From an NC Wildlife Rehab Clinic, Abigale Patten Reports

DISPATCH #2

My second rotation was an externship with Flat River Veterinary Hospital in Rougemont. Flat River is a large animal practice that sees a variety of species both at the clinic and out on farms. One of the things I got to learn a lot about was equine reproduction. Horses are long-day breeders, which means they can get pregnant only when there are many hours of daylight. That’s why the spring and early summer are some of the busiest times of the year for equine vets! It was really interesting to see ultrasounds in real time and learn about all of the different factors that go into deciding the next step to take for the health of both the mares and the foals.

An interesting group of patients I had at Flat River was a handful of emu! Surprisingly, emu need to be vaccinated for a group of equine diseases called Eastern, Western and Venezuelan Equine Encephalitis. These are mosquito-borne diseases that can be fatal to emus and horses. Luckily, the horse vaccine is effective in emus! 

During this rotation, I had the opportunity to do a lot of physical exams, vaccinations, hoof trims, teeth floats and castrations. These are some of the most common procedures I’ll get to do as a veterinarian, and it is great to be able to learn tips and tricks from various veterinarians who have been practicing for years. Dr. Emily Wahl and Dr. Cathy Mittenson were great teachers, and I left my two weeks even more confident and excited to be in this field.

DISPATCH #1

At the May Wildlife Rehab Clinic, I had the opportunity to gain hands-on experience caring for and treating orphaned and injured wildlife from a wide variety of species. 

My absolute favorite patient was a crow that was found on the side of the road and brought in because he was not flying and appeared to have no fear of humans. This was during my first few days, and I hadn’t had a lot of prior experience with birds other than chickens, so I was very nervous about grabbing him out of the box on my own. He didn’t care at all, though, and I was able to hold him and complete a physical exam by myself. His exam was completely normal other than his mentation because he wasn’t trying to escape and his eye, which had blood in the anterior chamber also known as hyphema. 

We hospitalized him and he steadily improved over the next week. The hyphema disappeared slowly, and he began hopping around the exam room and eventually flying away from us. By the end of his stay, I had to use a net to catch him in his outdoor enclosure and carefully wrap him in a towel to avoid getting a finger pecked. It was amazing to see his progression, and it felt like we were growing together, him in his suitability for release and me in my ability to care for nondomestic animals. Toward the end of my second week, he was cleared for release and taken back to where he had been found. 

A difficult but important part of wildlife medicine is euthanasia. It is often the most humane choice for an animal that will never be able to fully recover from an injury and that would be very stressed if kept in captivity. It was an element of my two weeks that I struggled with, even though when the time came I always knew that it was the right choice and would end the pain and fear for my patient.

Being able to see the crow be released back into the wild was an amazing feeling of accomplishment and a welcome success story. Overall, I learned that wildlife medicine can have very high highs and very difficult lows but in the end is incredibly rewarding.

Some more highlights:

We had a large variety of woodpeckers, including downy woodpecker fledgelings, a yellow bellied sapsucker and a pileated woodpecker. They are feisty little birds that love to peck anything in sight and are incredibly endearing. Other birds included an adult redtail hawk, baby Eastern screech owls and a variety of songbirds.

There were also many orphaned opossums that needed to be tube-fed every four hours. It took a lot of dedication and patience to get through all of the feedings and help them make the transition from mom’s milk to formula. Luckily, there was an amazing group of staff who were passionate about the work they were doing and went above and beyond, often taking the babies home to feed through the night.

I consider myself extremely lucky to have had this as my first rotation. I plan to be a mixed-animal veterinarian and am excited to be a resource for people with a large variety of species (think James Herriot from “All Creatures Great and Small”). I now feel empowered to work with a wildlife rehabber or help clients who have found injured wildlife get stabilized and connected with the right resources. 

Thank you to the amazing staff, students, volunteers and veterinarians, Dr. Sam Young and Dr. Miranda Torkelson, who I had the opportunity to learn from at MWRC.