. And we always wear glasses - as apparently they like to poke out eyes :).

I finished off the evening helping with tube feedings and meds - a few birds still have to get tubed (including a gull who loves to bite) and a crow who clamps his beak shut sooo tight. We also have a cedar wax wing, who is super tiny and cute.


I'm slowly starting to learn my birds...
And I finished off the night giving subQ fluids to a little baby squirrel. It was easier than the raccoons and possum, maybe just cause I'm getting better at it.

But no, today, I didn't get to wear the bear suit.