"My favorite 2013 experience" Contributing to the protection of the last of their kind, the Chiquibul Scarlet Macaws

It is sometimes easy to focus on the negative, especially when the weather is this bad, for this long? Muddy holidays with grey skies in Belize aside... 2013 has been an incredible year! One blog could not summarize it. So I shall focus on individual activities. The world seems full of bad news and negativity and I believe this rarely leads to positive outcomes. I prefer positive news, in order to hopefully inspire more of you to join in to help one of the many individuals and organizations protecting nature, and wildlife, and ultimately your own existence. 

When thinking about the best experience in 2013, I have no doubt but to think of the support we were able to provide to the Forest Department as well as Friends for Conservation and Development, Scarlet Six and the Scarlet Macaws of Chiquibul. First I would like to thank my friend Charles Britt for sensitizing me to the urgent needs and incredible threats to these beautiful birds, years ago. Of course I have read, and liked, „The last flight of the Scarlet Macaw“. And which wildlife vet does not dream of helping to save a species!

But of course the vet only contributes a tiny portion, and the lion share of the effort is carried by the courageous rangers! And the people behind the scenes who secure the financing.

The rough estimates say we might have between 100-200 birds left in Belize. Studies on small parts of the population had shown poaching rates of up to 80 % of nests. To counteract extreme poaching pressures, in 2012 first efforts at protecting individual nests were made by FCD and Scarlet Six. Thanks to that, poaching pressure decreased in the study area. After several years of observation and pondering how I and the Belize Wildlife & Referral Clinic can assist the plight of this disappearing bird, we are now honored to be contributing a tiny part to the efforts. BWRC and our veterinarians provided the first in field health checks in 2013 and I participated in the Scarlet Macaw Working group since 2012. I have to also thank Dr. Joyner for joining and teaching us, sharing her records and experiences for our first trip into this incredibly beautiful wilderness to establish the methodology to conduct chick checks. Very nice for me was that the first trip group also included my brother.

To those who don’t know: I and most of my family have a huge fascination for the jungle. I believe it stems from some influential childhood years spent in South America but that is beside the point. The Chiquibul

Forest is something I deeply cared about since I came to Belize even though I get to go much too rarely. So finally going to the much debated Chalillo reservoir, up the Raspaculo branch and seeing this gem teaming with wild life with a family member, was special treat to me personally. The ticks especially on the first trip were my least favorite part... I have to thank Roni Martinez for his awesome company on all of our trips! And foremost I would like to send thanks to the many rangers for FCD and Scarlet Six and their volunteers who dedicate themselves to this incredible birds’ fight for survival. Thanks to everybody's awesome dedication, cooperation and coordination of efforts we were able to check a first 7 birds, who were almost all in good health. 

One of the most touching moments is shown in this picture taken by Roni. Thanks to LoraKims suggestion all rangers got to assist with health checks and got to listen to the incredibly fast heart beats of their precious charges. And I think the visual expression on his face, captured so well in the picture is better then all my words. It reminded me that my importance may lay more in what I leave behind and how much I can teach others to care, about nature, wildlife, and ultimately themselves. I truly cherish those moments when I am given the opportunity to share my passion and see it totally take over :)

One of the most upsetting moments was when we learned that those very same chicks we touched on our first trip, were poached only 3 days later. This most likely meant their death. And clearly demonstrated the need for more: more „boots“ on the ground, protection efforts, financial support to pay for it, alternative ways to prevent poaching of individual nests especially during the end of breeding season.

I would like to thank the many individuals who have made it possible for me to be able to contribute a small part.

Please check out the website of  FCD to learn more about their awesome work for the Maya Mountain Massive Protected Area (nearly 8 % of Belize's landmass and our countries main water shed!) www.fcdbelize.com. Consider a donation to the cause via FCD or Scarlet 6 and/or if you would like to volunteer or intern with wildlife medicine and conservation email Justin from the Wildlife Institute for more info www.wildlife-institute.com

We are very exited and look forward to continue and intensify our collaboration for the 2014 field season.

Will you join us?

Dr. Isabelle

2012 – “Personal review of the first year of BWRC” – Of supporters, interns and critters

Please accept my apologies for the extreme delay of this blog...Note that this was written around January 2013 and the next “update” shall follow sooner. Actually one is already “in the pipeline”. But first things first.

How to even begin summarizing so many events in one year? I will have to thank many individuals or organizations again. Please do not get offended if you are not mentioned!

As said several times throughout the year: The single most amazing part of the experience (of “following a dream and establishing a wildlife teaching clinic”) has been the incredible amount of help and outpouring of support received from countless individuals.

