The Belize Wildlife Clinic’s first veterinary interns! Of Interns and Iguanas

So many exiting things happening all at the same time makes it hard to decide where to even begin... 

Before the Belize Wildlife and Referral Clinic even opened its doors, the first interns arrived in March 2012 and while I promised to focus more on animal’s stories again – as opposed to all that mostly “human” stuff – I can’t resist to also talk about our first 2 week interns: Sarah and Stacy. In 3 words: They were awesome! What connects Interns and Iguanas? Probably the first letter... and while all my students get their hands on iguanas, Sarah and Stacy saw a lot more then the average iguana patients during their internship.

 They knew the clinic might not yet be open and opted for the “intensive rotation internship” where they would spend the majority of their time at our conservation partners and BWCN member organizations, get some basic theory and go around seeing patients with me. And they were ready to jump in! On our way from the airport we saw the first patient – not an iguana and possibly the subject of a different blog soon – a very sweet puma. The next morning, with the official start of their internship, we received the first iguana call.

In general I do not see very many iguana patients in Belize, since people do not keep them as pets here. If an iguana is found injured it will more likely end up in a pot since they are considered a delicacy, especially pregnant females. I am sure I do not have to tell you how bad eating the pregnant females is, from a standpoint of trying to sustainably use and protect a threatened species for future generations. But of course this is a different subject and I understand that this cultural practice and its conservation conflict are a very complex issue, despite the fact that a closed season during mating season has been legally in place for many years. Fortunately for Belize, we still see the green Iguana, even though several hunters report a drastic decline.

So the same origin applied to our first patient that day: a female iguana, full with eggs, that had been captured for consumption and was then purchased by someone who did not want to see her and her babies eaten... In the typical fashion the iguana had toes clipped and tendons pulled on front and back legs – to tie them for easy transport and restraint with their legs behind their backs.

But upon our first quick inspection, after she had an overnight post rescue, on a heating pad (and after a drive in a car and good sun exposure for 30 minutes) she was very lively, toes already dried and wounds closed, 4 good fingers remaining on each foot, only one small scratch on belly and she had laid 3 eggs. So the first impulse was to quickly send her on to San Ignacio Hotels Green Iguana Project where she could be incubated and soaked in warm water and given sandy substrate to lay eggs in, under the watchful eyes of Eddy and Humberto. We were all hoping for a quick recovery, release of mom and likely incubation of eggs.

The next day we arrived at the project and our lively rescue from the day before had lain down in a corner of the enclosure. Fire ants we starting to attack her eyes, ears and mouth. She was cold to the touch, barely responsive (it took a moment to actually determine that she was still alive) and had not laid any more eggs! So from a quick “lets see if we can give her a bit of recovery, good food and then release in a few” – she turned into a life threatening emergency - an egg bound iguana. And fire ants are truly an “evil enemy” when it comes to debilitated animals that we are trying to recover and a very BAD sign. So we quickly got into gear and did the usual – heat and fluids, some dextrose, Calcium and finally Oxytocin. She soon started showing weak signs of contractions! We were happy to see an egg emerge from her cloaca rather quickly! But the effect did not last and one egg was all we got. And female iguanas her size will lay about 30 or more. We continued our efforts and repeated treatments.

And then, much to our embarrassment, we made one of those crucial mistakes one should never make! Hopefully you can learn from us? We left the iguana, basically comatose with no response to 2 injections! sitting in her soak bath, outside of the main enclosure. To make it clear: she had not been conscious or responsive for a rather extended period of 2-3 hours when we left her unattended in that soak bath... and what happened? she „self released“ (which is an excuse used by some to disguise what is ultimately our human mistake... sounds better sometimes), meaning we turned around, talked and walked a few meters away... and she LEFT! So not only did she regain consciousness but she climbed out of the bath and fully disappeared! We were not able to locate her again, despite searching.

So let it be a lesson: no matter how comatose a patient appears to be ALLWAYS keep them inside an enclosure or under your direct supervision! Just never ever let your guard down would be a basic rule working with wildlife (and sometimes that seems to apply to life too).

Good news is that she was inadvertently released in what could possibly be one of the most protected spots for iguanas, right over the river at San Ignacio Hotel. And we hope that she regained enough strength with fluids, energy, calcium and hormones she was treated with.

Next Stacy and Sarah bathed and treated all 70 baby iguanas for ectoparasites, and retained skin and gave them a general check over. The majority was doing well but we saw a few cases of digital necrosis, some due to retained skin rings some possibly due to fungal infections. All iguanas came out greener and “shiny” from their bath and some seemed to enjoy the shedding help.

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Usually I might go and see the Iguana Project once a month, but this time we got a rather urging text 2 days later, asking if we could come by for a visit for one of the stars of the project: Roxy! We were in the middle of other activities at the Belize Zoo and planning on visiting Belize Bird Rescue but the report sounded rather concerning: First Roxy had “disappeared”. Apparently Roxy used to sometimes take a “day excursion from the enclosure” and then return to the enclosure*...so no one was too concerned the first day of her missing.

