Trouble at the Drop of a Dime!

A little over three weeks ago, Spring arrived in the quickest of fashions at our hospital. Early in the afternoon one day, we answered our Wildlife Hotline and were met with our first baby squirrel call of 2013. Since then, our calmer winter season has officially ended and our hospital is once again filled with animals and all the hustle and bustle spring brings! Right now, we have many patients at our hospital including fifteen baby squirrels, cottontail rabbits and more! Below are the stories of two of our interesting adult patients.

 
Early this past week, we received a call about a Virginia Opossum laying in someone's driveway in Hicksville. Animal Care Volunteer, Sheila, quickly responded and brought the opossum to safety at our hospital. When she arrived, we knew immediately she was in rough shape. Blood stained her hair around her face and one eye was swollen shut. The opossum was breathing very heavily and certainly struggling. She was barely able to keep her head up. Upon examination, we could see most of the trauma was to her head but her breathing was very concerning to us as well. As we palpated her abdomen for injuries and swelling, we stumbled upon a pouch full of tiny pink babies. A still undetermined number of babies were inside the mother's pouch, all attached to teats, and they needed their mom to stay alive. While we have very good success raising opossum babies, there is a point when they are so small in size (about the size of a human thumb or less) that we have found them to be impossible to raise. We knew that if we lost the mom, we would lose all of the babies as well. We consulted with our wonderful veterinarian, Dr. Leonhardt, who evaluated our opossum patient for trauma to her ribs and internal organs. Luckily, she had substantial bruising but no fractures to her ribs or damage to her organs. She did have a fracture in the jaw, which she sustained when she was hit by the car.

Over the past week, our opossum has been a wonderful patient and is slowly but surely coming around. For the first day, we had to tube feed her a supplemental diet as her injuries kept her appetite down. By the second day, she was able to eat a high protien very soft diet of baby foods, canned cat food and yogurt. On the third day, the opossum was looking much better. Her breathing had improved markedly and she was able to sit more upright and sleep more comfortably. Mom had babies continue to recover in the quiet and comfort of our isolation room. She is given unlimited food and is only disturbed twice per day for medicating and cleaning of her bedding. We are hopeful that in a few weeks she will be fully recovered and we will be able to release both mom and her babies back to the wild.

Another patient with a unique story came in early in the week as well. We received a call mid-week from a caller by Route 106 in Jericho. The caller had found an injured Canada Goose in the middle of the road. She was blocking cars from hitting the goose and was desperate for help. Rescue Transport and Education Volunteer Jim quickly dispatched from Bayville to the goose. On arrival, he could see that the goose had no ability to stand on its legs. He brought the goose in to our hospital for evaluation. Upon exam, we discovered the goose had no fractures in either leg and appeared to have normal movement in both legs. He was not, however, able to support his three plus kilogram body on those legs. This did not look like a typical spinal injury case and we suspected perhaps there was damage to the pelvis. The goose was brought to Dr. Leonhardt for x-rays on Thursday. We were shocked to learn that the x-rays showed no fractures but instead showed two foreign objects inside the goose's GI tract. Inside our patient was a dime AND a razor!

The metal toxicity was likely due to the dime which is composed of 75% copper and 25% nickel.    As long as these items were still inside the goose, it would continue to suffer and deteriorate further.   Dr. Leonhardt again got to work on our patient and surgically removed both items! We picked up our patient the next morning. Next, we began the process of finding the treatments that we needed for our patient. Metal chelation treatment is a medication that is given that traps the metal to the chelating agent (Calcium EDTA) and then allows the metal to be filtered out through the kidneys. We finally located the Calcium EDTA at one of the emergency veterinary offices on Long Island. Rescue Transport Volunteer Michelle happily agreed to pick up our much needed medication and drive it from the South Shore vet to our hospital on the North Shore! The medication arrived and we began treatments right away. Treatment for this goose includes supplemental tube feedings, two injections of Calcium EDTA daily and fluid therapy to help flush out the metals. While this goose has a long way to go before he starts feeling better again, we are happy that we found the cause of his problem and that he will get the help he desperately needs!

We will keep you posted on both of these patients as they hopefully progress through their recoveries. 

Getting in Touch with Waste!

