unknown...

It's still slow, but that's ok--babies will be here in a few weeks!

Just wanted to post quickly. Often (well, most of the time) we don't know exactly why some animals are sick. To find out the exact reason an animal is sick (ie the exact bacterium, or virus or parasite or what exactly is going on inside) often requires expensive testing (cultures, virus isolation, cat scans, MRIs, etc) that we simply can't afford as a non profit. And honestly, if we did have a little extra money, we would probably put it into the care of the animals we're currently treating--as often finding out the exact cause won't change treatment. For instance, we have a squirrel with an abscess (a large infection under the skin causing a pocket of pus). We know it's a bacterial infection, we're just not sure which type of bacteria. So we pick a broad spectrum antibiotic and most of the time it heals. Is it ideal? no. Would we rather know the exact bacterium we're dealing with so we can start the animal on the exact antibiotic that will treat that exact infection from the start? yes. But is it worth the money to culture the hundreds-thousands of infections we see every year, when only a handful don't respond to the first drug we try?

It's a question we ask yourselves everyday and we have to pick the answer that is both good for the center and good for the animal.

So here we have a turkey who first presented knuckling over on one foot. The next day she couldn't stand at all (see pic) and had lost all feeling her legs. Ascending paralysis isn't very common in wildlife, but most of the differentials bear a poor prognosis. Would I like to be able to do a CT scan or MRI to look for spinal trauma? Would I like to do bloodwork and ultrasounds? I would love to do all those tests to try and find out what exactly is wrong with this bird. Unfortunately, even if we could afford them, we might be left without an answer, and her prognosis would likely be the same--grave.

Below is an opossum in treatment right now. He came in for emaciation (way too skinny!) he's gaining weight well but now one of his eyes looks cloudy. I'm treating him for several types of eye disease. Ideally, he would go see an ophthamologist--but again--expensive--so we're treating for the treatable (mainly infection) and we'll see how he does!

Now this doesn't mean we don't ever to advanced testing on our animals. When it's especially indicated (an infection that's not responding to broad spectrum antibiotics), when it effects humans (ie we send in bats that have bitten people so the bats can be tested for rabies), when it threatens the animal's life AND it's an endangered species or there is a good chance what it has could be easily treated--in these and many other situations, we do send out for advanced testing. But just like you weigh the costs vs benefits when you bring your pet to the vet, we have to do that, too. Just several thousand times each year:)