A crow, an opossum and our first baby of the year!

Today was the first day in several months that I actually felt adequately busy. Don't get me wrong--I have a lot to do even when it's cold out and we're only admitting a few animals a day. I have ~50 in patients, some with more complicated diseases; research papers to write; continuing education lectures for our volunteers and rehabilitators to put together; we're in the midst of writing and installing a completely new computer system, so working out those bugs takes time; writing intern/extern manuals for the students that come with us during the busy season, etc etc etc.

But today--just felt different.

I started off the day by doing surgery on a crow. This crow had been shot (with a BB gun--ugh!); one pellet broken his wing, which was wrapped up and healing nicely. The other pellet was lodged in his leg. We see this very, very often--animals with various projectiles lodged in them. Usually, the don't do any harm so we leave them in (b/c surgery is invasive and risky--not worth it if the pellet can stay in without harming the animal). The pellet in the crows leg wasn't bothering him on admit--he was using the leg normally, there was no swelling around the pellet, etc.

However, 11 days after he was admitted, the area around the pellet became very swollen, he became lame on that leg, and couldn't fully extend the joint near the pellet.

SO here is an example of one of the few times I remove pellets. Good thing I did too-the pellet was lodged INSIDE a tendon sheath--it would have only continued to cause harm. I'm hoping this guy doesn't have any arthritis or other chronic problems--only time will tell. Here is his xray.

I think rechecked ALL of my inpatients, including this tiny ornate tree lizard that came in a few days ago.

he hitched a ride in a backpack with some people who were vacationing in Arizona. Silly lizard. We're trying to find him a ride home as soon as possible! He looks tired and dehydrated in this picture b/c he's used to 90deg weather, and what did we have today? a blizzard! hahaha

Then I amputated the tip of a opossum tail. Virginia Opossums live everywhere in the midwest, but they are originally from the South--so they aren't really evolved for this cold weather. While most do ok, usually the ones we get in have frostbitten tail tips and/or ears. The ears will heal on their own, but often the tail tips need to be amputated. That opossum did great during surgery and is on the road to recovery!

The blizzard today is kind of funny as normally we have admitted several baby animals by this time of the year--this year, however, it's March 23 and we haven't admitted one yet--this hasn't happened in the last 8 years!

But them--right before I was about to leave for the day--we got our first baby animal of the season in---A RED FOX KIT!!!! soooo cute!!! He's pretty out of it--and has a respiratory infection--might have other underlying diseases (there's a reason mom abandoned him...) but we'll see how he does. What a great day:)