And when she was found a day later she had been inside the enclosure, trapped under a collapsed cavity in the sand! She too was overdue to lay eggs! Nothing else we had planned that day was “life threatening” so we quickly switched the schedule and returned to San Ignacio.

Unfortunately as we reached we look into the sad faces of Eddy and Humberto saying that Roxy had died 15 minutes ago. When we inspected her she indeed still had some reflexes left and a doubtful heartbeat with some respirations! Next lesson here: diagnosing death in a reptile is challenging! So our first response for Roxy, once again was efforts as resuscitation, with hydration, warmth, respiratory enhancer and then also Calcium. But after about 20 minutes we had to agree that the observed reflexes and irregular beats heard were “post mortem”, and further attempts at revitalization fruitless. So then Sarah and Stacy quickly switched to C-section to save Roxie’s babies! 32 eggs were recovered and are now incubating at the Green Iguana Project. A sad end to one of the most personable iguanas at the project in the past few years. She loved to be petted and interact with humans. But her brief legacy will hopefully be passed on to the next generation.

The C-section also provided highly valuable experience and demonstrated the difficulty of snake and lizard uteri that generally require multiple incisions and can not safely be “milked”. Especially once they are egg bound and become even stickier. Sorry medical sidetrack.

To end Sarah and Stacie’s Iguana experiences at the end of their internship they also bathed and checked a good number of the full grown iguanas in the main enclosure, including Gomez! They got the obligatory (minor!) scratch and did awesome, as through out their whole internship! Of course we saw and did lots of other things, but the blog is too long already!

Feel free to comment...

* For those who don’t know: Many of the iguanas released on site at this project actually return and try to re-enter the enclosure – especially for the males no wonder... but all in all “Guanaland” is just a perfect hotel for Iguanas :) and the Belize Wildlife and Referral Clinic will soon work on an “Intensive Care Unit” for injured or sick reptiles.

Grants are wonderfull!

I wake up and find myself in a raging river, floating like a corc (fortunately, I guess that accumulated ring of fat from sitting at a desk too much lately pays off even in my dreams). I look around and see rock faces passing by, fast. No time to stop, no time to rest, other than relaxing and taking the ride as it comes. Which includes to keep on swimming, and avoiding collisions with rocks in the way. Canyon walls on both sides and no way out, other than forward. Definitely no turning around. The current is strong. Hopefully there is no impassable white water, I think. Hopefully this water eventually calms down and gives me a safe exit back onto the land I long to feel under my feet. This is so fast it’s scary! Hopefully there is no tall water fall on my route before I can get out.... as I wake up for real...

What happened? I „took the plunge“ so to speak. I decided to „go for it“, fully follow my long time dream; After many years I tried to finally get financial support to do what I dreamt of creating, to leave behind as my life-time work. And, well, you know the story... We got the first grant! Belize Wildlife and Referral Clinic won the Heska Inspiration in Action contest, I had a wonderfull, but brief trip to the US and received the Award for $25,000 to buy medical equipment and install it in the first ever wildlife clinic, which would at the same time serve to advance the veterinary profession through training and referral services for domestic veterinarians country wide. The greatest honor of my life to be trusted by so many and allowed to help in such ways. Two weeks later money was transferred.

My dream must represent that my life has truly felt like a wild white water ride in the past few weeks, finding out that AFTER the grant is even more work than BEFORE. Not that I wasn’t committed and prepared to give it my all and best, but on my rosy clouds I had not foreseen having to do so many things, all at once. Haha! that’s what you get for following your dreams :) A LOT OF WORK.

I keep internally humming „keep on swimming, keep on swimming“ (having watched Nemo the fish a few times...). I do this because I want to and I love what I do. I just don’t particularily enjoy some parts of it. Like spending 10 or 12 h in front of my computer. Morale of the story, definitely follow your dreams, but be ready to buckle down and work harder than ever before, and enjoy! It’s your dream after all.
I am far from done, but we have gotten so much help in addition to the first grant that it literally blows me away! I would like to and will thank each and every person for their help! I had resisted for years to come out publicly and ask for much help. So that I would, in my personal small ways, make a good contribution and set a good example for some (who would care to observe in those small circles). But now that „it is out“ so to speak, people from all over have stepped up to help. We have received $446 donations on our website! All from different unknown people. I would like to name them, but have to first figure out if that is ok... Stainless steel, cell phone, supplies, 10-50 % discounts on all medical equipments, books and standards! And my dearest helper in rallying contest votes through rotaract, Alfonso, is now working on the best shipping quote for us and it looks like we might get some good and reduced prices on shipping as well! Forest Department has offered to clear customs for us, since we are working to help them fullfill their mandate relating to wildlife conservation. And the building is amazing.

