 3 week old fawn Here's just a quickie between all the various feedings to let everyone know that all at Wild Things is going great and is super busy! The squirrels are all released, but not before eating a few keys off my computer one excuse for not posting sooner!), and the ducklings (the little duck mentioned previously ended up back here with 3 others) have been transferred to places with more extensive facilities, but Wild Things is full of babies: fawns, skunks, raccoons, groundhogs, bunnies, etc.! Here's a cute picture to see you through until my nest, hopefully longer post. This is one of the little White tailed deer fawns growing up at Wild Things. Instead of being shy, this little girl was found repeatedly trying to enter the Ithaca YMCA. It's likely that people were trying to raise her and then put her back outside, as fawns are usually not this social! She is doing really well and has few buddies, but it's tough trying to de-socialize deer. Hopefully after a few months in the Wild Woods she will become more shy with people; an overly social adult deer who weighs 150+lbs is not a good thing. OK, off to feed a bunch of hungry crying babies!  I'm hungry! Add Comment  Max helping me email Max has been doing great out in the wilds and comes by every few days for a hello and a nut. But just when I thought I wouldn't have to worry about Max anymore, he turned up limping. A toe appeared badly broken. I kept an eye on him for a few days every time he came to visit. The foot was getting more swollen and after a few days he wasn't even using it. I lured him into a carrier and took him to the vet, this is what they found...  3 crushed toes ... 3 crushed toes! With lots of swollen soft tissue surrounding the joints.  Ouch!!  This is a really weird injury. What could have snapped/crushed off the ends of 3 toes?? All 3 toes had to be amputated. As you know, squirrels really need their back toes to go down trees (plus they love to hang on by their back legs and stretch!). I hope, hope, HOPE that this won't impede Max living in the wild. He has to stay with me for at least 2-3 weeks, and I hope that both Max and I won't go crazy. Even though he grew up with me, he is wild and gives very hard bites when he gets unexpectedly annoyed and even in "play." Meanwhile Runt is so happy he's back, but they can't play together yet. So, lots of very pissed off energy in the animal room at Wild Things at present!  And then there is sweet Peter the Opossum (named by my Dad, seen here with Peter at Thanksgiving). Peter has been at Wild Things for over 2 months. He was hit by a car, suffered a terribly displaced fracture of the leg that was not reset well by the initial vet, several cracked teeth, and now is dealing with various skin sores. All the while he has been such a good, sweet patient and seems very happy at Wild Things, where he is allowed to walk around as much as he wants for physical therapy (though usually he likes to walk over to the stacks of towels and blankets and find a good place to go to sleep!).  November 2009, 2 views initial Xrays  Slightly reset, 2nd Xrays  January 2010, 3rd set Xrays As you can see, the leg kinda realigned, but basically the tibia appears to have fused with the fibula and then a whole callous is forming around the whole area. In the meantime, he's had his bad teeth pulled and now we are dealing with his tummy sores. Egad! But he is so energetic and loves sticking his nose near the crack in the door to smell the wild that is waiting for him. Once he heals (and I hope he does) he will be returned to the area where he came, up by Syracuse, but only once it is warmer.  hello! Finally, a hello from one of the wild visitors, a 1st year White tailed deer, from the Wild Things woods!  White tailed deer are always welcome visitors to the Wild Things woods (seen here in January 09). But other nearby Ithaca neighborhoods are not so welcoming. The Village of Cayuga Heights has a very high concentration of deer, and the residents want to do something about it. They are upset about deer eating their gardens, worried that deer bring ticks that spread Lyme Disease, tired of having near-misses when driving, and often intimidated when the animals stand their ground when met face-to-face. They have formed a Deer Remediation Advisory Committee. This committee has made a plan to surgically sterilize 20-40 does and kill the rest of the 200+ deer using sharpshooters. I went to the recent town meeting and voiced my thoughts. The Advisory Board was interested in my comments and asked me to send my comments. You can read them here: 
 Not everyone is a happy patient at Wild Things. Despite being rescued as a starving and very small (probably born late in the season) Virginia Opossum and being given a second chance to survive and make it in the world, this little guy is definitely NOT a happy patient! 
  
 
I also received a very special invitation at the conference. Does everyone remember Radar the blind fawn that came to WTS a few months ago?? He has found a wonderful home at an amazing deer sanctuary run by a deer rehabilitating guru! He is doing absolutely GREAT!!! See picture below. He runs and leaps around and has a girlfriend named Cookie Doe. Cookie was blind due to a vitamin deficiency, but her sight was restored with a proper diet. However, a car accident left her with a badly broken jaw. She arrived at the sanctuary a day before Radar, so they are the same age. Radar was neutered so they can be buddies and stay together always! You would never know that he was blind he runs around so well!   Busy times at Wild Things! This is a picture of a beautiful little White Tailed deer fawn that arrived a couple of days ago. A big thank you to Tammy & Katie who drive her about an hour and a half to WTS. In most cases fawns should be left where they are found- their mother may leave them in the same place for up to 24 hours while she is off feeding, or trying to lead a predator away. It is often hard to convince the public of this when they find one of these lovely creatures! However, Tammy & Katie knew that there was something wrong with this little gal. She was found in the middle of a road and looking disorientated. On arrival it was clear that she had some kind of head trauma, as her eyes were rolling around and she had continuous head rotations. Her eyes also looked cloudy. I brought her up to the vet clinic (seen here in the car), and they too are perplexed. Her symptoms indicate head trauma, but there are no bodily signs that she was hit by anything or suffered injury. She also appears to have bilateral cataracts- very strange to be seen in one so young. If these were birth defects it is unlikely that she would have lived for her whole 3 weeks (that's about how old she is), so what is it? Toxin ingestion? Illness?? Stay tuned!  WTS also welcomed a litter of Shrews. These little ones are TINY- about 10g each, and need to be fed every 2-3 hours...inlcuding during the night! They still have their eyes closed, and I'd say they are about a week old. A local gradaute student, Steven, rescued them, and did a great job! Their mother had nested in a compost heap, and it was disturbed by a gardener needing some compost. Steven did a really great job looking after them overnight until he found WTS. He also cleaned a wound that one of them had suffered.  
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