Ah, what peace. I am drinking iced coffee despite my frozen fingers and toes. I'm listening to beautiful flutes and strings in a song from an album entitled "I am a river." It takes me back to my happy place, sitting on my front porch, overlooking the fields where my horses graze, sunlight playing all through my hair and on the canvas upon which I paint, my cat snuggled up next to me, a soft Virginia breeze moving the soft Virginia grass, incense burning sandalwood smells to my nostrils, the creak of my porch swing in my ears. Ah, what I would give to be right there and be right here simultaneously. And what I would give to have one of my instruments with me! I am thirsting for musical expression. I guess I will have to make my words into a melody, and that in itself must suffice.
I have a feeling that I have forgotten some procedures in this blog. Certainly I have...but I guess the ones that stick with my memory are the most important anyway. I had another busy day on Friday. I very much enjoy a busy day. Here's what all happened:
Sacred ibis with leg lesions
Friday morning we had two birds brought into the vet wing almost simultaneously. Sacred ibis are pretty birds with very long, thin, black beaks, and black and white coloring. They have skinny long necks and long legs. The one that was brough to us had terrible lesions all over its legs. The thighs and bottoms of the feet were highly swollen and several reddened masses of about the size of a quarter were on them. The center of the lesions were hard and cornified. We could not make a definite diagnosis, so we needed to take a sample scraping of the lesions. This required us to anesthetize the bird. It was an interesting task doing so, as this birds beak is so long and thin, and his nares are high up on that long beak. We ended up using a face mask made by a previous intern, and it was made of a plastic coke bottle. That bottle gave us the length we needed to cover his beak and airways. Once he was good and asleep, the veterinarian took a scraping of two of the bumps. After their removal, the area began to bleed heavily, so gauze was held until the bleeding quit, and a false skin, similar to thin saran wrap, was applied around the wounds. To put pressure on that wound, a wrap was also applied around the leg. It was a nice teal color, and looked pretty against the black and white bird. We took some xrays of the legs just to cover many bases. The bird also left a nice fecal on the floor of the vet wing, which I floated and looked at under the microscope. No internal parasites were present, so that was another thing to rule out. The xrays looked normal, too, so no bone issues. As the cause of these lesions was not readily apparent, the bird was moved to the vet wing to keep quarantined from other birds. We were hoping that it wasn't something contagious, but being a skin issue...the chances of that weren't great. We got the little guy started on some pain meds and I set him up a nicely padded stall with a hidey crate full of hay and a nice bowl of fish diet. We shipped out the samples of skin that were scraped, and we will know in a few days what is to be found from them.
Sacred ibis #2
As if one lesion-legged ibis wasn't enough, I got a call on my radio that afternoon that was disheartening. I was called up to the enclosure where that ibis had been kept, and where there were other ibises and birds. The supervisor had seen another bird with the same leg issue going on. We corraled the birds into the barn, and she netted the suspect bird. As I came over to look, we both sighed, as it was the same problem we had seen earlier. Granted, this bird's legs were not as highly swollen, and the lesions were somewhat smaller, but they had the same shape and coloration. We left that bird in the barn, sent the others out, and I went to call the vet. She agreed that this bird should also be quarantined. The bird supervisor and I caught the bird and brought him back to the vet wing, where we adminitered pain meds through a rubber tube down the throat, and we got him set up in that same stall with the other ibis. Until the results come back from the lab, all we can do is keep them comfortable, monitor the birds that were in the same enclosure, and wait.