BUT a basic clinic setup could be estimated more at 200.000 value and we are truly playing gymnist and making it streeeeeeeeeetch, to improvise a clinic as state of the art as possible.
Currently I receive an internship request nearly every other day. Which is wonderfull because we hope to establish the internships to support wildlife work (many of our wildlife patients will be non-paying clients... especially rescues). Yet it is a lot of work to do it right. And in general I like to try to do things as best as possible. Our first two interns will be with us at the end of March, and we look forward to welcoming them and showing them what we are all about. And since I have been facilitating these student experiences in Belize for now over 7 years, I know we can do it and students will love it. None the less a bit nerve wrecking to have soo many new things at once?

And the best news on the grant front is: we have sourced some fantastic equipment and can’t wait to make this available asap!

I meet so many amazing new people, and old people, I am preparing to present at the MSBC /BWCN symposium at UB and have been nominated for the Gerald Thomas Award to visit New Mexico State University. And I have also been honored in other ways, by beeing elected on the Board of Directors of one of my favorite Belizean conservation organizations: Friends for Conservation and Development and nominated by Minster Montero onto the Veterinary Surgeons Board. I look forward to serving those positions to the best of my ability.

But looking at my schedule, I can’t believe it. No way out there either... It is FULL! And overflowing it seems. One of these first days after receiving the grant I briefly had the thought: my plate is so full I am afraid it just „broke“! I apologize for this surprisingly complainy blog and assure you I am and trust I will be: just fine!

And the biggest and most important thing for me these days is... to take it easy! And not exhaust myself and struggle against currents. If I go under now there is no way out. I have seen too many burn out. So I take a peacefull breath and jump back in the river and try to relax while I move forward at high speed, hoping to be just like my favorite quotation from the i-ching:

The highest good is like water.
Water gives life to the ten thousand things and does not strive.
It flows in places men reject,
finds the path of least resistance
and excites no rivalries.

The next blog will be a different story for sure! I felt the need to share another „personal view“ one but the future holds more Animals stories' (instead of my own) and the next clinic update is also overdue...

"Inspiration in Action" for wildlife conservation - a personal account

OMG Belize Wildlife & Referral Clinic is in the final for the contest! I rub my eyes and can not believe it. „Inspiration in Action“ is truly an awesome title for this and, believe it or not, the first grant proposal for a project that has been in my head for over 15 years. But how did I get there?

In brief and leaving out a few years and countries in between it started in 1994 when my dear friends from Profelis in Costa Rica opened my eyes to what would become the passion I would dedicate my career to: wildlife conservation and medicine, as well as rescue and rehabilitation.

I had decided to become a veterinarian out of a love for animals and the desire to work in and with nature with biology as second choice. After the first three years in vet school I felt discouraged about what I learned about the profession of a domestic veterinarian. While I loved dogs and cats, I more and more disliked the fact that we humans would breed animals to our liking of what we felt was „pretty“ while the animals suffered with the „breed dispositions“. Of course, „never argue „fashion““ but to me welfare was more important. I loved farm animals but I disliked the fact that their main purpose seemed to be to grow and produce as fast as possible, often under to me questionable conditions. I loved horses too and it was because of them that I decided I wanted to be a veterinarian at age 11; after I witnessed my first birth – who would not be inspired watching the first steps of a newborn foal? But at 22 I had come to realize that my motivation for becoming a veterinarian - the desire to heal and „help“ animals and to work in and for nature - had been somewhat naive.

It seemed to me our daily veterinary life would all too often make us have to be psychologists and make economic choices to sacrifice animals or their welfare to human needs. I decided to take a break for a semester. At this point I have to thank a special person: my mother! Instead of possibly turning into a „jewelry selling beach traveler“ (my back-up plan at the time) she convinced me to volunteer in a conservation project with wild cats in Costa Rica.

Little did we know that it would change my life, to meet two inspirational German biologists, founders and directors of Profelis. They had come to study wild cats, and discovered a clear need for a facility that would rescue confiscated animals for the government. They took on the challenge to try to provide a solution by receiving and when possible rehabilitating to release this endangered species. I saw their challenges: no money, several years of negotiations, cooperation issues, grant applications, bureaucracy and many adversities. And I witnessed their whole-hearted dedication: living in a humble little house and rebuild the center 3 times, even from total devastation through a hurricane, with their own hands and WITHOUT a salary, for as long as 7 years! That truly inspired me. It was them who pointed me to a contact in Guatemala, the veterinarian and director of ARCAS, a general wildlife rescue center. The most amazing 2 years of my life would follow, while travelling Costa Rica and Guatemala to work as a veterinary volunteer in wildlife conservation projects. ARCAS was truly inspiring in that for the first time I saw local people, not foreigners, and from poor backgrounds (so not philanthropists) work hard to save their natural heritage. I experienced the first baby season and I saw a wildlife rescue center overwhelmed with hundreds of animals coming from the pet trade in a period of 6 weeks.