Taking calls on our Wildlife Advisory hotline has made it very clear for us that humans have introduced infinite dangers to the habitats all over Long Island.  Among the concerns of our callers are animals that have been attacked by pets, involved in building and car collisions, poisoned by pesticides and rodenticides, caught in fences, fishing line, glue traps, oil and sadly, so much more. 

The people who call us are often very concerned about the animals they find and the condition of our environment on Long Island... so are we!   It's very easy for anyone to look around and feel like they are in the minority of people that care about species beyond our own.  When we feel this way, we sometimes doubt our ability to make a positive difference in our environment for us and for Long Island's wildlife.  However, all hope is not lost for an environment where people can live with a lesser impact on our planet. 

Late yesterday afternoon, armed with some 40 gallon contractor bags, some of our staff and volunteers headed to the Ransom-Stehli Beach in Bayville.  We had one goal in mind:  to pick up as much garbage as possible in a brief 90 minutes.  We wanted to make that beach safer for the numerous birds that reside there, in addition to making it a more pleasant spot for people to enjoy!  

In the process of cleaning up, we had a lot of laughs, enjoyed the fresh air, got quite a few weird looks from beach-goers, did a bit of bird watching and learned a lot about the garbage that our society produces on a daily basis!  Below we share some photos from the afternoon. 

We hope you will be able to join us on our future Beach Clean-Ups or at our Town of Huntington Adopt-A-Highway Clean Ups throughout the spring and summer!!

Irony in a Foam Cup

This holiday edition of a Styrofoam Dunkin Donuts cup did not bring any "JOY" to the environment.

Was this coffee really worth hundreds of years in a landfill?

Please bring your own mugs to coffee shops!

Volunteer Alex removes a piece of an old boat from the Sound.

Here I am giving a thumbs down for plastic netting found on our beach!  This netting is an easy thing for many birds and turtles to get caught in.

 

Volunteer, Justin, peruses the wrack line for various plastic bits. 

We found plastic bags galore piled by the parking lot.

Say no to plastic bags at local stores!

Soda Can Rings and Plastic Utensils were also numerous on the beach.

Some of our staff carry metal utensils in our bags or in our cars, so we never need to use the plastic ones!  It's a great way to cut down on this kind of waste.  

Clinic Supervisor, Jess, shows some balloons that she found on the beach.  

Jess was happy to get these dangerous items away from this habitat.  
Please say no to balloons.  

Obscure trash finds included this plastic piece of kid's play corn, flip flops with no match, a toy plastic dinosaur and fish, and kid's shovels.  All in good condition. 

Remember to check your area thoroughly when leaving the beach as to not leave any items behind!

Plastic bottles are an environmental atrocity.  Recycling is not enough.

We need to reduce our consumption of bottled waters/juices/sodas.  
Every new bottle created adds pollution to our environment.

Our crew of six volunteers and two staff removed five bags of garbage, one bag of recyclable bottles, multiple enormous pieces of styrofoam, a piece of a boat,

and a large helium tank from the beach this afternoon.  We had a great afternoon and are happy to have removed these dangers from our environment. 

 Thumbs down for trash!

While at times things may seem hopeless, There is much we can do all over our Island.  

In 2013, please help us help our wildlife with small positive changes.  Taking small steps in our daily lives and choosing what we consume wisely, in addition to cleaning up our environment, will add up in the end!  Our local wildlife need us to keep our mess to a minimum. 

We enjoyed watching these Atlantic Brant, a migratory small goose species,  feeding right on the shore throughout our clean-up!

Freedom in Flight

Although we are approaching the end of our slower winter season here at Volunteers for Wildlife, we still have plenty to keep us busy until we enter the 7 month stretch of "baby season"  that will inevitably keep us as busy as ever.

 

 

Last weekend, we admitted a large female Great Horned Owl to our hospital.  Unfortunately, she was out hunting at night and became entangled in a sports net in a residential backyard. After she was rescued by a staff member and one of our brave volunteers, she was brought back to the clinic to get an exam.  She did not appear to have been injured too severely in the net, but as indicated by her lethargic wings, had probably strained a few muscles and was suffering from post-traumatic stress after the ordeal.  Wanting to make sure that we didn't miss any fractures during our exam, we took our new patient to our wonderful vet, Dr. Leonhardt, for some x-rays which confirmed that she was just suffering from some soft tissue damage after struggling to free herself from the net overnight.   This female owl had a definite wild edge that was comforting to see, as this indicated that her condition was not too severe.  She would just need  a few days to rest her wings to ensure her flight would not be compromised once she was back outside.

