Above is a trumpeter swan under anesthesia. He was shot and part of his wing (ulna) was fractured. Luckily the bone healed with just a wing wrap and he was released into an a fenced in lake so he could strengthen his wing (we don't have flight cages big enough for swans at the center:) Below is him walking down to the lake at release!
Below is a recently admited tiger salamander. It was found late in the fall (should have been in hibernation!). This salamander has a broken arm, a broken leg and metabolic bone disease (calcium deficiency). The injuries are pretty severe--we're supplementing the diet and keeping it on cage rest--there's not much else to do. Splinting the bones would likely be more stressful/painful than just leaving them at this point. We'll see how it does over the winter! (at the bottom of a post is a video of the salamander).
At this time of year we get in a lot of birds with old injuries that were unable to migrate. Below are 2 pelicans that came in last week. Their flock migrated south and they were left on the lake, unable to fly. Volunteers caught them and brought them in. Unfortunately one had an amputated wing tip and the other had a dislocated wrist. Both injuries are irreparable and render these birds unreleasable. It's a sad time of year when we have to humanely euthanize many animals.
Sometimes we are able to "place" unreleasable animals instead of euthanizing. It is rare situations that this is possible and it depends on many factors--we need a place that wants the animal (for education, exhibit or as a foster parent), the animal needs to be able to psychologically able to handle captivity and the injury needs to not cause chronic pain. The sandhill crane below was unable to migrate. He was living near a woman's house with a female and their chick (now a juvenile). The couple had been nesting here for several years now. The woman noticed the wing drooping and observed the bird couldn't fly, but he was too fast of a runner to catch. Soon the birds would need to migrate and I advised the woman to keep an eye on them and to feed them so they would get used to her--if they didn't fear her, she might have enough time to net him. Weeks past and the female and chick refused to migrate w/o the male. Everything was freezing and the family was starving. Long story short, she was able to trap the male in a garage. We went out and captured him. Luckily, a rehab center in Antigo, WI was able to take him to use him as a foster parent for sandhill chicks and one of our volunteers was able to drive him the 4 hours there. The xray below shows bullet and how the wing healed malaligned. He won't be in chronic pain, this rehab center has a large outdoor enclosure he can live in (not a little cage, no visitors to stress him out). So a good ending to this story:)
Above is a trumpeter swan under anesthesia. He was shot and part of his wing (ulna) was fractured. Luckily the bone healed with just a wing wrap and he was released into an a fenced in lake so he could strengthen his wing (we don't have flight cages big enough for swans at the center:) Below is him walking down to the lake at release!
Below is a recently admited tiger salamander. It was found late in the fall (should have been in hibernation!). This salamander has a broken arm, a broken leg and metabolic bone disease (calcium deficiency). The injuries are pretty severe--we're supplementing the diet and keeping it on cage rest--there's not much else to do. Splinting the bones would likely be more stressful/painful than just leaving them at this point. We'll see how it does over the winter! (at the bottom of a post is a video of the salamander).
At this time of year we get in a lot of birds with old injuries that were unable to migrate. Below are 2 pelicans that came in last week. Their flock migrated south and they were left on the lake, unable to fly. Volunteers caught them and brought them in. Unfortunately one had an amputated wing tip and the other had a dislocated wrist. Both injuries are irreparable and render these birds unreleasable. It's a sad time of year when we have to humanely euthanize many animals.
Sometimes we are able to "place" unreleasable animals instead of euthanizing. It is rare situations that this is possible and it depends on many factors--we need a place that wants the animal (for education, exhibit or as a foster parent), the animal needs to be able to psychologically able to handle captivity and the injury needs to not cause chronic pain. The sandhill crane below was unable to migrate. He was living near a woman's house with a female and their chick (now a juvenile). The couple had been nesting here for several years now. The woman noticed the wing drooping and observed the bird couldn't fly, but he was too fast of a runner to catch. Soon the birds would need to migrate and I advised the woman to keep an eye on them and to feed them so they would get used to her--if they didn't fear her, she might have enough time to net him. Weeks past and the female and chick refused to migrate w/o the male. Everything was freezing and the family was starving. Long story short, she was able to trap the male in a garage. We went out and captured him. Luckily, a rehab center in Antigo, WI was able to take him to use him as a foster parent for sandhill chicks and one of our volunteers was able to drive him the 4 hours there. The xray below shows bullet and how the wing healed malaligned. He won't be in chronic pain, this rehab center has a large outdoor enclosure he can live in (not a little cage, no visitors to stress him out). So a good ending to this story:)
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