HELPING ORPHANED
WILDLIFE
Photos by Anne Muller
Wildlife
Watch runs a "hotline" for
wildlife that leads to the saving of scores
of wild animals and helps to resolve human-animal conflicts.
During "baby
season" (late March through the summer), we get hundreds
of calls from several New York counties, and we try to
match callers with wildlife rehabilitators (rehabbers)
who are nearby and specialize in the area of need. That’s
not always possible, so…this article is designed to assist
a lay person in helping wild, orphaned animals until a
rehabber or wildlife vet can take over. Each category of
animal
is on a separate page so it may be easily printed or faxed. (Choose
from the menu to the left, or the main
First Aid page.)
The
first tenet should be, "Do
no harm," but that doesn’t mean to do nothing
when there are simple remedies.
Many wildlife rehabilitators enhance traditional
formulas and techniques to keep patients from dying. These
formulas are the combined recipes of Ingrid Ilkiw and Marilyn
Leybra. I visited Ingrid in June as she was
preparing food for a variety of orphaned wild animals,
and followed her through her feeding routine. The recipes
here are simplified so that most people will be able to
easily obtain the ingredients and supplies. This is provided
as an aid in short-term care when a rehabber or wildlife
veterinarian is not immediately available
First Things
First
Ingrid Ilkiw
Birds and mammals respond well
to heat. Use a covered hot water bottle, covered heat pad,
or a plastic soda bottle filled with hot water. Wrap it
in a thick, preferably fuzzy, sock. Put the heat source
near the body for warmth and comfort. It's important to
bring up the body temperature before starting to feed.
Supplies
You will need
to keep on hand: paper towels, tissues, a fuzzy sock,
cages of various sizes, plastic syringes or eyedroppers,
nipples including a cattak (long, thin nipple) to be
put at the end of a plastic syringe, baby bottles, Exact
(from a pet store), lactate (from a pharmacy), Nutrical
(pet store), goat milk (health food store); baby food:
beef, spinach, applesauce, baby cereal, baby rice, puppy
chow and ripe bananas.
Most of these supplies can be kept a
long time, so get them ready. Obviously, bananas will
have to be bought fresh. If you buy goat milk in powdered
form, you won’t have to worry about keeping it fresh.
|
877-WILD-HELP
( 877-945-3435
) |
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