So Thank You for your interest and support! We could not do it without your help!

So here my personal account of this amazing year, when the world did not end... :)

2012 started with a bang and a January trip to the most impressive North American Veterinary Conference, NAVC in Orlando, FL to receive the Inspiration in Action Award and get a very brief glance at the largest veterinary conference world wide. I dreamed about amazing educational opportunities to hopefully attend in the future. Thanks to Heska, I was able to attend one day and walk around in the exhibitions and “window shop” for the equipments to purchase for the start-up of the Belize Wildlife & Referral Clinic - BWRC.

After returning to Belize, reality sunk in a bit more, and the responsibility of spending 25,000 US dollars in the most efficient and sustainable way to build a wildlife clinic for Belize made the rosy clouds of the „first award won“ fade a bit, and the pressures of writing further grants increased. But to start at the beginning: The continued support of individuals, organization and equipment manufacturers was amazing. Of course prior to receiving the grant I had spent between 2-4 months on researching possible and needed equipments. So then, it took little more then 2 weeks after receiving the actual moneys, to have completed all orders (and spent the $25,000 Award)!

  

Equipment landed in Belize in March, and elections and GST created a little hold up... that would also end us with an additional cost of $US 3,000 for GST. In March I was also invited to visit New Mexico State University for one week. Thanks to my friend Kristi I was accepted for a small award that paid to bring me to NMSU for a few guest lectures. After an amazing week of meeting department heads and deans and students and thanks in big parts to Gary Low of Aggies go Global, I had met 3 driven young women who would turn out to become BWRC’s first undergraduate interns for 3 months in the summer, and be the most amazing help one could ask for.

Our first rotation interns came from Tufts for their last clinical rotation in early April, and in brief, we had a blast. The clinic to become was nothing but an empty building, with raw concrete floor. So we spent almost all of our time in the field. Later Drs. Sarah Wills and Stacy Green both jumped on the opportunity to return for the summer, immediately after their graduation, to help with students and animals. And then Dr. Sarah was able to fill the first professional intern position at BWRC until early December! In April the Belize Wildlife Conservation Network - BWCN teamed up with the Mesoamerican Society for Biology and Conservation - MSBC for a symposium and held a first annual BWCN membership meeting. The first elected Board of Directors was established with one of the main goals being the development of the Wildlife Advice Hotline, which would eventually be completed by the Emergency Response Team under the guidance of the medical professionals of BWRC. Little did we think, that we would receive emergency calls at the clinic before our opening, and on our opening day, and a total of 60 wildlife patients before the end of the year.

With the clinic building prepared, donations received from countless individuals and organizations, Heska equipment finally received, unpacked and assembled and the arrival of our NMSU group in early May 2012, the clinic started seeing its first patients, while developing our records and protocols. Chelsea Canon, Iris de la O and Katey Wahlen jumped straight in, when we were called to a road side emergency of a horse hit by a Hummer. (Needless to say it was Sunday and we were on the way to the river for a swim...). Followed by a snake bitten dog and numerous wildlife patients, from monkeys to crocs, their adventures alone could fill a small book (and a short video was made). Shortly after the NMSU interns arrival, BWCN held the first ever fundraiser for the clinic, a „Wild Night Out“ in Belmopan, and raised Bz 10,000 for BWRC! This helped repay the debt for our required GST payment and carried us into 2013 with some $ in the bank! Thanks to Nikki Buxton for doing it all! And of course those, who came and joined us, or donated silent auction items! After close to 2 decades of self-financed work, not wanting to ask for help from others, it was truly mindboggling to me how much help BWRC received! Special thanks also to Gillian Kirkwood and Belize City Humane Society who passed on many no longer needed pieces of stainless steel and other furniture from their closing shelter, to turn an empty building into a beginning clinic.

The summer came and so did the ISIS students, in four groups from June to August. Thanks to my clinic crew, I survived an intensive summer. Thanks to ISIS for providing significant income for BWRC through renting the class room (the main clinic room) as well as making a donation per student to the clinic, which enabled us to acquire further office equipment, furniture and our by then much needed washing machine...

Fall finally brought our official inauguration ceremony with Minister Alamilla cutting the ribbon on the 19th of October, followed by one of our most popular patients of the year arriving shortly after the ceremony...

This brings me to some of the most important highlights: Our Patients!

Before our inauguration BWRC had already seen about 60 domestic and 60 wildlife patients and all were special. But some were extra special, like Box, now known as Lucky Boy the black jaguar at the Zoo, or the Jabiru who decided to stick around at the municipal airport and use the runway as his walkway! Felix the wild kitten was probably my personal favorite (I hope to acquire grants and funding to establish small feline rehab one day) even though he caused me to loose some sleep before he took to his diet properly.

