Autumn has started to arrive at Wild Things, but that doesn't mean that the animals stop coming in! Though, thankfully not nearly as many, so I can start to catch up on a serious sleep deficit! This is a picture of a little Red Sqiuirrel, about 4 weeks old. He was found on a construction site, his nest probably destroyed by the construction activity.

I told the lady who brought him in to look out for his brothers and sisters, but so far no more have come in. He had scratched all over the pads of his feet, probably from the rough ground of the construction. After a few days adjusting he was all too happy to take advantage of a warm bed and formula at Wild Things. The best part is that another nearby rehabilitator had a little red just a week or so younger. So, the two boys are now together and are happy to be snugglepartners!

Wild Things also received a couple of little Eastern cottontail babies. Their pictures are below. They are very cute and were already about 2 1/2 weeks old, so out of the woods in terms of digestion issues, and have already gained about 50% of their weight in the last week. In total, 3 bunnies were found; a cat was "playing" with them. One appeared to have a serious injury to its back legs, possibly a spinal break. But on examination, there was no injury, it had been born with a congenital deformity of the rear limbs. It is amazing that it had lived so long- probably because up until the time it was found it was able to depend on its mum's milk. But it couldn't move. So, sadly, it had to be euthanized. I think it's siblings are a bit traumatized, they are very shy, but they are gaining weight and will hopefully be released in a few weeks. I want them to put on plenty of weight so they will be able to keep warm in this colder weather!

There is some other sad news from Wild Things. Little Bunchowski passed away last week. Can you see the "B" above his grave in the picture? (I usually don't bury animls here, but I'd had him for so long it was too hard for me to leave him in the woods for some animal to eat). For all those who have been following his story, he came to WTS at about 3-4 days old. As you all know by now, it is almost impossible to keep these tiny ones alive as they don't receive the important nutrients in their mother's milk. I tried new formula and infant anti-gas formula, and this got him through the first 3-4 weeks with no bloat or diarrhea. This was amazing! Well, then he broke his arm, a sign of metabolic bone disease (MBD). It healed well and I gave him extra calcium. He got bigger and bigger, but still never seemed right. At 300g, much bigger than the size I usually release bunnies, he was still here as he didn't seem quite right. At two months old he still wanted to eat formula more than anything else, and he didn't hop much. He got diarrhea at 2 months old. It went away, but then came back the next week and he was gone.

As you all know, I've been trying to X-ray some of the very young bunnies that have come to Wild Things to learn more about their health. So, I brought Bunchowski for a post-mortem X-ray. Well, take a look below. His long bones look thin but OK, but I have NEVER seen anything like his spine- neither had any of the vets. The way it is wavy is a sure sign of MBD, and poor little guy, I hope he didn't suffer too much.

All of this has been a BIG learning experience, which I had shared with lots of other rehabbers. I may even do a presentation on it at the wildlife conference this month. All of this indicates that there is something in the mother's milk that helps the digestive system to develop. Without this mystery factorX, the digestive system is not able to develop correctly and does not seem to be able to digest well or absorb the essential nutrrients. This winter I want to come up with a plan to help all those itsy-bitsy bunnies that come in next year. Perhaps they need uv light to help calcium absorption, or perhaps the pH of the formula needs to be tweaked. It's a real mystery- so stay tuned!
 

But I don't want to end on a sad note...so here are a few more pictures. Here are two of my 10 or so recently released squirrels, a little grey onthe left and a red on the right. All looks harmonious, right? Well, actually the little red was totally bullying the grey! I have now put out two food dishes!

Also, below is Soixante-neuf, or Lil'Girl as I've been calling her. She is released, but like Lil'Mo, she likes to come visit to play and even offers her nose for a kiss! She was VERY happy with this little piece of corn on the cob! I have to break it to her that they are not selling it anymore up here as it's out of season!

And check out the great insulation area that Ingrid and I made around her snapping turtle cage (wearing a mask because of the fiberglass int he insulation- we were mid-construction!). She will be hibernating her 6 year old almost-manhole-cover size snapper, but needed something to help keep the water from freezing. We'll get a top on it as well. As you all know, Ingrid is a great friend of WTS and my reptile/amphibian/fish expert. She has helped me all summer: Thank you Ingrid!

Just when I thought the season was nearing the end and I might be able to catch up on sleep and other parts of my life, the last summer litters of babies started to arrive! Here are the stories on a few of them.

This is Bunchowski. He is an Eastern cottontail, and came to me at only 4 days old. He's about 3 1/2 weeks old now. Anyone who has been following this blog knows how incredibly difficult it is to keep these tiny ones alive, but Bunchowski was a real fighter! However, like my other tiny ones that survived to this age, it appears that he may be a victim of metabolic bone disease; his right arm broke a week ago (you can see it wrapped up in the picture) after jumping a few inches. But he is bright and alert and is almost weaned and LOVES cilantro! He is almost 4oz.

