Don’t Forget!

Just wanted to give a quick reminder that Sunday, June 28 is the last day to register for the Oiled Bird Cleaning and Bird Pre-Release Conditioning online course. The Webinar will be presented by Curt Clumpner (IBRRC), and is the second and final live-broadcast for this topic. The Webinar is scheduled to run on July 1 from 7 to 9 p.m. To register you must be a staff and/or volunteer at one of the OWCN’s member organizations.

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me!

-Kaiti

A Lasting Impression

Recently January and I conducted an outreach seminar for one of the OWCN member organizations. For those who are unfamiliar, outreach seminars are part of the OWCN training program. We conduct these short, customized programs quarterly at various OWCN member organization facilities.

When thinking of something to blog about today, I was reminded of a retired couple who attended the seminar and volunteer at the facility. They bring their camper and stay nearby for two weeks at a time, working full time every day they’re there. When the two weeks are up, they travel home for a short break and then return for another two-week session. This is a routine the facility’s staff has come to depend upon.

Long ago I recognized the fact that volunteers make the world go ’round when it comes to wildlife rehabilitation. I respect and value the contribution these folks make on a daily basis to our member organizations and especially during spill responses. But this couple’s enthusiasm, dedication, and joy in what they were doing left a lasting impression that I felt like sharing with the rest of you. I suspect they have many kindred spirits out there, but I doubt many have chosen the gypsy lifestyle they’ve embraced – all for the sake of some animals in need. For my part I wanted to offer them a special thank you and hope their example might inspire others like it inspired me.

-Greg

Effects of Oil on Wildlife Conference

The 10th International Effects of Oil on Wildlife Conference (EOW) is rapidly approaching, and the OWCN is getting ready for it!

The conference is held every 2 to 3 years – often in an area with recent interest or attention to how oil can affect wildlife. The first EOW was hosted by Tri-State Bird Rescue and Research in 1982, then alternated its hosting with International Bird Rescue Research Center after that. The OWCN hosted two very popular and informative conferences in 1997 and 2007 in Monterey, CA – the first at the same time as a 700 bird spill! Since its inception,the conference has gained international recognition as the premier oiled wildlife response conference focused on the care and conservation of oiled wildlife and their habitats.

This year’s event will be held in Tallinn, Estonia from October 5 – 9, and is being hosted by the Sea Alarm Foundation, Oil Spill Response, and the Estonian Fund for Nature. I am co-chairing the Program Committee with Curt Clumpner of IBRRC, and we are very excited with the depth and quality of the more than 60 abstracts submitted to present at the conference. Currently, we are reviewing all of these with our Committee, then will be working with the authors to develop final abstracts and papers that can presented in October.

Site of the 2009 EOW Conference

The OWCN staff has worked hard this year putting our most recent and innovative information together, and will be presenting more than 8 oral presentations or posters at this venue. As an organization, we have also offered some of our funds that we have received as donations to support a conference scholarship fund. These funds will be used to assist people in need to attend, share information and present research. In trying financial times, it is more critical than ever that we as a community do what we can to share resources and communicate more freely to assist wildlife (and people) in need.

More information on the Conference, as well as registration, can be found at the EOW 09 website. We look forward to updating everyone on the meeting, as well as how our presentations went, in October!

- Mike

Foot Booties for All

Thanks to many of our volunteers that have sewing skills, we now have1, 000 pair of re-usable foot booties ready for immediate use in the event of a future oiled wildlife response.

Re-usable foot booties being applied to a western grebe

After the Cosco Busan, we identified areas within the rehabilitation process that we wanted to make improvements in. One of the areas we recognized as a top priority was the use of techniques to prevent captivity related medical problems. One captivity related problem that develops with some of the pelagic birds we treat when housed out of water is pressure ulcers. These can develop over areas on their body that have abnormal pressure from their own weight when they are housed out of their natural water environment. This pressure can reduce circulation to the area and cause abrasions that if not identified and treated can become problematic to the birds health and its release. Common areas of their body prone to pressure ulcers are the feet and keel (breast bone).

