River Otters
In December, we had received
"Chappie", a three-day-old neonate otter found cold and alone on a lake
front lot. Chappie required constant 'round the clock care from his
surrogate mother, Ron. Initially, he was fed with a 5 cc syringe and
latex kitten nipple, every three hours, day and night. Otters have an
active metabolism, requiring more calories per day than most other
mammals. During his early days in care, we remained on pins and needles
for fear that something would go wrong, but thankfully, Chappie grew up
healthy in our care.
As the months progressed, we received many more river otter pups, each
requiring special care and dietary needs. In order to accommodate so
many, Ron cut a door opening between the otter enclosure and the large
bird aviary, which added more than 300 square feet of space for the
group. We began to make weekly trips to purchase whole pink salmon and
smelt from a wholesale warehouse. The otters were soon going through 10
pounds offish per day. Volunteer squirrel mom, Esther Plummer, and her
family were kind to provide several buckets of freshly caught fish as a
result of some fishing excursions on the east coast of Florida. On site
volunteer, Michelle Wacker, and her husband, Karl, also donated some
nice fish after a trip on their boat one weekend. Christie Rodgers,
volunteer and raccoon mom, brought minnows each week for the otters
when she came on-site to help, too.
By the end of May, all but three otters had been released to a nice
lake setting away from humans, dogs, and cars. Since our babies receive
vaccinations for major diseases, they are protected from the major
threats of rabies and distemper. After the first release, Ron still
emptied and cleaned the 270-gallon pool daily and provided the fish
meals several times per day, but the work load for this group had
lessened. Once the remaining three otters were also released in June, a
void had been left in our lives without these frolicking, inquisitive
tricksters.
The photo above was taken of the final release as the otters enjoyed
swimming in the lake. Photos below, while in care.
Cottontail Marsh Rabbits
We have raised and released several batches of bunnies at
the Center this spring. Volunteer, Helen Schmid, has helped
tremendously with the neonates and performs a lovely job with the tiny
babies. We appreciate her help so much. Photo lower right, a bunny is
weighed on a gram scale when admitted to the Center for care.
Turtles/Tortoises
Many have Come in for care including 5 hatchling gopher tortoises, a
baby mud turtle, a box turtle, and a Florida red bellied turtle. The
baby gopher tortoises were in care with us for more than a month, and
then were transferred to the Lake County Wildlife Rehab Center run by
Jill and Joe Rosolek. Their acreage is the perfect gopher tortoise
habitat, upland scrub. The photo of the baby tortoises is lower left.
The other turtles have all been released. Although the red bellied
turtle had a large fracture of the carapace, I placed a nice fiberglass
patch on her, and she was good to go.
Screech
Owls
Two orphaned screech owls have been admitted for care and are
progressing well. Earlier in the season, we sent several batches to the
Birds of Prey Center, but decided to raise a few ourselves when we
heard that the BOP center was really loaded with them. Their photo is
above left
Mice
and Rats
Alice Kerr has continued to raise the baby, orphaned native mice and
rats admitted for care. She feeds them every few hours, keeps them
warm, and gets up during the night for their extra feedings.
Baby Songbirds
Many orphaned baby songbirsds have arrived for care this spring and
summmer. In the photo, above right, several are gaping for food.
Striped Skunks
On July 2, Bunnell, Florida, rehabilitator and good buddy, Lora Smith
transferred three baby skunks to us. Unfortunately, they had been
observed in a barn without their mother for some days, and a bowl of
water and food had been placed nearby. One of the babies came in
already comatose with his little lungs full ofliquid. We were unable to
save him, and, of course, were totally heart broken for the loss. The
following day, we received two more baby girl skunks from Lora after
the same lady found them in her barn. This gave us a total of three
girls and one boy, all dehydrated and severely emaciated-and another
one, a female, also had pneumonia. Ron worked on the babies day and
night to provide clear fluids as well as two medications to combat
internal parasites. The one with pneumonia was placed on oxygen and
also given two medications for that. Meanwhile, the other three babies
gained strength and weight daily. They looked better and better with
their five fee dings per day and medicines twice per day. The next four
days were really brutal on us as we continually monitored the very
critical baby, checked the temperature, oxygen level, and administered
medications. By Sunday morning, July 6, I also began to give the little
skunk subcutaneous fluids. She looked so weak that neither Ron nor I
held much hope for saving her, and it was killing us with stress from
the worry. Then Ron hooked up our last tank of oxygen, and we were
horrified. Although the tank had been sealed and purchased with the
three other tanks, it was totally empty! We placed the sick baby in the
pet carrier with her siblings and continued to care for her with meds
and fluids. By 7:30 that evening, the sick baby began to breathe more
normally without the audible rattle in her lungs. By the last feeding
of the night, we could no longer hear any abnormal sounds when she
breathed. She began to take her formula with more appetite, and finally
began to gain weight as well. Of the many skunks that we have raised
over the years, we will certainly never forget this little girl. We
have given the little stinkers names. The boy is Sammy, the little girl
who was so ill is Precious, and the other two girls are Rose and Pansy.
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