As indicated by her weight upon admission to the clinic, we knew that this owl was a female. As in all birds of prey, Great Horned Owl females are larger in size and weigh more than the males. Given this information, an additional concern about having this owl in the clinic and away from the wild was that it was possible that she could have a nest with eggs.  Great horned owls are a species of bird that breed very early in the year.  They usually breed in late January or early February.  Due to the possibility of her already having a nest, it was our ultimate goal to get her out of our hospital as soon as possible. 

After about a week at the clinic, the female Great Horned Owl was showing signs that she had rested long enough and was ready to return home.  We waited until after the Noreaster last week and then tested her flight to determine if she was strong enough to fly.  After a test flight, we knew it was time to release her.

Late in the afternoon Friday, our full time staff and another volunteer drove her back to Brookville where she was rescued to ensure that she would return to her home territory, and nest, if she had one.  This owl was more than ready to go. As we prepared to release her, she showed us just how strong her wings were as she forcefully flapped them in anticipation of using them to return to her wild home.  As we said our goodbyes and good lucks, we watched her fly into the distance, with a glimpse at her breathtaking wingspan.  It was a happy day being able to return such an amazing animal to the place where she belongs.



Photos Credit: Jim Jones

 

 

Thank you to all the volunteers and staff who made this rescue and release a happy one!

Beauty in the Release

In the field of wildlife rehabilitation, releases come in several forms.  Of course, the releases we most enjoy telling stories of, are those of the patients that overcome incredible injuries and hardships to return to freedom.  However, in wildlife rehabilitation centers across the country, the reality is that these kinds of releases amount for about half of the overall admissions.

Then, there are the other cases of patients for whom we must define release in a different form.  Some of these animals are ones that we try our hardest to help over days or weeks at our hospital and they simply have no more strength to keep pulling.  With others, we know right away that their injuries will prevent them from ever living a normal life in the wild again.  For all of those we cannot save, their release is in a peaceful passing in a place free from predators and human dangers.  Although it matters not for the animal, we take solace that for however short a time, there were people who cared deeply about its life. These sad cases remain as engrained in our memory as every release to the wild.

This week, more so than other weeks this winter, we have experienced the highs and lows of the jobs we love.  An Eared Grebe, Herring Gull, Great Black-backed Gull and Eastern Cottontail, all beyond help marked the sad points of our week.  While incredible releases of a Red-throated Loon, American Woodcock and our first successfully rehabilitated emaciated Great Blue Heron in several years, have left us feeling as privileged as ever to work with these incredible animals on a daily basis.

Please enjoy the photographs and video below of a week we will remember. 

Red-throated Loon prior to his release last Friday.

This loon endured head trauma, a respiratory infection and emaciation to return to the wild.

There were days when we thought he wouldn't pull through.

He had other plans. 

Back in the water after several weeks in rehabilitation

 

An Eared Grebe was admitted Saturday from Makamah Beach

in Northport with severe head trauma.

Unfortunately, he did not pull through his first night.

(photos of exam by Anthony Donofrio)

Volunteers for Wildlife would like to thank our friends at the Bayville IGA

for this incredibly generous donation of produce!!

On Wednesday, we released the emaciated Great Blue Heron from Oyster Bay. 

It was by far the best bird release we have ever seen.

Martin, our senior resident education opossum, went for a walk Thursday afternoon. 

In recent weeks, Martin has been showing his age. 

 He really enjoyed exploring outside again. 

Volunteer Elisa walks Millie (another resident opossum.)

  Unlike her slower brother, Millie still needs a leash.

This old girl is a busy bee. 

We admitted a male Bufflehead Thursday morning from Glen Cove.

 We'll update on him next week when we have a better idea of his condition.

Have a great weekend!

Spring is coming!