Loosing sleep is a good summary for living the dream in fact :).

BWRC saw a large number of primates this year, mainly thanks to the efforts of the Belize Forest Departments Rasheda Garcia, Jazmin Ramos and Daniel, and of course Wildtracks rehabilitation program. We have seen some amazing recoveries in wild and domestic animals. But, as typical in wildlife rescue and in medicine, we have seen a fair share of tragedy. Like the unnamed sub adult spider monkey, who died in respiratory failure partially due to intoxication caused by a lay person’s flea treatment of this already sick and debilitated animal. Or the black hawk with irreparable fracture and extreme stress levels, and the Barn owl with open fracture that seemed to recover well, but its bone did not. We were very sad to loose a beautiful Stygian owl to head and spinal injury. And the snake bitten dog dying after 18 h intensive care, or the cat that had impaled itself on a metal rod through the chest could be listed within our most tragic heart breaking cases for all involved.

Our most interesting cases might have been the spinal fractured iguanas or the boas. Much to my surprise we have seen 7 rescued reptiles in the first months. But our most talked about patient was baby spider monkey “Izzie”, coming in on inauguration day! She was diagnosed with five gun shot pellets and multiple shattered bones, about 1 h after the ribbon cutting ceremony, in an encouraging 3 h turn around, from phone report to me to arrival at clinic, and subsequent departure to the Wildtracks primate facility. Her story continues.

November held one more trip for me, to the Caribbean Veterinary Medical Conference in Trinidad and Tobago, filling my role as the Commonwealth Veterinary Association country councilor for Belize, networking and hoping to complete a CVA grant proposal jointly with the TT rescue center Wildlife Orphanage Rescue Center.

Thanks to the concerted efforts of countless people, foremost Molly Reeve, Izzie’s primary carer for the first 8 weeks, international attention was drawn to her case. One of her broken bones not mending, a specialized surgeon, Dr Adolf Maas, was found and kindly volunteered his services and sourced donated materials for Izzie’s arm repair, which happened in early December. Surgery was a full success (of course time will tell in the long run). We continue to monitor her case and so far 2 videos were made to document. December also was dedicated to further grant applications, one of which we missed, yet were still given support by the grantor (absolutely amazing thanks!) in the form of a $5000 donation! Grant applications have certainly one of the biggest challenges, but we understand that it takes writing many proposals. And every written application helps us refining details.

We continue to work on our first financial report but it appears that, despite 4 fruitless grant applications for further medical equipments and more, we have still doubled the Heska prize income in 2012 with donations, BWCN fundraiser and other activities of the non-profit organization (mainly domestic patients and class room rental). But soon more on that!

The year ended with another wildlife course of ISIS students and the refining of the vision for the next year, immediate goals and the bigger picture for the future of BWRC, to hopefully become a fully self-sustaining conservation-supporting medical teaching facility.

VIDEOS After the 2011 success in the Inspiration in Action contest, somewhat attributed to the video about Spartacus, the howler monkey baby who started it all (and is now our logo thanks to Colette Kase and Maya Papovic), and the amazing Solitary Eagle juvenile, in 2012 we have created another number of “home made wildlife videos” thanks to our wonderful friend documentarian, artist and jack of many trades, Daniel Velasquez.

Videos 2012:

Interns – Clinical rotation interns

Interns – Undergraduate NMSU interns

Inauguration and Izzies arrival

Izzies surgery

If you would like to learn more, find our website under www.belizewildlifeclinic.org

The Belize Wildlife Clinic’s first veterinary interns! Of Interns and Iguanas

So many exiting things happening all at the same time makes it hard to decide where to even begin... 

Before the Belize Wildlife and Referral Clinic even opened its doors, the first interns arrived in March 2012 and while I promised to focus more on animal’s stories again – as opposed to all that mostly “human” stuff – I can’t resist to also talk about our first 2 week interns: Sarah and Stacy. In 3 words: They were awesome! What connects Interns and Iguanas? Probably the first letter... and while all my students get their hands on iguanas, Sarah and Stacy saw a lot more then the average iguana patients during their internship.

 They knew the clinic might not yet be open and opted for the “intensive rotation internship” where they would spend the majority of their time at our conservation partners and BWCN member organizations, get some basic theory and go around seeing patients with me. And they were ready to jump in! On our way from the airport we saw the first patient – not an iguana and possibly the subject of a different blog soon – a very sweet puma. The next morning, with the official start of their internship, we received the first iguana call.

