Last night I just did not get very much sleep. I think I drank way too much pop and ate too much candy because I was not able to go to bed until roughly 12am, kept waking up every other hour, and then was wide awake at 6am. I actually got up and got ready for work around 6:30am and was messing around with facebook until 8. When I finally went downstairs I decided to feed raccoons since I was on squirrels the last two days.
We have three new raccoons whom did not seem to be doing too hot. By the sound of their lungs and the mucus coming out of their nose/eyes, they have an upper respiratory infection, and based on their stool and lethargic nature they are dehydrated. We began medication and occasional injections for hydration while they are still on hydration liquids. We hope that all they have is the respiratory infection and severe dehydration because other things they could have based on their symptoms include parvovirus. Humans cannot get parvovirus but we are capable of spreading it which means our other raccoons could get it without safe/preventive measures. We always bleach out feet and try to prevent the raccoons from not touching us at all costs so hopefully this will be enough. Since the disease is capable of being transferred to pets I intend on washing all clothes, thoroughly cleaning the inside of my car (particularly the floors), and throwing out my shoes before I come home. I believe in being safe then sorry so I do not want to risk anything. Some of my jeans will get thrown out too, mainly due to holes, but now I have another reason too. Everything else never gets near the animals so we are okay with that. Some diseases that harm wildlife can also harm our pets; they lurk in the world and although you should not be paranoid about it it's good to be wary.
Besides giving the raccoons their medication/injections and feeding both indoor and outdoor; us two rehab interns helped with feeding indoor residents and the snowy owl. I grabbed and the other intern learned the bandaging process with snowy's feet. The infection has been healing up really well but she still has more days of work ahead of her. The vet stated that she will truly never be able to perch again which means we may need platforms for perching rather than typical perches in her enclosure. I have seen her sitting on top of her perch but this does not necessarily mean she is perching correctly. When we put Snowy back and I think ended up doing 12pm feeding. Besides feeding patients, residents, and working with the snowy I cannot recall what else we did. Maybe dishes but beyond that I'm not sure.
We took lunch for an hour though and after lunch we did the 2pm feeding. Raccoons progressively improved through out the day, or at least seemed like they were, so hopefully they continue to do well tomorrow. After lunch we gave all our outdoor residents new water and then began cleaning tasks shortly after. I did tub dishes while the other intern did the kitchen/nursery dishes. I then went outside to our outdoor raccoon enclosure we just moved all the raccoons into and cleaned up a bag full of raccoon feces. We discovered the raccoons breached their half of the enclosure into the other half that had a door open; but thankfully no one escaped. We fed them and went back inside to finish sweeping/mopping. However we received a call so rather then continue helping out with cleaning I left to Hurley, Wisconsin to pick up young Peregrine Falcons. They died while on the way to Hurley so I ended up turning around and returning to the center instead. Carcasses will, or should be, turned over to the Wisconsin DNR.
After that I ended up going out to eat with a summer intern and one of our spring interns who stopped by to visit. We got chinese and the executive director showed up as well. She, the spring intern, ended up leaving early this morning so I missed her but did say bye last night. It was so great to see her and to hear that her new job is going well!! She is actually returning to the center this fall as an intern again.
After dinner I recall passing out and not waking up until 4am in the morning wondering when I passed out which is why I did not type this post up on the true day 78. Instead it's day 79 today and I am typing it up because I am off.
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