Today, I moved several opossums to pre-release, from indoor wire cages to outdoor hutches. Being small enough to be cute didn't stop them from biting me - thank goodness for leather gloves. It's a pain to not be able to palpate as well, but they keep your skin in one piece. The 'possums are spending their first night outside, bedded down with hay, hide boxes, and cut natural branches. If you know how to look at the grounds here, you realize all the live oak trees are pruned to a height JUST above arm's reach - it seems everyone is hunting for good enrichment branches to build enclosures and supplement diets with natural forage.
I gave subcutaneous fluids to an electrocuted pigeon with seriously crispy feathers and visible purple bruising. Birds skin is so thin you can actually move their feathers and look at seed in their crop. I also gave pain meds to an Egyptian Goose with a new wing pin. He used to scarf all his food, but this afternoon hadn't touched a thing. We got pain meds in him, and when I was closing down the room at seven I could hear his beak tapping the stainless steel bowl.
I was chatted at by an exotic bird, bleached out a washing machine, captured an inca dove on the first throw, and washed a mountain of laundry. It does occur to me that in about the first minute of the Rex Harrison Dr. Dolittle, the housekeeper quits. Taking a first-hand look at the amount of washing up animal hospital husbandry generates, I can see why!
Tomorrow morning, I'm learning syringe-feeding of tiny squirrels, eyes still sealed closed.
(Evidently people call in not knowing if they've got squirrels, mice, opossums, or what. Squirrels have black claws.)
Goodnight, world.
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