In general I do not see very many iguana patients in Belize, since people do not keep them as pets here. If an iguana is found injured it will more likely end up in a pot since they are considered a delicacy, especially pregnant females. I am sure I do not have to tell you how bad eating the pregnant females is, from a standpoint of trying to sustainably use and protect a threatened species for future generations. But of course this is a different subject and I understand that this cultural practice and its conservation conflict are a very complex issue, despite the fact that a closed season during mating season has been legally in place for many years. Fortunately for Belize, we still see the green Iguana, even though several hunters report a drastic decline.

So the same origin applied to our first patient that day: a female iguana, full with eggs, that had been captured for consumption and was then purchased by someone who did not want to see her and her babies eaten... In the typical fashion the iguana had toes clipped and tendons pulled on front and back legs – to tie them for easy transport and restraint with their legs behind their backs.

But upon our first quick inspection, after she had an overnight post rescue, on a heating pad (and after a drive in a car and good sun exposure for 30 minutes) she was very lively, toes already dried and wounds closed, 4 good fingers remaining on each foot, only one small scratch on belly and she had laid 3 eggs. So the first impulse was to quickly send her on to San Ignacio Hotels Green Iguana Project where she could be incubated and soaked in warm water and given sandy substrate to lay eggs in, under the watchful eyes of Eddy and Humberto. We were all hoping for a quick recovery, release of mom and likely incubation of eggs.

The next day we arrived at the project and our lively rescue from the day before had lain down in a corner of the enclosure. Fire ants we starting to attack her eyes, ears and mouth. She was cold to the touch, barely responsive (it took a moment to actually determine that she was still alive) and had not laid any more eggs! So from a quick “lets see if we can give her a bit of recovery, good food and then release in a few” – she turned into a life threatening emergency - an egg bound iguana. And fire ants are truly an “evil enemy” when it comes to debilitated animals that we are trying to recover and a very BAD sign. So we quickly got into gear and did the usual – heat and fluids, some dextrose, Calcium and finally Oxytocin. She soon started showing weak signs of contractions! We were happy to see an egg emerge from her cloaca rather quickly! But the effect did not last and one egg was all we got. And female iguanas her size will lay about 30 or more. We continued our efforts and repeated treatments.

And then, much to our embarrassment, we made one of those crucial mistakes one should never make! Hopefully you can learn from us? We left the iguana, basically comatose with no response to 2 injections! sitting in her soak bath, outside of the main enclosure. To make it clear: she had not been conscious or responsive for a rather extended period of 2-3 hours when we left her unattended in that soak bath... and what happened? she „self released“ (which is an excuse used by some to disguise what is ultimately our human mistake... sounds better sometimes), meaning we turned around, talked and walked a few meters away... and she LEFT! So not only did she regain consciousness but she climbed out of the bath and fully disappeared! We were not able to locate her again, despite searching.

So let it be a lesson: no matter how comatose a patient appears to be ALLWAYS keep them inside an enclosure or under your direct supervision! Just never ever let your guard down would be a basic rule working with wildlife (and sometimes that seems to apply to life too).

Good news is that she was inadvertently released in what could possibly be one of the most protected spots for iguanas, right over the river at San Ignacio Hotel. And we hope that she regained enough strength with fluids, energy, calcium and hormones she was treated with.

Next Stacy and Sarah bathed and treated all 70 baby iguanas for ectoparasites, and retained skin and gave them a general check over. The majority was doing well but we saw a few cases of digital necrosis, some due to retained skin rings some possibly due to fungal infections. All iguanas came out greener and “shiny” from their bath and some seemed to enjoy the shedding help.

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Usually I might go and see the Iguana Project once a month, but this time we got a rather urging text 2 days later, asking if we could come by for a visit for one of the stars of the project: Roxy! We were in the middle of other activities at the Belize Zoo and planning on visiting Belize Bird Rescue but the report sounded rather concerning: First Roxy had “disappeared”. Apparently Roxy used to sometimes take a “day excursion from the enclosure” and then return to the enclosure*...so no one was too concerned the first day of her missing.

And when she was found a day later she had been inside the enclosure, trapped under a collapsed cavity in the sand! She too was overdue to lay eggs! Nothing else we had planned that day was “life threatening” so we quickly switched the schedule and returned to San Ignacio.

