Day 51- Rehabilitation

I actually was not scheduled for rehabilitation today but instead was supposed to go to a canoe raffle. However one of the rehab staff members and I had hopes of finishing the songbird protocol today so I asked one of the two interns scheduled if they could switch. One did and so I was back on rehab. Glad everything worked out and very thankful for the intern switching. We, however, did not finish the song bird protocol....but did make progress! I am actually still trying to work on it but remembered that I had a blog post to right for today for all my readers out there :)

Now normally the morning starts off with raccoons right away but now we have some new and more fragile patients that require 2 hour feedings. So instead of preparing formula for raccoons we prepared rehydration fluids for 6 little eastern gray squirrels. I posted pictures of them in my last post so look up or scroll down to Day 50 to check them out.

These guys were fed and then we had raccoons. The other intern managed to do all the raccoons in the Raccoon Room while I made up three bowls for our raccoons recently moved outside. We now have 6 inside which means we have 8 outside. 7 are in one enclosure and 1 is in the other since he's both new and bigger. This new guy is imprinted. He was raised like a family pet and now thinks humans = friends rather then being afraid like a wild animal should!

It is not good at all to take in any sort of wild animal (from turtle to bird to squirrel, etc) because you are ruining their odds of returning to the wild and thus decrese biodiversity in the wild. You may think it's cool or fun but some species are truly suffering because of this and this is how invasive species are born. Someone takes in a turtle, thinks they can take care of it, finds out they can't, and returns it into the wild. Turtles in particular have a specific home range so unless they are returned to the exact spot they were taken they will die of starvation. Birds are very susceptible to imprinting on humans and thus believe they are human rather than bird. There's that possibility of flying but overall they will struggle and could die of starvation if you are not meeting their feeding requirements and such. The overall population of bird species has declined over the last decade or so and continues to do so. One less bird = more decline because of that. Every animal you take in and then release because you can't take care of it will most likely die to due to starvation. Overall, taking in wild animals as pets = bad. If you want a pet bad enough go buy one at the pet store. They need love whereas wild animals do not. Call your wildlife rehabilitation center if you take in a wild animal THEY MINUTE you bring it in. Not 1 day late, not 2, 3, or more. The very second you bring it in. End of tangent.

Once raccoons were taken care of the real cleaning began. A list was made up and both of us interns started to attack it. I started off the list by disinfecting/mopping a room a goose was in before we transferred to to REGI in Antigo. After this was taken care of I moved into the nursery where I took out the bottom of three cages to disinfect them, the heating pad, the cage itself, the surfaces the cage sat on and against, and then reset everything back when finished. I cleaned three cage areas total and then cleaned off all surfaces in the nursery. The finishing touch was sweeping the room since I left a big mess from dumping out food that was left behind in the cages before disinfecting them. After this I then moved to the Raccoon Isolation Room. This is where I swept/mopped everything, put away dry dishes, organized the room a bit, and more or less tried to make it look super clean despite the fact raccoons habituate the room (they like to throw food and feces).

All trash was then taken out from all the rooms and this meant everything on my list was finished. All before 1pm too! Next up came another round of feeding for the baby squirrels and then turned into the lunch. While we were on lunch we waited for the door to ring because this meant someone from Illinois who takes care of raptors was bringing us our newest resident; a Snowy Owl. She arrived just after 1pm and was placed inside a cage in the cage room so she can get used to the sights and smells of her environment. She needs to calm down and also has an appointment with the vet next door to help us look her over. Here she is. I suggested the name Xeena and hope it sticks!!! :)

After lunch was over with and once the Snowy Owl was placed in her temporary home we prepared food for racoons. Since we ran out of eggs we had to make a Trigs run across the street for a case, a new can opener, and some jugs of distilled water for our incubators. This did not take too long and the moment we returned we finished up raccoon bowls and fed the guys outside, fed squirrels, and fed racoons in the raccoon room. I covered dishes and did a bit of cleaning to spiffy up the room since the racoons made it slightly messy again. After this I think we were honestly finished with the day. If we weren't I cannot remember what else we did besides me grabbing my laptop and starting to work on protocols with the staff member as I said before.

We made a lot of progress but as said we still have a lot of work so once I finish this up I intend on working on more bird stuff until 10pm due to another baby squirrel feeding. Afterwards I think I will keep going up until 3am or until I finish. I am off tomorrow and have stuff to do so I do not mind staying up. The gray squirrels need fed at 3am anyway and I realized last night that I super struggle waking up that early. Once I am asleep I am apparently asleep which means bad news bears for me when we start to get birds in. They need fed every hour to two hours it seems!!!!