Not gonna lie, this week has been the busiest one yet. We spent the entire week cleaning up the wildlife rehabilitation center and the vet clinic for an inspection. Rehabilitating birds requires a federal permit, and we were supposed to have our facilities inspected on Tuesday. When the inspector said she couldn't come Tuesday morning, it made the last week of frantic work feel like a waste.
It's been so hectic that I'm honestly having a hard time remembering what happened this week, but here's a few things I do remember:
- I helped do physical therapy on a baby raccoon that was hit by a car. He didn't have any broken bones, but was unable to walk. This means that he likely has brain/spinal cord swelling, which requires anti-inflammatories and PT to recover.
- I had to catch a very angry young adult raccoon so we could anesthetize him and do X-rays. Nothing was physically wrong with him, except that he had maggots crawling out of his butt. I had the dubious honor of being the one to remove them.
- We had yet another injured raccoon come in who had a dislocated femur. The head of the femur was entirely dislocated from the acetabulum (the socket) of the pelvis. The doctor was unable to get the femur back in, so we decided to wait and try again later.
- I spent a lot of time socializing eleven tiny kittens that were born to feral mothers. Some of the kittens are starting to act scared of humans, so we need to spend a lot of time with them before they are adopted.
Some non-work stuff I did this week:
- Went to Snoquera Falls. It was a 40 minute drive from my house, and it's pretty close to Mount Rainier National Park. Very beautiful day with beautiful views.
I can't imagine pulling maggots from a raccoon's butt! The photos of your excursion are beautiful. Good luck with the inspection...hopefully that doesn't mean you need to do a lot more prepping for that.