And this little lady is a Southern Flying squirrel. Her name is Lady Sedgwick and she weights 20g, or about 2/3 of an oz. Baby flyers are a funny shape- they are about 1/3 head, 1/2 tail, and have a little body in between. She was found when a cat walked up to its owner with her tail hanging out of its mouth. She suffered a few injuries, and is now on antibiotics and is doing really well. If you all remember, Amelia, my last little flyer, came to me with suspected neurological problems. And comparing Lady's behavior to Amelia's at the same age (she is about 4-5 weeks old) confirms this: Lady is so much more "with it" at this age, and has even decided to wean herself!

And these two cuties are 4-5 week old Grey squirrels. They are "Soixante neuf" (on the right) and "Soixante dix," or 69 & 70- their patient numbers (but it sounded so much better in French!)- and were both found wandering on their own flea ridden and thin. 69 is a little girl. And the day she came in, 70 arrived later that day. They are not related, but the same size and instantly snuggled and adopted each other as siblings! After only 24 hours of warmth, snuggling and TLC, their tails started fluffing up! :)

WTS also welcomed another little Virginia Opossum. She was in a wonderful local bakery/lunch place for a week raiding jelly bellies. And she arrived with green poop to proove it! She had some bad abrasions around her neck, but they look OK. She'll stay for a few weeks to get her nutrition back on track and to grow a bit bigger before release.

Welcome Lil'Mo! This little girl is only about 4 weeks old. She came to me a couple of days ago with her eyes still closed. I have called all around trying to find another little squirrel to raise with her, but everyone else's baby squirrels are at least 8-10 weeks old. She must have been part of one of the last litters born in the area. She was found all alone, skinny & flea infested. A BIG THANK YOU to Heather, who found her & cared for her for a few days. More important that all that she did for her, like de-fleaing her, and giving her fluids and warmth, was that Heather knew when it was time to bring her to a rehabber. Many people try to raise squirrels on their own with very kind intentions, but all to often these turn out to be sad stories. Squirrels are very prone to metabolic bone disease, so they need the proper nutrition at every stage of their development. They also need to be properly socialized and acclimatized to the wild so that they can be free and happy when they are ready. Squirrels are NOT domestic animals and no one should try to keep one as a pet. they can be destructive and messy and cannot be trained otherwise, that's just what they do.

Speaking of Metabolic Bone Disease (MBD), I have some very sad news. Do you remember that adorable littler of 3 day old bunnies I got- first pictured on the blog post of 5/16? As of Wednesday, they all died. Little Gold, Naked, Green, Pink & Blue. All gone. I also lost little BrokenArm, aka Happy. Happy probably died of complications from the lacerations from the cat. But he was a hoppy chub ball up until the end. The itsy-bitsies, i.e. the litter of 5, all died of digestive issues and/or MBD. I use the term "itsy-bitsies" to refer to bunnies younger than about 5-6 days old. They are notoriously hard to keep alive, only about 20% make it. I had so much bravado, as I was waking up at 4am to feed them and looking after them around the clock, that they would all make it. First Green went due to digestive issues. All the others were doing really well, but suddenly Naked wasn't moving her legs. X-rays showed she had broken both thigh bones and had MBD. Then Gold went (MBD left him with a broken femur right by the hip joint), then Blue (from digestive issues, but Xrays indicate that he also had MBD), and then little Pink (MBD led to a broken spine). Below are Naked & gold's Xrays.

Pink started limping one evening. I made this sling for her to take some pressure of her limbs for a few hours. Then I took her out and placed her in a small padded cage so she wouldn't have to move about too much. Before I went to bed I checked on her. She had chewed off her toes on one foot. Obviously she was in great distress and probably couldn't feel her toes any more. She was put down the next day.

Goodbye dear Blue. I'm not putting in these pictures to be morbid, but so all who red this blog can understand that it's not all fun and games doing rehab work. Not only are the so many hours and hours of work, never ending feeding and cleanings, but there is so much emotional energy put into caring for all of these little creatures. There is so much worry and sadness. I am consoled knowing that they had good care and for their few weeks they had great fun hopping around with a bunch of other little bunnies. They even got a chance to try fresh dandelion greens (see below) and hay.

Also, these lovely tinys may teach us something. MBD is almost unheard of in bunnies. Of course, it is possible that it is unheard of because not all rehabbers have the facilities to get Xrays and see the state of the bones. So, the local vets and I are X-raying other baby bunnies to see whether the age at which they are orphaned makes a difference. We x-rayed Brokenarm, who was about 6 days old when he was found, and his bones look much stronger. In those first few days it is critical for a baby bunny to get the nutrients that only a mother can supply.

So please everyone, be careful gardening, and think twice before you let your pets roam around outside!! These are all the main causes of baby bunny distress, and a lot of them suffer greatly due to their injuries and stress.

But to end this on a happier note.... I went to visit another rehaber yesterday. She has great facilities, and has fawns and foxes and lots of species of birds. Included in the latter category are Mallard ducklings. We took them for a walk around her land, and they followed us just like good little ducklings do! She has a great pond for them to go to when they get older.

Also, another picture just for laughs- below is a picture of Pikanti, aka Piki. he is one of the WTS resident chinchillas! He has adopted this new method of cleaning his feet. He wedges his rear end in between the wheel and the side of the cage, and sits like this and cleans his feet. He'll also sometimes twist around so that his feet are against and underneath the wheel, his back against the side of the cage, and he "runs" albeit upside-down. Crazy Kid!