Thank You Wildlife Support Charitable Trust!
Blue Mountain Wildife received a $5,000 grant for Operating Expenses from the Wildilfe Support Charitable Trust, a trust that benefits wildlife throughout the Pacific Northwest and Alaska. This generous gift is appreciated very much and will help us continue to provide high quality medical care and treatment to injured wildife.
Thank You Pendleton Parks and Recreation!
Pendleton Parks and Recreation has been making weekly delivieries of tree trimmings that are used to provide browse for the two fawns being raised at the center. The interns trim the leafy material off the large branches and place the cuttings in water. The fawns eat about four five gallon buckets of cuttings in 24 hours.
October and Emily are just getting started on a delivery. The fawns, one mule deer and one white-tailed deer are growing rapidly. They will be released in about three weeks.
Good bye and thanks October!
October returned to school in South Dakota this past week. In addition to performing all the typical intern duties, she has also been our resident photographer, taking many beautiful pictures, including the Great Gray Owl photo below and the immature Bald Eagle photo at the bottom of the page. Thank you October and best of luck to you during your senior year!
Challenging Rehab Cases
There were just five admissions this past week, but all suffered major trauma. A Western Tanager struck a window and died of her injuries. A Loggerhead Shrike was hit by a car, breaking its back. Initially there seemed to be some improvement in the use of its feet and legs, but it died three days after admission.
A Silver-haired Bat with a broken wing died while being transported to Pendleton. An under weight Merlin was admitted. The cause of its very labored breathing was not apparent. We dewormed it with ivermectin in case the cause was a parasite infection in the air sacs (which we have seen in Merlins) and treated it for chest trauma which could also explain the symptoms. It died the following day. Intern Emily performed a necropsy, finding one air sac filled with internal parasites.
The extremely emaciated Red-tailed Hawk admitted last week died six days after admission. It received daily transfusions and IV fluids. Its gut remained nonfunctional, preventing it from utilizing any oral nutrition. It was a very frustrating and sad case.
A Swainson's Hawk admitted on Friday after being hit by a mellon truck is in stable condition. X-rays will be scheduled at Pendleton Veterinary Clinic to hopefully determine the cause of its very droopy wing.
New Intern
To end on a positive note, new intern Emily arrived Sunday afternoon. She is a student at Portland State University. For three weeks we will have two Emilys on staff. Welcome Emily!
Education Team News
The Education Team will travel to Dayton, WA on Saturday to participate in the Columbia County Fair.