I returned to vet school with new found goals and passions. I had learned about the need for professional veterinary assistance in wildlife conservation in the field. I had seen the hardship, mainly meaning little to no income, hard work and many set backs, but I had also been inspired by simple people, who had so much less than I was even born with, dedicate their lives towards animals and nature. And I felt that, coming from a rich „country of abundance“, Germany, I wanted to dedicate my career to benefit development and nature conservation and take that challenge as well.

My childhood experiences in and the resulting love for Latin America, and having seen animals in the pet trade on the „other end“ - after illegal smuggling to developed world, and usually point of no return - I wanted to apply my skills, where there truly still is a chance of returning an animal to its natural habitat. And, where we can still work towards preserving natural habitats, and ultimately a harmonious cohabitation of humans in nature. I know that is the naive part of me again, but I believe in the benefit of having positive dreams and goals.

Over the next 15 years the proposal suited for my desire to find a similar niche, where I could use my medical professions’ training to apply it to heal and help animals and work to conserve nature and „give back“, would be refined over and over. One day I would like to dedicate an entire book to the many inspiring people I met while volunteering and visiting projects in 7 countries and learning many lessons over many years. And I guess that could be a nice book because all so often we tend to think that the world is filled with BAD people and tend to not remember those great inspiring people.

Ending our „nomadic“ years and visiting and settling in Belize was a like a revelation to the still hazy vision. And of course the beginning of another long process of learning, which is certainly continuing as we speak. After 8 years of living here, evaluating the situation, finding the gap and my niche, networking, consulting stakeholders, gathering (philosophical) support, and working with the government, I have finally given up on the idea that „someone“ will come along and „absorb my idea“ and write a large grant for me. With the idea to assist solving many of the countries wildlife problems in one go, for now and forever (meaning beyond my own involvement). I know that was setting my goals way too high, but I did that for years anyways. And I didn’t even know how to begin. Here I just must thank my dear husband for supporting me throughout and pointing out „you are trying to jump from A to Z instead of going via BCDE...just do it yourself, and start it small.“ and I finally heard him too.

It was Spartacus the 600 g Howler monkey baby who „pushed me over the edge“ to decide that even if it was small, the need for a medical facility for wildlife and some basic medical diagnostic and treatment tools was overwhelming. And that I would just start this clinic myself, without a million $ grant. It was Spartacus who inspired me, to activate this blog, apply for a minute loan and finally start looking for financial support for the wildlife rescue facility that I somehow started dreaming about in 1994. And just to make it clear: since then I have held numerous paid jobs simultaneously to support my „expensive hobby and passion“ as a „professional volunteer“ mostly without outside financial support or a salary.

And a few days after the decision to finally start seeking outside financial support for the work I am most passionate about, I accidentally saw this „Inspiration in Action“ contest... which in addition to the opportunity to help wildlife, offered the opportunity to assist the countries veterinarians and fulfill my personal mandate in the veterinary association to assist the advancement of our profession. So I felt inspired and just started writing. And I got a lot of help in the writing. And now we are in the final and with YOUR HELP could win $25,000 to purchase medical and diagnostic equipment to serve an entire country.

Regardless of outcome, it is VERY inspiring to have our proposal selected over so many other great projects and it sure will give me more energy and desire to continue facing the challenges of trying to assist sustainable development and wildlife conservation as well as animal welfare. I will be EVER GRATEFULL for the amazing response from everybody out there!

We keep our fingers crossed that despite being an „outsider“ and a small Caribbean country, with your help the Belize Wildlife Referral Clinic will win the Heska Inspiration in Action contest! Voting continues until the 18th of December.

We need thousands of votes to compete with the other 4 excellent contestants. So I hope you can also help us by convincing as many of your US-friends and family to please vote for BWRC here:

http://www.heska.com/Inspiration-Wall.aspx

Or directly on Facebook:

http://www.facebook.com/Heska?sk=app_280290708677410

Many exciting new rescues have happened recently, including another baby howler monkey, an Osprey and the most amazing solitary eagle! So stay „tuned“ for more?

The usual unusual adventure... Are you ready to meet „Michael Jackson“?

What I love about my work in wildlife rescue and conservation is that there is nothing usual about it. I never know what might happen the next day or moment and there is rarely any routine. Of course, I have to admit that that is very challenging sometimes too. But most times it keeps things interesting and exciting!

