The Goose That Swallowed Fishing Line

In late February, our veterinarian transferred a very sick Canada Goose to us. The goose was so emaciated that he had a hard time standing up, and had a large mass in his throat. The plan was to house him at our hospital until he had gained significant weight, then bring him back to the vet for an assessment and surgery to examine what exactly the mass in his throat was. Due to his emaciated state, it was unsafe for the goose to undergo surgery at this point.


The goose temporarily made a home with us for a couple of weeks, chowing down on high quality waterfowl food with fresh greens and vitamins. He enjoyed a daily bath, and due to our low patient load during this time, even had his own private room!

Early last week, the goose had gained significant enough weight, so we decided to bring him to our vet right away. A couple of hours later, our vet called and said the surgery was a success! The mass in his throat that we had all been wondering about was actually a large amount of fishing line that he had mistakenly swallowed. After about a week in recovery, he was released today in Locust Valley. We are so happy to have released an animal that was once in such serious danger!

Improperly discarded fishing line is a HUGE hazard to wildlife. We have admitted many injured animals that have been harmed by accidentally swallowing fishing line, or getting tangled in it. Marcus, one of our owl ambassadors, Too many animals die every year from the dangers of improperly discarded fishing line.

Photo credit: summitcountyvoice.com
This picture of improperly discarded fishing line shows how the line can
become easily concealed in grass, making it easy for an animal to get tangled
in it or accidentally ingest it when grazing on grass.

To learn more about wildlife and fishing line, please visit this link: http://www.helpwildlife.com/

To learn where to properly discard your fishing line, please visit any of these links:

http://townofhempstead.org/news/522-a-reel-way-to-recycle-fishing-line-in-hempstead-town-new-program-aimed-at-keeping-bays-tangle-free

http://www.goingcoastal.org/fishingline.html





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Weekend Releases!

     This past weekend we released two patients that have been with us for over a month: A Herring Gull and a Mourning Dove. It is always a great thrill to release patients after a long recovery.

     The Mourning Dove, who had been with us since late January, came to us with a neck twisted ninety degrees to the right side. This torsion of the neck made him unable to stand or eat on his own. Many birds suffer a twisting of the neck (called Torticollis) after a sudden head-on impact (typically with cars or windows). This is typically not a permanent problem, but takes some time for the neck to straighten out. When we admit birds with this problem, we make them as comfortable as possible while the torsion slowly heals. We must forcefeed all of these patients, as they are unable to feed themselves.
     After some time, the dove was finally able to right himself and began to stand and eat on his own. His head was no longer tilted. Once we were sure that he was stable, he put him in a large outdoor aviary where he would be able to fly and get acclimated to the outdoors again. After about 10 days of being in our protected aviary, we decided he was flying well enough to be released! We thank the compassionate donor that brought this injured dove to us, and wish him luck in the upcoming Spring!

      The Herring Gull was admitted to us on February 5th. A concerned couple found him while walking on Jones Beach. He was not moving, and both of his wings were hanging on the ground. We took the gull right away to get X-rays, and discovered he had not one, but fractures in both of his wings. This poor gull had really been through a lot! We suspect he was struck by a car.
      We were instructed by our veterinarian to keep him in a smaller enclosure while his wings healed, because any excessive movement of the wings could impede proper healing of the wing. After a few weeks, we moved him into a larger enclosure, and started giving him daily baths where he could bath and stretch his wings after a long period of inactivity. We also started putting him outside for the day in an outdoor aviary. His wings seemed to have healed well, as they were no longer hanging and were back in the proper position! We started to test flight the gull daily. His first few test flights did not go so well, which was to be expected after a long period of inactivity. Much to our delight, things changed yesterday. We tested his flight in our large, open 'recovery' room, where he flew around the room and was able to gain height. We decided that he did not need to be with us any longer, and released him later that day at a beach with many other gulls!

It's That Time of Year...

 Spring is just around the corner and here at Volunteers for Wildlife we are excited as we prepare for the 2012 baby season.  We rehabilitate several types of baby animals at our clinic including Eastern Cotton Tail rabbits, Eastern Grey squirrels, Virginia Opossums, and various species of native song birds.  With lots of hard work and a little TLC we try our best to return all of these orphans to the wild so that one day they will be able to have offspring of their own! One of my personal favorite species to work with is the Virginia Opossum, which is the only native Marsupial in North America.  Female opossums can give birth to up to 26 baby opossums at once; however only 13 are able to fit inside the mother's pouch and survive.  When they are born, these tiny babies can be as small as a jelly bean!  Young opossums will continue to grow in the safety of their mother's pouch and when they get too big to all fit together in there they will venture out and catch a ride on mom's back! 

One of our resident opossums, Millie, was an orphaned baby at our hospital about two years ago.  Unfortunately, Millie's mom got hit by a car, but because all eight of her babies were snuggled safely in her pouch they were able to survive.  Millie and her siblings were kept warm and fed often so that they could grow big and strong and be released out into the wild when they were ready.  As time went on, the staff at VFW started to notice that in this group of young opossums there was always one that seemed to have more interest in the human staff than in her own siblings.  For some reason, this little opossum was friendly toward people and didn't have much fear of anyone taking care of her.  Due to Millie's docile nature, she became a permanent resident at our education center and she now works to teach people all over Long Island how great Opossums are!  Shown here are pictures of Millie with her siblings as a baby (top) and Millie taking a stroll in our animal garden at Bailey Arboretum (bottom).