 Before we begin our updates, we have to say we are overwhelmed by the generosity of our supporters. Last week, we posted a link to our Amazon.com wishlist and we are so excited to see all the fantastic items our supporters and fans are purchasing for us. Thank you all!
The wishlist can be found at: http://amzn.com/w/2OO6IHGPJPABD

 

This Mute Swan found with a ruptured tumor in Bayville, was released at his origin last week.

We are officially gearing up for Spring at Volunteers for Wildlife! We can hardly believe March will be here so soon. With March comes the inevitable arrival of orphaned and injured baby Eastern Grey Squirrel and Eastern Cottontails! We placed a big order today for our baby season needs from one of our very favorite businesses, Chris's Squirrels and More! We have also offered classes for our volunteers on raising baby squirrels. During these classes, we teach the volunteers how to identify the age of a baby squirrel and give protocol on their general care from neonate to juvenile. This knowledge will be useful for the volunteers this spring when they must help us care for baby squirrels.

We have lots of interesting patients at our hospital that are doing very well. Last week, we posted about the admission of an emaciated Great Blue Heron. He is continuing to do very, very well at our hospital. He no longer needs to be forcefed an easily digestible diet, as he is now strong enough to eat fish and clams. He is finally eating on his own which is a big help to us! While we are going through a lot of local fish and clam by feeding him, we are so happy he is eating and doing well. We hope to release him in the next week or so.

 We also have Red-Throated Loon that we are hoping to release Friday morning in Bayville. He was hit by a car over two weeks ago. Last week, he was having significant respiratory problems, but a trip to the vet for some medications and lots of time with a nebulizer cleared that up quickly. He is gaining weight and doing well here. In fact, right now he is enjoying some quiet time swimming in our bathtub!

On Sunday, we received an unusual bird- an American Woodcock! Read more about this unusual looking bird here. Our woodcock was a building collision in Manhattan. Woodcocks are most active at night, so we assume he was migrating and hit a building on accident in the middle of the night. A very kind and compassionate couple picked him up and brought him all the way to our hospital, where he has been put on cage rest and given forcefeedings. Lauren Schulz, our Education Coordinator, and Huntington-Oyster Bay Audubon President, Stella Miller, are going to release him today in the perfect woodsy spot where he can do what he does best: forage for earthworms!

 

Thanks for reading, we hope you have an excellent weekend!

Winter Storm Nemo

It's been an eventful week since our last blog entry!

On Thursday, our day couldn't have been any more packed!  Thursday morning, Clinic Assistant, Addie, headed to William Rall Elementary in Lindenhurst to present two Living with Wildlife programs to an enthusiastic group of students.   Meanwhile, Clinic Supervisor Jess and volunteer Leslie, were driving back from upstate with a van full of food for our raptors.  When Jess and Leslie returned to the hospital, we had the daunting task of packing all of the food into our freezers! Luckily, we had plenty of help from our volunteers to make the job go quickly!
 
Right before leaving for the evening Thursday,we received a call about an emaciated Great Blue Heron in Locust Valley.  Volunteer, Eileen, and I took off for Oyster Bay in search of the Great Blue Heron.  In the woods of a picturesque house perched on the top of Moore's Hill Road, an emaciated Great Blue Heron had grounded itself with no energy to fly any further.  The homeowner, a bird-lover, had seen him the day prior and then again on Thursday.   Together, the three of us searched the wooded area until we found the Heron hunkered down sleeping next to some thorney bushes.  Unable to evade capture, the heron was swaddled up in a sheet and transported back to our hospital.  Back at the hospital, we administered him rehydration fluids and set him up in an enclosure for the evening.  This bird was a shadow of his former self, weighing in at only 1.5 kilograms: an entire kilogram less than an average Great Blue.   Friday morning, we would be able to begin feeding an easily digestible diet to start the long road of recovery. 

Right as the storm was starting on Friday morning, we received a call about a Mute Swan in Bayville.  The swan was bleeding substantially from the chest and was resting on a strip of beach on Mill Neck Bay.  We caught the swan easily with a net and brought him right over to Dr. Leonhardt.  It turns out the swan had a ruptured tumor and is now back at our hospital receiving treatment for the wound. 