This story starts with an email from Nikki from Belize Bird Rescue, with a picture of a bird attached. It’s a juvenile raptor. And to my embarrassment I must admit, upon first very quick glance at this photo, I shrugged my shoulders and thought, „oh another Roadside Hawk“ (a very common small raptor, indeed often seen on roadsides in Belize). A minute later my phone rang. It was Nikki, sounding somewhat anxious, telling me she just received this raptor in a rice bag. The raptor was supposedly stealing a farmer’s chicken. The farmer had shot the raptor and the farmer’s neighbor had brought it to Nikki in the back of a pickup. Once out of the bag, it was big and feisty, and Nikki asked if I couldn’t come NOW to examine, check and hopefully release the raptor again. She was NOT handling this one by herself! So I relooked at the picture and finally computed the size of Nikki’s cage, which I knew, with the size of this bird, nearly filled the cage. Ooops! So we wondered what it would be. Bird identification is like a common „game“ for us. We are not (and maybe never will be) experts at identifying birds. But we know experts and we network. And of course we have books and we try to identify them ourselves. So still on the phone, Nikki suggested „it really looks like a solitary eagle“. And I laughed out, and actually made fun of her over the phone.

A solitary eagle is within the rarest, least known and endangered raptors in the world. At this time there is only one known nest in all its range. I don’t think there has ever been a rescue of one, at least not reported. So we both shared the pictures with our bird experts, and once I got to Bird Rescue, and saw this animal for myself for the first time, I was amazed by its large size. It calmly looked at me, threatened a bit, but was not overly scared or aggressive: BAR (bright alert and responsive...).

So for the next 30 minutes we prepared for examination, shock treatment, and possible other treatments, and I repeatedly returned with the identification guide and read, and reread the description. All the characteristics seemed to fit for the solitary eagle, but I sure wouldn’t believe my ID skills for something like that! And then came the first two amazed messages from our bird expert friends, including the researcher who studied the only known nest, confirming that we indeed had probably the rarest patient of our careers in front of us. GULP. Nikki compared it to Michael Jackson coming to visit, and my answer that our clinic (currently still with out in-house clinic facilities... and basic equipment) is NOT a „rockstar“ place by any means; but we are the only of our kind :) so we had to make it work.

And the worst of it was... we had to find out why on earth someone was able to capture him, hence if he got severely injured by bullets. He must have been very compromised, or debilitated in order for a human to capture and „bag“ him. Or maybe, he was just stunned and then immediately captured in that moment? From the report, my first gut feeling suspected a shot to the thorax and a possible fracture in his shoulder.

Any wildlife examination starts with observation, and for this guy the observation didn’t reveal much, if anything. He was symmetric and I thought I detected a slight weakness in the left wing, which after a few minutes he drooped just a half and inch lower. That gave further weight to the suspicion of shoulder fracture.

So then we had to get our „hands on him“ and give him the first round of treatment; nearly always indicated in rescued wildlife and definitely in cases like this. We knew he was captive at least 24hrs and travelled under extreme stress: rehydration, steroids for the hypovolemic shock and a little bit of energy in the form of dextrose. I usually also add some B-complex vitamins, which never hurts and helps with the appetite which is always an issue in our wildlife patients – if they stop to eat, we lose them, no matter how well we could cure anything else! And of course I always like to give at least one dose of homeopathic rescue remedy.

I am still beyond words to describe the thrill of working with this eagle up close. We approached him with much caution, calmly and gently. Did I mention my gloves were not really apt for this kind of raptor, aside from the fact that I really do not like to use big gloves to handle or restrain anyways. And it was amazing how little he struggled or fought our approach. He was alert and resisted, but we were quite capable of slowly netting and toweling him out of the small cage and then... first disarmed his „weapons“, the talons, by closing the feet, taking care to not hurt him with his own talons, and taping them that way. Raptors have lots of force in their feet – even little screech owls do, as I can attest from personal experience with one falsely believed to be deceased... But the strength is only to clamp down (and fly off with prey in most cases) yet not to open the feet. So once taped in the closed position we were safe to work with him with our limited equipment or trained staff.

I must give huge kudoz to Miss Celisha for her assistance, as well as, of course Miss Nikki, who, sometimes against her will, has had to learn a lot more about raptor care, including intensive care and physical therapy, then she probably would have chosen on her own accord. All because of the needed wildlife clinic facility, but Nikki truly rocks! Celisha was a novice with raptors and jumped right in, alert, quick and ON IT. What an initiation! So with fabulous teamwork we got the eagle transferred to the exam room, examined hands-on once over, treated, checked and measured... a bit (realizing that we do not know how to properly do these measurements, since they are usually done by biologists) and then brought him to an outdoor enclosure that had hastily been cleared of its parrot inhabitants. The neighboring cages of parrots also had to be evacuated. Imagine the disturbance of an eagle in between a bunch of parrots. But I guess if Michael Jackson came to your very humble bed and breakfast, you too would give him the whole place.

So now while we had given the essential shock treatment and gotten a good look, the entire exam did not really reveal many abnormalities! There was a small amount of dried dark blood found on the outside of his beak, one small blood spot on the elbow of the same left side, slightly low body condition (rather normal for this stage of life in this bird). No fractures detected manually, neither in wing, shoulder nor elsewhere. Eyes clean, clear, responsive. Nothing wrong? So there we had a mystery, and if nothing was wrong then the bird must have been seriously ill and debilitated for somebody to be able to capture it, which would likely stack all possible odds against this bird, and our attempts to save it.