Foot wraps are applied to pelagic birds and other species with sensitive feet to help prevent or mitigate these pressure ulcers while being housed out of water. They can be made with many types of materials. We are moving towards using a re-usable wrap to replace the onetime use bandage material that we use for making foot booties on pelagic birds. The benefits of a reusable, prefabricated booty are that they can be quickly applied reducing handling time and stress to the bird and they can be washed and reused reducing waste. We are also in the process of creating a reusable keel sling that is part of a preventative keel wrap. We have tested many prototypes and I hope to share with you a picture of a successful one in the near future.

January

While the Cat’s Away…

For the majority of this week I’ve been out of commission due to a nasty cold/flu. So while I was knee deep in tissue and imbibing copious amounts of fluids at my house, I wondered what my colleagues were doing at the office… Thanks to Laird Henkel’s handy work with the camera I was given a glimpse as to what they’ve been up to.

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So, while I’ve been fighting the plague, they went on a field trip to the Suisun Marsh for a Hazing Workshop. As you and I can see, it looks like the weather was beautiful and the workshop offered some cool hands on training.

Apologies for the short blog post, but I figured posting a video beats me listing my numerous ailments. Hope everyone has great weekend weather and the opportunity to enjoy it!

-Kaiti

Broken green heron

As I mentioned in my last entry, we receive many young herons and egrets at SFBOWCEC during the summer.  Over the last couple of weeks, we have been taking in several every day.  Most are healthy, just birds that have fallen or been pushed out of the nest that need to be fed and kept warm.  However, there are a few that come to us with significant medical problems, like this green heron.

This young bird came to the center over the past weekend.  When I was able to first examine him/her yesterday, unfortunately, a fracture of the left femur was found.  Here are his first set of radiographs (x-rays):

Lateral view of green heron femur fracture

Ventral-dorsal view of femur fracture

Managing fractures in young, growing birds presents some unique challanges.  First, their bones are not completely mineralized and are susceptible to more fractures.  Second, in many cases, the best repair of a fracture is acheived with surgery and implants (“pinning”).  Because the bones of young birds are still “soft”, metal pins or other implants can move and cause the fixation to fail.  Third, because the birds are still growing, the surgeon has to be very careful to avoid damaging the specific areas of the bones from where the growth occurs (growth plates).  If these are damaged, normal growth of the bone could be impaired.

This green heron has a simple, long oblique fracture of the femur.  In addition to the previously mentioned complications, the femur is especially difficult to deal with because splinting is very difficult given the anatomy of the bird leg.  Also, the muscles overlying the femur are very strong and once the integrity of the bone is lost, which is working to keep the muscles elongated, the muscles contract causing the pieces of the fracture to overlap.  The contraction of the thigh muscles in this bird had caused approximately 40% reduction in the length of the bone.  Because green herons are perching birds that need to move slowly and stealthily to hunt successfully, legs of significantly differing lengths could severly impair the bird’s ability to thrive in the wild.

Young green herons perching in aviary at SFBOWCEC

Weighing, the pros and cons, we decided to go ahead and attempt surgical correction of the fracture.  A single pin was placed through the length of the bone and a second was placed perpendicular the first.  The two pins are connected by a rigid bar that sort of acts like an external  bone to offer support to the leg while the fracture is healing.

Lateral view of fixator

Ventral-dorsal view of fixator

The surgery went well.  The bird was a trooper under anesthesia and had an uneventful recovery.  He/she is receiving antibiotics to help prevent infection and medication to manage pain.  This morning, the bird was eating and using the leg, although still limping quite a bit.

Green heron recovering after surgery

So, things are looking OK so far, but we are very early in the process and many of the aforementioned complications could still occur.  Keep your fingers crossed for him and watch for the update.

Shannon, OWCN Clinical Veterinarian