Veterinary Treatment for Wild Animals

Great Debates
1

So you come across a wild animal that is terminally sick or injured. Should you take it to a vet and have it treated, or should you put it out of its misery? Half of me opts for treatment, and the other half says keeping it alive weakens the gene pool for the species. A single incident obviously would have little effect, but from the amount of programming on the Animal Planet channel (obviously a reliable source :wink: ) many animals that would otherwise have died are saved by veterinary science.

What’s your view?

2

My wife and I make a policy of helping every wounded animal, wild or tame, that we encounter if in our judgement it can be helped.
When any of our cats bring in a mouse, generally that mouse is beyond saving. When my wife found a wounded opossum, we took it to the vet and the vet did her best.

Getting in the way of the survival of the fittest? Yeah, a little. But our presence can’t but have an effect upon the animal world. We like a policy of “everybody gets a second chance.” I don’t think we’re breeding a less-viable critter by our infrequent trips to the vet with a wild animal. It makes almost no difference to the survival of the species, but we prefer to be people who will help a wounded animal.

3

On these Animal Planet shows, the wild animals are ususally injured by humans, or as an indirect result of human behavior (hit by cars, caught in volleyball nets, etc), so I see nothing incorrect about human intervention rescuing them when possible. Like MT in his post above, I think the impact on species survival by animal rescuers is negligible, not even coming close to ofsetting the negative impacts of human technology.

4

I definitely share your belief here, lucie.

I also don’t worry that my assistance to an individual will upset the survival cycles of the species. You may have heard it before, but for those who haven’t, here’s a summary of the starfish fable:

A young girl sees a man on a beach that’s full of washed-up starfish. He’s tossing them back into the ocean. She asks him why he’s doing it, seeing as there are thousands of starfish on the sand. She knows he can’t save them all and tells him that his help won’t make a difference. He picks up another one, tosses it into the ocean and says, “made a difference to that one.”

I like that I can make a small positive impact without making a larger negative one. I can toss a couple back even if the mass dehydration of starfish on a beach is essential to the natural order of things. I can “make a difference” without making a difference.

So yeah, I’ll bring wild animals to the vet if I think it will make them happier.

5

I bring in anythign I find, but if its a wild animal I usually call the conservation officer and he takes to ao wildlife vet. There are certain species I’m less sympathetic too. Sorry folks but if I hit an opossum with my car it might upset me only if my CD player skipped. I used to raise chickens, and one opossum in the pen could mean buying more chickens. We didn’t have much money and eggs and chickens were a ready source of food, opossums are not. Weasels are right out too.

6

Ahem.

:slight_smile:

7

I work with a veterinarian at a wildlife rehabilitation center, and the great majority of our patients are, as lucie says, injured as a result of contact with the human world. Cat and dog attacks are the primary affront for birds and small mammals; being hit by a car and flying into windows are the main problems with adult wildlife. Tangled in fishing lines and being caught in traps is another common scenario.

Our veterinarian is an expert in wildlife rehab, and also an epidemiologist, so he can carefully judge the prognosis of an animal. I’m pretty tenderhearted, and want to give every critter a chance, but he’s educated me about the larger impact of releasing an unsuitable creature back into the world.

For example: “Finch Eye” is a disease that affects, as indicated, finches and sparrows. It’s spread through individuals at a common feeder, and results in blindness. People bring in affected birds all the time, and it can be “cured” in an individual with antibiotics, but, upon release, can be passed on to others in the wild. So, after some effort at rehabilitation earlier, his policy is to euthanize.

We have an open-door policy; to accept and give treatment to any wildlife that needs care, without charge to the finder. Our success rate is pretty high. But we do take great care in determining if the animal is suffering from simple injury or a genetic weakness.

I’ll add, if you find a wild animal in need of care, please take it to a veterinarian who can either treat it or refer you to a wildlife rehabilitator who has access to proper care. I’ve seen some sad cases of well-meaning folks who have tried to care for critters themselves. It too often leads to an animal that’s imprinted and will never be able to join it’s own species in a normal life, or, worse yet, an animal that’s malnourished to the point of no repair

Whatmove, that’s a nice fable. I have a baby mouse in my care now, 'bout due to be fed. It’s odd, cause I’ve been cranky about mice in my own kitchen. But this one was brought to me for care, and when I feed him through a tiny syringe, he becomes an individual worth the effort. He grips the little nipple and nurses, kneading his tiny paws and wanting to live as much as anyone else. The one thing this job has taught me, after nuturing many, is that each animal is truly an individual, with their own style and expression in life. I didn’t expect that, but it’s a wonderful lesson!