We definitely needed an x-ray! But since we are still working on acquiring that as one of the first more expensive basic pieces of equipment for the Belize Wildlife & Referral Clinic, we had to reconvene the next day and make arrangements to see if we could borrow a machine and arrange development without too much stress.

I did not sleep well that night. I worried that we didn’t know what was keeping this bird down and how I really did not want to lose this patient. In general we vets are trained to not get too attached to our patients, since we have to deal with the fact that we lose them sometimes, and especially in wildlife rescue! And I generally care equally for small or large, predator or prey with the priority or emphasis on conservation and sustainable management of endangered species. And this was probably the most endangered wild animal I would ever get to see and I so wanted to have a chance to release it back into the wild and see it fly free.

Intensive networking continued. I called our in country snake expert, asking him to do us the favor to find snakes for our VIP patient, and he of course returned the favor of laughing out when I told him what we had in our hands (in disbelief). By the time I had reached back home the people involved in providing assistance for this eagle’s rescue ranged from Spain, to Panama, Guatemala, Virginia to California and more.

This brings me to end this chapter of the story, with a HUGE amazed expression of gratitude to the power of networking! Thank you so much to everybody out there for helping!

And that brings me to the final plead for networking: please help us win the Heska Inspiration in Action Contest by voting for the Belize Wildlife & Referral Clinic. This prize would be the first step towards equipping a clinic with much needed equipment, not only for wildlife but also for the small developing country’s domestic animal veterinarians.

Voting ends on the 18th of December and our US competition has some excellent projects as well, so we need every US vote you can raise for Belize.

http://www.heska.com/Inspiration-Wall.aspx

Difficulties and disappointments in Wildlife rehabilitation and the story of the comatose barn owl miracle, without happy ending.

First of all and „flat out“: wildlife rehabilitation done properly is very difficult and challenging and filled with „disappointments“ or hardship of many kinds. This starts with the assessment whether an animal can or should be rehabilitated.

Which is why it is so fabulous to witness and tell stories like Spartacus’ the howler monkey (still keeping fingers crossed as the story continues) who will hopefully ultimately go from certain death to wild and free living animal in natural habitat with his own kind.

But those unfamiliar with the field, and may be having illusions of fuzzy and cuddly babies... well those we do see too, and they are one of the beautiful aspects of the field. I might have to write about those next, after this. But in a general rescue center we often receive very severely injured animals for who we can only relieve of suffering (meaning humane euthanasia), or we receive animals that did not survive the transport hence their injuries.

While those are really „rough“ and sometimes disheartening experiences, in a veterinarians day and professional life, euthanasia is an important responsibility: To decide over and execute as an act of humane kindness to animals, to avoid unnecessary suffering, pain or incurable illness, the humane and pain free killing of the creatures you work for... Lack of quality of life and stress, is particularly challenging in wild animals. For example when we can cure their fracture but they can not survive being in captivity while their bones should heal. And in general it is not only our responsibility to decide and execute but also to console co-workers, staff, owners or rescuers. Never an easy task I can attest.

But at least in clear cut extreme injuries it is easy to see the unnecessary pain and suffering. We often use a three strike rule: three major injuries and we should not „torture“ the animal with our attempts to cure it, when it’s system or just its wild nature is unlikely to be able to cope with too many major injuries at the same time. We should let go and choose to give this animal pain free relief of suffering.

And then we get really difficult, not so clear cut cases sometimes. And they seem to turn, sometimes even miraculously at first, and we opt to NOT euthanize a really borderline severely injured animal, but fight an extended period of time to rehabilitate and give an animal the best chance at a possible survival for release. And sometimes we win and sometimes we loose. When this happens after many weeks it is especially disheartening. As the title indicates, I choose to talk about lost battles.

This brings me to the most recent example of such a "failure" of mine, so to speak. I thought we should try against many odds, and it did look miraculously at first:

In the middle of a 2 week intensive wildlife course for vet students a barn owl is announced and brought to the classroom by a bird rehabber. When the owl (gender unknown but for the sake of the story assumed female) comes in, she is comatose and unresponsive, in full hypovolemic shock with an old, open humerus fracture and very skinny. Upon first inspection I give her prognosis the „in faust“ which is the worst possible, basically meaning survival unlikely. After some quick pondering we decide that we might as well try and see if we can operate, repair the fracture and place a bone pin, which I had with me. Likely she would not survive the surgery and pass away under anesthesia, which would be similar to just euthanizing her right away, since she would feel no pain in the process.