The remainder of Friday was devoted to preparing the hospital for the storm.  To be sure we were able to care for the animals through the storm and on Saturday, Jess and I stayed overnight at the hospital.  Through the night, we watched the snow accumulate, provided our critical patients with extra feedings and went out several times to check on our birds outside.  All were tucked away in the eves of their aviaries well protected from the snow.  We awoke early Saturday morning to 18 inches of snow coating the arboretum.   We quickly went to work on our patients knowing we would have a busy day of caring for our animals AND shoveling.  Luckily, our local (Bayville, Locust Valley and Oyster Bay) volunteers came in to help us clear the snow from the paths and aviaries and to help us take care of our patients and resident animals. 

This week has been a week of progress and many releases!  The Great Blue Heron picked up in Oyster Bay is slowly but surely putting on weight with thrice daily feedings.  The Mute Swan from Oyster Bay has a hearty appetite and is finishing up antibiotics today.  We expect to release him in the next two days.  The first Red-throated Loon is gaining weight as well, but has an appointment tomorrow at our veterinarian for further assessments on his condition.

Yesterday, we released three patients that have been with us for some time: a Mourning Dove, Opossum and a Mute Swan!  Perhaps our most exciting release of the week was that of the second admitted Red-throated Loon on Monday.  We brought him to Ransom Beach in Bayville and released him from the shore.  Despite the rain that was coming down, We watched with big smiles and he preened, splashed around and dove through the water.  He will be in good company in Bayville as we sighted several Red-throated Loons and Red-breasted Mergansers right nearby!

This week, we are in need of a couple very important items for our current patients. 
Large Bath-Tub Mats (the rubber kind that go in the tub)-
Exercise Mats- (yoga mats etc)
and Fish Filets of any kind.

The tub mats are for lining our aviaries so we don't have to do as much laundry.  We have so many towels to wash it is impossible to keep up with all the laundry.  And the fish will help us feed our Loon, Great Blue Heron and a multitude of Great Black-backed Gulls that are currently in our hospital. 

If you would like to help us by donating any of these items, please shoot us an email at wildlifeadvisory@gmail.com.   Donations can also be mailed to Volunteers for Wildlife, Inc at 194 Bayville Road Unit A, Locust Valley NY 11560. 

Have a great week, everyone!

Winter at the Hospital

Winter is a tough season for many.   In a frigid Long Island winter, wildlife can have an equally hard time.  Our bays and ponds are now frozen over with ice, which thins and thickens with the daily temperature changes.   Open water is scant and food is tougher to find for many birds that rely on this water. 

Keeping with the trend of the last few seasons, this winter has not been a slow one.   Injured ducks, hit-by-car gulls and emaciated loons now keep us very busy, in addition to the occasional dove, squirrel and owl among other patients.    In contrast to many of our spring and summer patients that are healthier young animals that have been orphaned, all of these patients have critical injuries and for the ones that survive their injuries, their rehabilitation is often difficult and lengthy. 

The two Red-throated Loons that are now residing in our hospital's tub and isolation room are our most intensive of patients currently in the hospital.   The first loon admitted from the middle of Park Avenue in Huntington, likely came down towards a pond near the road in search of open water, in the middle of our bitterly cold spell a week and a half ago.  While loons on Long Island generally prefer the more open Long Island Sound and neighboring harbors, this emaciated loon was likely very hungry and looking for open water anywhere he could find.  Unfortunately, his travels on Park Avenue also led him to the danger of vehicles.  Hit by a car and suffering from head trauma, this loon was brought to our hospital for rehabilitation early last week.  Now, with his neurological symptoms resolved, we are focusing on allowing the loon to gain weight slowly through hand feedings of Spearing three times daily.  In addition to his low body weight, we have the added complication of helping this animal to restore his necessary feather waterproofing prior to release.  The preen gland located at the base of the bird's tail allows the bird to spread oils all over the feathers which prevent him from getting cold and "water-logged" in the water.  Many compromised animals will stop preening when ill or injured and these birds will often get hypothermic in the water.   Twice daily baths encourage this loon to preen and we hope soon that his weight and his waterproofing may be suitable for release. 

A second Red-throated Loon of a heftier size (although still thin) was admitted this morning to our hospital from a veterinarian in Massapequa.   This loon was also found in the road, however, seems to be in better overall condition than our first loon.  His feathers are still waterproof and we hope that some hearty fish meals will get this male ready for release in a couple of days.