Unfortunately, not all animals make it despite our best treatments.

The baby Blue Heron from an earlier post sadly had to be humanely euthanized as it developed several more fractures in the wing we had splinted.  We don’t know if it had an underlying disease (ie. metabolic bone disease) or if it injured itself in its enclosure, but the fractures would not have healed well enough for it to fly.

The American Toad that had an obstruction in its stomach recovered well from that surgery (the stomach healed very nicely and she felt well enough to eat a grub on her own!) but  she remained lethargic and didn’t pass any stool.

To determine why she wasn’t fully recovered yet, we performed a barium study.  A barium study is where you feed an animal a liquid that shows up bright white on x-rays.  Serial x-rays are taken and you can see the barium as it passes through various parts of the gastrointestinal tract.

Here is one taken 1 hour after we fed her the barium.  The blob on the right is barium in her stomach and you can see it snaking through the intestines to the left.

we continued to take x-rays but after 24 hours the barium became stuck at the junction of the small intestine and colon.

She needed surgery again or she would die.  So we went to surgery but unfortunately, the part of the intestine that had all the barium in it was extremely fragile and burst.  She would have needed the fragile part of her intestine cut out and the two ends sewn together (called an anastomosis and resection), but we couldn’t find why she became obstructed in the first place.

It was decided to humanely euthanize her as the anastomosis and resection surgery she needed was very risky (high rate of failure) and we couldn’t guarantee she wouldn’t become obstructed again.  It seemed unfair to put her through more pain when we couldn’t give her a good prognosis.

However, the Green Herons are doing well and eating on their own, the cygnets have been fostered out to a swan pair, and the hummingbirds are still thriving!  Amidst the disappointing outcomes are several more healthy and happy ones!

I learned yesterday that we’ve admitted nearly 2,000 animals in June alone!!! That’s our busiest June in history, and our 2nd busiest month in history!! We’ve already surpassed 5,000 animals so far for the year! I wonder if this will be our record-breaking year for admits!?

Two days ago, just before we closed for the night, the WRC received two of our smallest admits of the year - infant Ruby-throated Hummingbirds! They had fallen from their nest and amazingly, someone spotted them on the ground. It is always best to replace baby birds into their nest, but the rescuer was unable to locate the nest so did the next best thing and brought the birds to us.

Baby hummingbirds need to be fed every 15 minutes for 14 hours a day. These two are about 10 days old, and have only just recently opened their eyes. We are currently feeding them a juvenile hummingbird formula with some insects added for extra protein, which is important for feather development in infants. We’ve also ordered some special hand-feeding formula to be shipped overnight from a rehabilitator in California who specializes in hummingbirds. It is the same food that the San Diego zoo uses for all their exotic hummingbirds and is due to arrive sometime today. (What a kind donation!) I’m happy to report that these little babies are doing very well.

We released two Common Loons this week.  Both were found grounded on roads.  One had a few abrasions on a foot and the other was slightly weak in one leg–otherwise physical examinations were completely normal.  X-rays were normal and there was no lead detected in their blood.   It’s likely these 2 had ‘crash-landed’.  (they can mistake wet pavement as a body of water)

Loons’ legs are positioned far back on their body to make swimming more efficient.  This positioning makes walking on land essentially impossible, so if they accidentally land on ground (instead of water) they are stranded.

One of the loons was released in cooperation with Larry Backlund.  You may know him as “the Loon Guy”:  every year he shares live video feed of a loon nest.  He has wonderful photos of the release on his site.

A reminder to be careful of loons on our lakes this weekend.  With all the focus on loons due to the oil spill, we shouldn’t forget that their protection begins here in their home territory.  Visit the MNDNR site for a brief news release on boating guidelines around loons.  Keep your eyes open: you should see babies with parents!

If you refer back to the post on May 12th, 2010, entitled “Mystery in the Waterfowl Nursery,” you will find a picture of one of our three blond ducklings.  Now, almost 2 months later, they are ready to be released!

As mentioned in the May 12th post, they are not albino because their eyes are pigmented normally (although the red eye reduction feature on the camera apparently was not effective in this shot!).  A more plausible explanation is a condition called Leukism.  Leukism is an abnormal plumage condition caused by a genetic mutation that prevents melanin, a pigment, from being properly depositted on a bird’s feathers.  The appearance of a leukistic bird can range from white spots (also called pied or piebald) to pale plumage or even pure white.  Our birds’ overall plumage looks pale or diluted, but normal mallard marking patterns are still faintly visible.

Our blondies were taken to Carpenter Nature Center on June 28th to get accustomed to being in a more natural setting.  They will be released into the wild in the next week or two.

A mother Hoary Bat was found on the ground with 2 (large!) babies clinging to her.  In the picture above, I’m holding up her wing so you can see one of the babies clinging to her underside.

The client brought them to us because after monitoring them for a day,  they hadn’t left the site on the ground where the person found them.  I examined the bats and found the mother slightly dehydrated, but otherwise physical examination was normal.