Unfortunately as we reached we look into the sad faces of Eddy and Humberto saying that Roxy had died 15 minutes ago. When we inspected her she indeed still had some reflexes left and a doubtful heartbeat with some respirations! Next lesson here: diagnosing death in a reptile is challenging! So our first response for Roxy, once again was efforts as resuscitation, with hydration, warmth, respiratory enhancer and then also Calcium. But after about 20 minutes we had to agree that the observed reflexes and irregular beats heard were “post mortem”, and further attempts at revitalization fruitless. So then Sarah and Stacy quickly switched to C-section to save Roxie’s babies! 32 eggs were recovered and are now incubating at the Green Iguana Project. A sad end to one of the most personable iguanas at the project in the past few years. She loved to be petted and interact with humans. But her brief legacy will hopefully be passed on to the next generation.

The C-section also provided highly valuable experience and demonstrated the difficulty of snake and lizard uteri that generally require multiple incisions and can not safely be “milked”. Especially once they are egg bound and become even stickier. Sorry medical sidetrack.

To end Sarah and Stacie’s Iguana experiences at the end of their internship they also bathed and checked a good number of the full grown iguanas in the main enclosure, including Gomez! They got the obligatory (minor!) scratch and did awesome, as through out their whole internship! Of course we saw and did lots of other things, but the blog is too long already!

Feel free to comment...

* For those who don’t know: Many of the iguanas released on site at this project actually return and try to re-enter the enclosure – especially for the males no wonder... but all in all “Guanaland” is just a perfect hotel for Iguanas :) and the Belize Wildlife and Referral Clinic will soon work on an “Intensive Care Unit” for injured or sick reptiles.

Grants are wonderfull!

I wake up and find myself in a raging river, floating like a corc (fortunately, I guess that accumulated ring of fat from sitting at a desk too much lately pays off even in my dreams). I look around and see rock faces passing by, fast. No time to stop, no time to rest, other than relaxing and taking the ride as it comes. Which includes to keep on swimming, and avoiding collisions with rocks in the way. Canyon walls on both sides and no way out, other than forward. Definitely no turning around. The current is strong. Hopefully there is no impassable white water, I think. Hopefully this water eventually calms down and gives me a safe exit back onto the land I long to feel under my feet. This is so fast it’s scary! Hopefully there is no tall water fall on my route before I can get out.... as I wake up for real...

What happened? I „took the plunge“ so to speak. I decided to „go for it“, fully follow my long time dream; After many years I tried to finally get financial support to do what I dreamt of creating, to leave behind as my life-time work. And, well, you know the story... We got the first grant! Belize Wildlife and Referral Clinic won the Heska Inspiration in Action contest, I had a wonderfull, but brief trip to the US and received the Award for $25,000 to buy medical equipment and install it in the first ever wildlife clinic, which would at the same time serve to advance the veterinary profession through training and referral services for domestic veterinarians country wide. The greatest honor of my life to be trusted by so many and allowed to help in such ways. Two weeks later money was transferred.

My dream must represent that my life has truly felt like a wild white water ride in the past few weeks, finding out that AFTER the grant is even more work than BEFORE. Not that I wasn’t committed and prepared to give it my all and best, but on my rosy clouds I had not foreseen having to do so many things, all at once. Haha! that’s what you get for following your dreams :) A LOT OF WORK.

I keep internally humming „keep on swimming, keep on swimming“ (having watched Nemo the fish a few times...). I do this because I want to and I love what I do. I just don’t particularily enjoy some parts of it. Like spending 10 or 12 h in front of my computer. Morale of the story, definitely follow your dreams, but be ready to buckle down and work harder than ever before, and enjoy! It’s your dream after all.
I am far from done, but we have gotten so much help in addition to the first grant that it literally blows me away! I would like to and will thank each and every person for their help! I had resisted for years to come out publicly and ask for much help. So that I would, in my personal small ways, make a good contribution and set a good example for some (who would care to observe in those small circles). But now that „it is out“ so to speak, people from all over have stepped up to help. We have received $446 donations on our website! All from different unknown people. I would like to name them, but have to first figure out if that is ok... Stainless steel, cell phone, supplies, 10-50 % discounts on all medical equipments, books and standards! And my dearest helper in rallying contest votes through rotaract, Alfonso, is now working on the best shipping quote for us and it looks like we might get some good and reduced prices on shipping as well! Forest Department has offered to clear customs for us, since we are working to help them fullfill their mandate relating to wildlife conservation. And the building is amazing.

BUT a basic clinic setup could be estimated more at 200.000 value and we are truly playing gymnist and making it streeeeeeeeeetch, to improvise a clinic as state of the art as possible.
Currently I receive an internship request nearly every other day. Which is wonderfull because we hope to establish the internships to support wildlife work (many of our wildlife patients will be non-paying clients... especially rescues). Yet it is a lot of work to do it right. And in general I like to try to do things as best as possible. Our first two interns will be with us at the end of March, and we look forward to welcoming them and showing them what we are all about. And since I have been facilitating these student experiences in Belize for now over 7 years, I know we can do it and students will love it. None the less a bit nerve wrecking to have soo many new things at once?