We quickly prep a table inside the lodges Restaurant, minimal instruments and I draw up the highly diluted anesthetics for the small patient, trying to keep a light dose for the much debilitated patient who quickly succumbs to full anesthesia. We immediately start to go to work and my students help inject fluids, steroids and antibiotics while I try and relatively quickly succeed to place a bone pine, in what feels like only 2 large pieces of the humerus. This is good, I feel no further fragments, contraction is not yet terrible, and surgery is quick. And the patient is still alive too. To complete the treatment we place a standard figure 8 wrap on the broken wing, which is now stabilized with one IM pin. The disadvantage of this simple and quick method of fracture repair that we were able to improvise on a restaurant table is, that it provides no rotational immobilization. So we also have to place a light body wrap on the owl in order to achieve the best possible immobilization of the 2 re-united bone pieces.

Amazingly enough our patient remains alive and starts to show first signs of life so we return her to the rehabilitator and rescuer who takes her back to the avian rescue center, elated that after having gotten the message that likely we would have to euthanize or she would not survive surgery, she now had a “repaired” live bird. 5 hours later I receive an image of the comatose owl now PERCHING with wrap on and all in good position and order! That was like a miracle.

And I won’t stretch out the story too long but we worked with her for a total of 2.5 months to the point of upgrading her into a larger cage to practice and possibly regain flight where she then re-fractured her wing and I had to euthanize her. I always ponder cases, and basically any patient I loose and try to „make the best“ out of them, and learn for the future, to not make the same mistake twice. My goals is to avoid letting an animal suffer when my hopes of curing it were unrealistic and to treat everything the best possible. For the owl, with her old open fracture I realized afterwards that we should have kept her antibiotic treatment on board for longer then we did. Of course we had no x-ray to really diagnose her bone density and monitor fracture repair. All exams were done by hand. I had never had a patient re-brake like her. So I think she must have had a persistent infection in the bone which weakened it. Therefore when we upgraded to fly, she broke again, despite having been immobilized for longer then usually needed. Sigh.

I learned something from her or so I think and try to improve.

Sorry, not all stories end good, in fact most of them don’t. That is life. But I guess what we make from our failures is truly what defines us in the long run?

I guess I should make the next blog a happier one again? Let me know...?

Patience in Wildlife Rehab and Baby Howler Spartacus - Part 4

My apologies for the long delay.

In Wildlife rehabilitation we often have to wait for many weeks and months and in some cases even as long as 1.5 – 2 years, before we can release some of our patients. And to then know if we really suceeded in contributing to the conservation of our species, by ensuring that our releasees survived and reproduced and contributed to the genepool takes even more effort and time. So patience can be one of the challenges.

Of course the goal is always to get them out as fast as possible. But sometimes that is really not possible, for example in a severe injury like the nearly severed hand of Spartacus the young howler monkey baby.

Sometimes we fight for weeks, or even months, and then we have to give up and euthanize or just loose a patient, when we already got out hopes up that we could indeed rehabilitate them successfully. Unfortunately I have one of those stories in mind for the next blog.

But fortunately that is not Spartacus story! He came back to see me for a bandage change 3 weeks after the injury. At that time his hand had just started to swell up more again and the bandage was getting too tight. Some drainage was noted on the medial side, which had been left open for drainage.

A day after the bandage change his hands swelling went down more then ever before with only a small increase now over his healthy hand. He is fully adjusted to the monkey rehab routine and no longer stressed, but happy to receive food and medication. The latest news were that he is now starting to show more signs of starting to use his hand!!

So I continue to keep my fingers crossed for Spartacus hoping that he can one day be a free monkey again. The main challenge for now is to keep him, a young and normally active monkey from injuring himself while his hand hopefully completes the healing process. He wants to play with the other babies and he wants to move, understandably.

Next week he will come for another bandage change and for a first time x-ray! We are still concerned about bone infection and sequesters and basically have no idea what the bones really look like. But it „feels“ like it is solidifying...

Wildlife conflicts and the story of Amy the keel-billed toucan flegling – Part 1

Close proximity often leads to conflict. I will soon write a „proper“ article on the notorious human-wildlife conflict, for belizean newspapers and magazines and I might share it on this blog, as that, once again, is a whole big subject in itself.

As well as the discussion: when do we let nature take it’s course? And when do we intervene? Do we „rescue“ an animal from nature? No! Usually we rescue animals who are damaged due to conflict with humans or our civilisations impact (eg roads...try to think how many dead animals you see on the road, every time you look for them).

Sometimes we might receive an animal, like baby howler monkey Spartacus, who was likely attacked by a predator but got away. He was too severely injured to survive without medical care. And then a human heard him wimpering in their backyard, called the primate program who arranged rescue and transport to me. When an animal is brought to me, I go by my interpretation of the medical oath, and I do what I can to: alleviate suffering, pain and injury allways keeping welfare in mind, as opposed to letting an animal die a slow but certain death. Which brings me to Amy.