Likely the mother had become grounded and b/c her babies are so large, was not able to take off/find a nearby tree to climb.  We gave her some fluids under her skin then put her on a tree on the preserve, so she could climb back up to safety.

Today we admitted not 1, but 2 Hoary Bats, a species we don’t see that often at WRC. The first admit (top photo) was an adult male, who was found in someone’s garden. He was weak and dehydrated upon admit. The 2nd was actually an orphaned baby, who was also a bit dehydrated. It was really neat to see a full grown adult and then a new baby, all in the same day!

Hoary Bats are the largest bat species in Minnesota, averaging 5 to 5.7 inches long with a 15.7 inch wingspan and a weight of 26 g. The bat normally roosts alone on trees hidden among foilage, but on occasion has been seen in caves with other bats.  It prefers woodlands,  mainly coniferous forests, but hunts over open areas or lakes. It hunts alone and its main food source is moths, it will also eat dragonflies.

We were honored that Sen. Amy Klobuchar contacted us earlier in the week and asked WRC to host a panel discussion regarding potential impacts of the Gulf oil spill on Minnesota’s migratory bird population.

Yesterday at WRC, Sen. Klobuchar met with a group of wildlife officials including me and John Christian, Assistant Regional Director for Migratory Birds, U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service Region 3; Carrol Henderson, Director, Non-Game Wildlife Program, Minnesota DNR; Ryan Heiniger, Director of Conservation Programs in MN and IA, Ducks Unlimited; Dr. Julia Ponder, Executive Director, The Raptor Center; and Mark Martell, Director of Bird Conservation, Audubon Minnesota.

The meeting was well-covered by the media.  Sen. Klobuchar made it very clear that the fate of these migratory birds is one of her highest priorities and she stressed that officials needed to create a plan to respond if necessary.  Of course at WRC we are very concerned about the conditions in the Gulf.  We currently have admitted more than 2,000 waterfowl, shorebirds and songbird species that will migrate to or through the Gulf this fall.

We’re grateful Sen. Klobuchar is focusing on the upcoming migrations amidst all the other issues surrounding the spill.

It’s my hope that we act on this opportunity to channel public outrage about the spill into a long-range commitment to wildlife and wildlife habitats here in Minnesota and the Upper Midwest.

The media glare will soon fade and eventually the spill damages will be repaired.  But we can’t let that diminish our ongoing focus of healthy habitats here and in the Gulf Region.  Even before this spill, there was a dead zone the size of New Jersey in the Gulf where the Mississippi flows into it. The recent StarTribune series on the health of Minnesota lakes should be a wake-up call to conditions in our own backyard.

As Jay Holcombe, executive Director of the International Bird Rescue and Research Center, which is working with Tri-State to clean oiled birds, says, “A pelican is a pelican whether is it tangled in fishing tackle or oiled.”  As we know only too well, a Trumpeter Swan with lead poisoning is still an injured bird.  A loon too ill to migrate and trapped in the ice on Lake Bemidji is as threatened as the loons in the Gulf.

Yes we worry, as we should, by what happens when “our” loons and other birds return to the Gulf.  But we should be equally worried about what happens when they RETURN HERE.  We shouldn’t wait for the next disaster but do all we can to protect our birds and their habitats now and in the future.

We currently have 3 baby Green Herons in our Avian Nursery. They are all doing very well and love to eat their fish! The photo above is of the one that was admitted today!

You can watch part of its admit exam on YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=niNou4msY7g

This x-ray is of an American Toad that was admitted in a very sick state.  She was lethargic and her whole body was swollen.  

When amphibians (frogs and toads in particular) get a swollen body, it’s termed “edema disease” which can be caused by a long list of diseases–kidney disease, liver disease, electrolyte imbalances.  Pretty much anything that can make an amphibian sick can cause edema disease.  The radiograph shows a large amount of a mineral substance (likely sand/grit/stones) in her stomach (the white blob in the middle of the x-ray).  This grit was obstructing her stomach, not allowing anything to pass.  

The only way to get it out is surgery.  This toad was so sick that she would likely die during surgery, but she would definitely die if we didn’t get the obstruction out of her stomach soon. So she went to surgery.  By cutting through her skin and muscle layers, I was able to see the stomach, cut it open, pull the grit out and sew her back up.   (you can see the stitches if you look closely in this photo of her under anesthesia)

She survived surgery but is still very sick and may die despite our best efforts.  We aren’t sure why she got the obstruction.  

Toads live in an environment where sand and grit are abundant–why did she eat so much to get obstructed?  She was kept as a pet (wild animals never make good pets) so there is the possibility that having a limited environment and diet, she accidentally ate sand looking for food, or her insects were covered in a large amount of dirt–or perhaps she has some gastrointestinal disease that caused her stomach motility to slow, allowing small amounts of sand to accumulate over time–we’ll never know what exactly caused it.  We’re just hoping we got it out in time and she’ll pull through.