And the best news on the grant front is: we have sourced some fantastic equipment and can’t wait to make this available asap!

I meet so many amazing new people, and old people, I am preparing to present at the MSBC /BWCN symposium at UB and have been nominated for the Gerald Thomas Award to visit New Mexico State University. And I have also been honored in other ways, by beeing elected on the Board of Directors of one of my favorite Belizean conservation organizations: Friends for Conservation and Development and nominated by Minster Montero onto the Veterinary Surgeons Board. I look forward to serving those positions to the best of my ability.

But looking at my schedule, I can’t believe it. No way out there either... It is FULL! And overflowing it seems. One of these first days after receiving the grant I briefly had the thought: my plate is so full I am afraid it just „broke“! I apologize for this surprisingly complainy blog and assure you I am and trust I will be: just fine!

And the biggest and most important thing for me these days is... to take it easy! And not exhaust myself and struggle against currents. If I go under now there is no way out. I have seen too many burn out. So I take a peacefull breath and jump back in the river and try to relax while I move forward at high speed, hoping to be just like my favorite quotation from the i-ching:

The highest good is like water.
Water gives life to the ten thousand things and does not strive.
It flows in places men reject,
finds the path of least resistance
and excites no rivalries.

The next blog will be a different story for sure! I felt the need to share another „personal view“ one but the future holds more Animals stories' (instead of my own) and the next clinic update is also overdue...

"Inspiration in Action" for wildlife conservation - a personal account

OMG Belize Wildlife & Referral Clinic is in the final for the contest! I rub my eyes and can not believe it. „Inspiration in Action“ is truly an awesome title for this and, believe it or not, the first grant proposal for a project that has been in my head for over 15 years. But how did I get there?

In brief and leaving out a few years and countries in between it started in 1994 when my dear friends from Profelis in Costa Rica opened my eyes to what would become the passion I would dedicate my career to: wildlife conservation and medicine, as well as rescue and rehabilitation.

I had decided to become a veterinarian out of a love for animals and the desire to work in and with nature with biology as second choice. After the first three years in vet school I felt discouraged about what I learned about the profession of a domestic veterinarian. While I loved dogs and cats, I more and more disliked the fact that we humans would breed animals to our liking of what we felt was „pretty“ while the animals suffered with the „breed dispositions“. Of course, „never argue „fashion““ but to me welfare was more important. I loved farm animals but I disliked the fact that their main purpose seemed to be to grow and produce as fast as possible, often under to me questionable conditions. I loved horses too and it was because of them that I decided I wanted to be a veterinarian at age 11; after I witnessed my first birth – who would not be inspired watching the first steps of a newborn foal? But at 22 I had come to realize that my motivation for becoming a veterinarian - the desire to heal and „help“ animals and to work in and for nature - had been somewhat naive.

It seemed to me our daily veterinary life would all too often make us have to be psychologists and make economic choices to sacrifice animals or their welfare to human needs. I decided to take a break for a semester. At this point I have to thank a special person: my mother! Instead of possibly turning into a „jewelry selling beach traveler“ (my back-up plan at the time) she convinced me to volunteer in a conservation project with wild cats in Costa Rica.

Little did we know that it would change my life, to meet two inspirational German biologists, founders and directors of Profelis. They had come to study wild cats, and discovered a clear need for a facility that would rescue confiscated animals for the government. They took on the challenge to try to provide a solution by receiving and when possible rehabilitating to release this endangered species. I saw their challenges: no money, several years of negotiations, cooperation issues, grant applications, bureaucracy and many adversities. And I witnessed their whole-hearted dedication: living in a humble little house and rebuild the center 3 times, even from total devastation through a hurricane, with their own hands and WITHOUT a salary, for as long as 7 years! That truly inspired me. It was them who pointed me to a contact in Guatemala, the veterinarian and director of ARCAS, a general wildlife rescue center. The most amazing 2 years of my life would follow, while travelling Costa Rica and Guatemala to work as a veterinary volunteer in wildlife conservation projects. ARCAS was truly inspiring in that for the first time I saw local people, not foreigners, and from poor backgrounds (so not philanthropists) work hard to save their natural heritage. I experienced the first baby season and I saw a wildlife rescue center overwhelmed with hundreds of animals coming from the pet trade in a period of 6 weeks.

