Helping Them Speak

July 25, 2008

Last day:(

Today is my last day at The Wilds. I am sad:( ; this facility is amazing, the animals are incredible (and managed on pasture like they should be) and the people are completely awesome. Everyone here has been so nice and incredibly helpful. I’ve learned so much during my time here and enjoyed every personal interaction I’ve had.

Today is my last day—and what an amazing day it was! There wasn’t much planned—but that quickly changed (just like every Friday;) ) In the morning, there was a bison that had had rotting membranes sticking out of her hind end for a day now; she either had aborted and now had a retained placenta or was a dystocia. If it was just retained membranes, we would probably just dart her with some oxytocin and possibly tetracycline. If it was a dystocia, we would have to immobilize (anesthetize her in the field) her and pull the calf. It was decided to immobilize her in the field so we could palpate her and tell for sure which it was, treat her accordingly, and be done for the weekend (also a good learning experience, the vet argued;).

So at 10am we took two trucks full of supplies out to the field where the herd of ~50 bison resided. We threw grain and hay down in the field to keep the bison occupied. Then I followed an Animal Management staff person out into the middle of the herd on foot (yes--walking in the middle of dozens of two ton bison!) and I darted the female with anesthetic drugs; it was a surreal experience!

After getting darted, the female took off running over the field and down a hill. We took th

e trucks and found her thrashing in the tall thistle (ouch!). The animal management staff tied her back feet and sat on her head while the vet gave her more anesthetic drugs. After palpation, we realized she had aborted and only had retained placenta. We gave her oxytocin (to help expel the rotting placenta), an antibiotic and a non-

steroidal anti-inflammatory. We then gave her a drug that reversed the anesthetic drugs and she was on her feet in less than 2 minutes.

Field immobilizations are sooo much fun:)

For lunch, the vet staff took me to the restaurant at the wilds and treated me to lunch (yayJ ) and then surprised me with going away gifts---I felt so special! Among the awesome and extremely thoughtful gifts was a small stuffed Takin which they had sewn the eye shut on (like the Takin eyeball we had taken out the week before!). how cool?!?! The stuffed takin (name Alcatraz) is now my traveling companion and is sitting looking out the front window of my car.

After lunch, we all hopped in the truck to give the giraffe dewormer. We cut a bunch of “browse” (branches trees that the giraffe love to eat the leaves and bark of) and brought it to the giraffe pasture. They don’t have much browse in their enclosure so they all eagerly came up to the truck and started eating. Then we could take a large syringe full of dewormer and squirt it on their backs. The dewormer gets absorbed through their skin and kills any internal and external parasites the giraffe might have. To have enourmously tall giraffes towering over you and practically eating out of your hand is again—a surreal experience!!

I then went back to the clinic, finished the project I’ve been working on for the last few weeks, said almost emotional goodbyes to everyone, exchanged email addresses and did not cry as I left the The Wilds.

What an amazing day:)

Off to MA!