Sun conure with a bloody leg
The other bird that was brought to the vet wing with ibis #1 was a sun conure. Sun conures are positively beautiful birds. They have bright yellow bodies with green-tipped wings, and bright orange heads. They do appear as a ray of sunshine. This little guy was holding to the front of his crate with his beak, and from that vantage point we could see a problem. His left leg and part of his body were covered in blood, and he was not bearing weight on that leg. This pretty boy had to be anesthetized, too, and so we got him under. While he was dozing peacefully off, the vet examined his leg. He had a pretty good sized fresh wound under his thigh, probably inflicted by another male conure, as it is breeding time for them. The vet intended to stitch up the wound, but as we cleaned it and saw that it was in the crease of the leg and the body, a place that would be hard to get a stitch, the wound was just cleaned very well, he was given pain medication, and it was decided that he, too, would be living under vet care, separate from the group, until more healing had taken place. We looked up his band number in our computer system and found out his name is "Max." He is a very sweet bird, and even in his pain, was no trouble to hold and remove from the cage, and he didn't mind being handled as he was waking from anesthesia. We got him set up in a small cage in our quarantine building once he has fully awoken, and he will now be monitored and cared for daily until he is strong and healed.
Worming prairie chickens
I've mentioned prairie chickens quite a few times in this blog. They are fickle little birds, and people are desperate to preserve the species, but we lost yet another of our babies at the zoo last week. Samples were sent to a lab, and mineralization of the heart was found (possible due to a vitaminosis), but many internal parasites were also found. So, the little guys needed to be de-wormed. They had previously been treated with de-wormer water, but a more direct and aggresive approach was now needed to help treat the others. I headed up to the barn, and the birds were brought in. I had five syringes, each drawn up with the correct small doseage of medicine. I held the little birds while the bird supervisor put a metal tube down into their crop, put the syringe on the end of the tube, and gave the meds to the birds. We had to be efficient and quick, as the birds are so stressy to being messed with. It is my hope that these actions will help our remaining five babies of the season. Only time will tell. Two had been losing weight, and we had been going up to their barn 3 times a day to feed them a little nutrient milkshake through that same metal tube method. Friday afternoon, when we went to worm, those two birds had both gained weight and their crops felt full of food, so we didn't tube them that day. I really hope they continue to improve, as well.
Another logan update
I still love my baby man. And I will use this moment to comment on animals and their care. Animals can be highly particular. Sometimes this is a vice, if you have allowed them to become particularly attached to something that is not easily accessible or is difficult for you to fulfill. However, if an animal is particular to something that is easy to fulfill and causes them no harm, there is no shame in meeting that desire. Let me explain. We have a variety of nipples available for bottle feeding little Logan. However, Logan only likes one of them. There is a particular one, which has a blue ring at the bottom, and it is the only one he will readily drink from. I can't sit down and tell you the scientific reason as to why he loves it. It was the only one he would eat from from infancy. Maybe it feels most similar to his natural desire for mother goat's nipple. Maybe it's just the one he grew up on, and so he likes it most now, because it is the one he associates with eating. Maybe the others taste funny. Nevertheless, it is not a difficult task to provide Logan with this nipple. It is as simple as picking that particular one up and screwing it on the bottle top, which you would have to do with the others anyway. If Logan chooses not to drink from another nipple that he has been provided, he should not be punished by receiving less than his usual portion of milk. That only encourages him not to eat from that nipple. People get the notion that, with animals, they must always be the one in control. I get the impression that they feel, 'If he doesn't do it my way, then he is wrong.' I'm here to say, it is okay to let the animal be in control at times. It is okay to let them have their quirks if their preferences are easily met, and especially if they are just as easily met as the alternative, as is this case. I (to my shame) used to think it was the strong who could manipulate an animal to bend to their will. Over the years, I have determined that is the truly strong who have the patience to learn what an animal wants and to work with the animal with gentleness and care to achieve something.
That's my soapbox for the day.
Squirt update
In other news, baby Squirt, the sweetest white-tail deer ever, is now permanently back at the barn with his twin sister. It is very sweet to have had a success story out of him, and I can't wait to see him to continue to grow up big and strong.
And so it goes
I have two weeks left here. My music has now switched to a slow piano piece. I sorely miss my piano and the expressions I have with it, but I will be heartbroken to leave here. This music just tears at the strings in my heart, and I hope that I can positively enjoy every last minute I have here at the zoo, because it has been such an amazing experience, and I have learned so much. More to follow. Adieu.
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