I returned to vet school with new found goals and passions. I had learned about the need for professional veterinary assistance in wildlife conservation in the field. I had seen the hardship, mainly meaning little to no income, hard work and many set backs, but I had also been inspired by simple people, who had so much less than I was even born with, dedicate their lives towards animals and nature. And I felt that, coming from a rich „country of abundance“, Germany, I wanted to dedicate my career to benefit development and nature conservation and take that challenge as well.

My childhood experiences in and the resulting love for Latin America, and having seen animals in the pet trade on the „other end“ - after illegal smuggling to developed world, and usually point of no return - I wanted to apply my skills, where there truly still is a chance of returning an animal to its natural habitat. And, where we can still work towards preserving natural habitats, and ultimately a harmonious cohabitation of humans in nature. I know that is the naive part of me again, but I believe in the benefit of having positive dreams and goals.

Over the next 15 years the proposal suited for my desire to find a similar niche, where I could use my medical professions’ training to apply it to heal and help animals and work to conserve nature and „give back“, would be refined over and over. One day I would like to dedicate an entire book to the many inspiring people I met while volunteering and visiting projects in 7 countries and learning many lessons over many years. And I guess that could be a nice book because all so often we tend to think that the world is filled with BAD people and tend to not remember those great inspiring people.

Ending our „nomadic“ years and visiting and settling in Belize was a like a revelation to the still hazy vision. And of course the beginning of another long process of learning, which is certainly continuing as we speak. After 8 years of living here, evaluating the situation, finding the gap and my niche, networking, consulting stakeholders, gathering (philosophical) support, and working with the government, I have finally given up on the idea that „someone“ will come along and „absorb my idea“ and write a large grant for me. With the idea to assist solving many of the countries wildlife problems in one go, for now and forever (meaning beyond my own involvement). I know that was setting my goals way too high, but I did that for years anyways. And I didn’t even know how to begin. Here I just must thank my dear husband for supporting me throughout and pointing out „you are trying to jump from A to Z instead of going via BCDE...just do it yourself, and start it small.“ and I finally heard him too.

It was Spartacus the 600 g Howler monkey baby who „pushed me over the edge“ to decide that even if it was small, the need for a medical facility for wildlife and some basic medical diagnostic and treatment tools was overwhelming. And that I would just start this clinic myself, without a million $ grant. It was Spartacus who inspired me, to activate this blog, apply for a minute loan and finally start looking for financial support for the wildlife rescue facility that I somehow started dreaming about in 1994. And just to make it clear: since then I have held numerous paid jobs simultaneously to support my „expensive hobby and passion“ as a „professional volunteer“ mostly without outside financial support or a salary.

And a few days after the decision to finally start seeking outside financial support for the work I am most passionate about, I accidentally saw this „Inspiration in Action“ contest... which in addition to the opportunity to help wildlife, offered the opportunity to assist the countries veterinarians and fulfill my personal mandate in the veterinary association to assist the advancement of our profession. So I felt inspired and just started writing. And I got a lot of help in the writing. And now we are in the final and with YOUR HELP could win $25,000 to purchase medical and diagnostic equipment to serve an entire country.

Regardless of outcome, it is VERY inspiring to have our proposal selected over so many other great projects and it sure will give me more energy and desire to continue facing the challenges of trying to assist sustainable development and wildlife conservation as well as animal welfare. I will be EVER GRATEFULL for the amazing response from everybody out there!

We keep our fingers crossed that despite being an „outsider“ and a small Caribbean country, with your help the Belize Wildlife Referral Clinic will win the Heska Inspiration in Action contest! Voting continues until the 18th of December.

We need thousands of votes to compete with the other 4 excellent contestants. So I hope you can also help us by convincing as many of your US-friends and family to please vote for BWRC here:

http://www.heska.com/Inspiration-Wall.aspx

Or directly on Facebook:

http://www.facebook.com/Heska?sk=app_280290708677410

Many exciting new rescues have happened recently, including another baby howler monkey, an Osprey and the most amazing solitary eagle! So stay „tuned“ for more?

The usual unusual adventure... Are you ready to meet „Michael Jackson“?

What I love about my work in wildlife rescue and conservation is that there is nothing usual about it. I never know what might happen the next day or moment and there is rarely any routine. Of course, I have to admit that that is very challenging sometimes too. But most times it keeps things interesting and exciting!