On a busy weekend, in a very busy summer teaching students, while about to drive out of reception area for the day: my phone rings! On the display the name of a friend, Laine, who has may be called me once or twice, if ever. I quickly stop, to let her know that I am 5 h away from home and currently unavailable. Laine found a toucan, in a backyard on the ground, appearing to be „ok“ - no injury obvious to the untrained eye from afar- yet is not flying and has „parents“ (bigger flying toucans) in the branches above. First, I try to establish a rough age estimate and when Laine says that the bird had some yet not all feathers fully developped, we know it is a fedgling. Those sometimes jump out a bit too early. Laine had not yet approached the baby bird. But she was concerned that any predator or bird would very easily eat this obviously not flighted baby that had come too close to human civilisation (our yards too often bring dogs and cats who will do damage to wildlife). On the phone I try to coach Laine to see if the bird has no externally visible injury and if not to put her up in the tree. As simple as that! That might work. „And keep on watching. Parents will come and feed there. Sometimes it just takes a few days to learn to fly. And if it does not work, call Bird Rescue“.

And off we go our way to the primates. Surprise, surprise 5 minutes down the road, I still have phone reception and receive another call, Laine again! They could find no nest, or get the baby up into a tree and upon closer inspection she did seem not quite right! I am far away and can not see for myself but I quickly pass on the phone number for the avian rescue center. I know they can pick up, assist and stabilize the bird, or just take care of it, depending on how bad it is.

As I return to phone reception 1.5 days later, I receive a txt from the rescue center: asking me to let them bring the toucan by my house to see her on the way. Not even home after 3 weeks of non-stop working... of course I can not say no! I know Nicki would not „bug“ me Sunday evening if it were not urgent.

When I finally get this fledgling bird on the table I am amazed at the severity of her injuries. Nicky suspected broken bones in the wing, yet I find no brakes. What we do find, is jagged lacerations of the left wing, under which we can see down to muscles, tendons and bones of radius, ulna and parts of the humerus. The wound is smelly already! This could have been a predator trying to grab the bird by the wing, leaving an infected jagged wound. Weirdly enough Nikki saw her claw at herself with her left leg, and she also has sores on her left hock, which indicates that she has been handicapped for longer then just a day and that her leg is not functioning as well as it should either. Her pupillary reflex appears slow, especially on the left side and she has diarrhea. She is off balance and has very little „spirit“ at that time.

First things first: we deal with the most severe injury and shock. Rehydration, a bit of Rescue Remedy (homeopathic remedy) and then we clean and flush her injury and wrap her so that her wing can heal without access from her clawing foot. We add vitamins and antibiotic treatment for the infection, and after a few days of recovery, a dewormer (despite a negative stool sample).

A week later, I inspect her and change the wing wrap. The wounds are slowly healing. Yet with her primary injury healing it becomes more apparent that her body posture still seems „odd“. We add Vit B-complex in an attempt to to alleviate nerve damage. She is given the name Amy mainly for the time of her rescue within days of Amy Winehouses untimely death, her yet unexplained „self-destructive behavior“ and some of her features and a beautifull voice (allthough that could be argued for toucans ;)).

Another week goes by and we remove the body wrap and then the wing wrap. We have to stop limiting her movement in that wing, which we generally do as short as possible and only when necessary for fractures. It is a struggle between protecting the wing and preventing it from becoming stiff and immobile, and we want to speed up the last bits of healing to occur with air contact. Within 30 minutes of the wrap beeing removed Amy claws herself again, and nearly wrips her wing vein! She bleeds profusely, which we stop with a simple compression, and then we re-wrap the wing once again.

At this point Nikki asks me to please take the bird so that I can ensure she does not bleed to death after one of her self mutilation attacks. I agree and take Amy home with me. In the following 2 days I spend a lot of time around Amy, just observing her, weird, behavior. It becomes clear that her entire left side has limited function. While she can bear weight on leg and pull wing back to the body, she seems to have very little control over leg or wing. Once the foot grabs something - including her own neck! - it will not let go. Nikki and myself have to save her from self strangulation more then once.

I tentatively reconstruct that she must have been either born that way or received a head/neurologic trauma at an earlier stage of her life, which lead to the beginning handicap, and some nerve damage in left wing and leg (and then may be a predator on top).

After we have in those past 2 weeks eliminated broken bones, parasites and bacterial infection as causes for her repeated self mutiliation to her wing, I deduct it could be because she just does not have sensation . Or, worse, the tingling sensation of healing or returning innervation after injuries? Nor does she have proper coordination, and her foot just wont let go once she grabs on to anything. In frustrating 2 days I observe this uncoordinated and selfdestructive seeming creature and my doubt will only increase that we can not „save“ this patient, which then means that I should euthanize her to end suffering. But at this point she clearly demonstrates a strong will to survive and little to no fear or stress and has regained strength and cleared the infection. I get an idea of one last ditch effort that we could try... it is not nice but it might work and ultimately save her. You want to know what it was? (of course this took place in the past and I can tell you that while somewhat unconventional or surprising it did indeed work and Amy’s story still continues, as does Spartacus’). to be continued....

Looking forward to Questions and/or Comments?

Daniel Velasquez made a short video of Amy that you can see here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RPRj0pebwgc