This story starts with an email from Nikki from Belize Bird Rescue, with a picture of a bird attached. It’s a juvenile raptor. And to my embarrassment I must admit, upon first very quick glance at this photo, I shrugged my shoulders and thought, „oh another Roadside Hawk“ (a very common small raptor, indeed often seen on roadsides in Belize). A minute later my phone rang. It was Nikki, sounding somewhat anxious, telling me she just received this raptor in a rice bag. The raptor was supposedly stealing a farmer’s chicken. The farmer had shot the raptor and the farmer’s neighbor had brought it to Nikki in the back of a pickup. Once out of the bag, it was big and feisty, and Nikki asked if I couldn’t come NOW to examine, check and hopefully release the raptor again. She was NOT handling this one by herself! So I relooked at the picture and finally computed the size of Nikki’s cage, which I knew, with the size of this bird, nearly filled the cage. Ooops! So we wondered what it would be. Bird identification is like a common „game“ for us. We are not (and maybe never will be) experts at identifying birds. But we know experts and we network. And of course we have books and we try to identify them ourselves. So still on the phone, Nikki suggested „it really looks like a solitary eagle“. And I laughed out, and actually made fun of her over the phone.

A solitary eagle is within the rarest, least known and endangered raptors in the world. At this time there is only one known nest in all its range. I don’t think there has ever been a rescue of one, at least not reported. So we both shared the pictures with our bird experts, and once I got to Bird Rescue, and saw this animal for myself for the first time, I was amazed by its large size. It calmly looked at me, threatened a bit, but was not overly scared or aggressive: BAR (bright alert and responsive...).

So for the next 30 minutes we prepared for examination, shock treatment, and possible other treatments, and I repeatedly returned with the identification guide and read, and reread the description. All the characteristics seemed to fit for the solitary eagle, but I sure wouldn’t believe my ID skills for something like that! And then came the first two amazed messages from our bird expert friends, including the researcher who studied the only known nest, confirming that we indeed had probably the rarest patient of our careers in front of us. GULP. Nikki compared it to Michael Jackson coming to visit, and my answer that our clinic (currently still with out in-house clinic facilities... and basic equipment) is NOT a „rockstar“ place by any means; but we are the only of our kind :) so we had to make it work.

And the worst of it was... we had to find out why on earth someone was able to capture him, hence if he got severely injured by bullets. He must have been very compromised, or debilitated in order for a human to capture and „bag“ him. Or maybe, he was just stunned and then immediately captured in that moment? From the report, my first gut feeling suspected a shot to the thorax and a possible fracture in his shoulder.

Any wildlife examination starts with observation, and for this guy the observation didn’t reveal much, if anything. He was symmetric and I thought I detected a slight weakness in the left wing, which after a few minutes he drooped just a half and inch lower. That gave further weight to the suspicion of shoulder fracture.

So then we had to get our „hands on him“ and give him the first round of treatment; nearly always indicated in rescued wildlife and definitely in cases like this. We knew he was captive at least 24hrs and travelled under extreme stress: rehydration, steroids for the hypovolemic shock and a little bit of energy in the form of dextrose. I usually also add some B-complex vitamins, which never hurts and helps with the appetite which is always an issue in our wildlife patients – if they stop to eat, we lose them, no matter how well we could cure anything else! And of course I always like to give at least one dose of homeopathic rescue remedy.

I am still beyond words to describe the thrill of working with this eagle up close. We approached him with much caution, calmly and gently. Did I mention my gloves were not really apt for this kind of raptor, aside from the fact that I really do not like to use big gloves to handle or restrain anyways. And it was amazing how little he struggled or fought our approach. He was alert and resisted, but we were quite capable of slowly netting and toweling him out of the small cage and then... first disarmed his „weapons“, the talons, by closing the feet, taking care to not hurt him with his own talons, and taping them that way. Raptors have lots of force in their feet – even little screech owls do, as I can attest from personal experience with one falsely believed to be deceased... But the strength is only to clamp down (and fly off with prey in most cases) yet not to open the feet. So once taped in the closed position we were safe to work with him with our limited equipment or trained staff.

I must give huge kudoz to Miss Celisha for her assistance, as well as, of course Miss Nikki, who, sometimes against her will, has had to learn a lot more about raptor care, including intensive care and physical therapy, then she probably would have chosen on her own accord. All because of the needed wildlife clinic facility, but Nikki truly rocks! Celisha was a novice with raptors and jumped right in, alert, quick and ON IT. What an initiation! So with fabulous teamwork we got the eagle transferred to the exam room, examined hands-on once over, treated, checked and measured... a bit (realizing that we do not know how to properly do these measurements, since they are usually done by biologists) and then brought him to an outdoor enclosure that had hastily been cleared of its parrot inhabitants. The neighboring cages of parrots also had to be evacuated. Imagine the disturbance of an eagle in between a bunch of parrots. But I guess if Michael Jackson came to your very humble bed and breakfast, you too would give him the whole place.

So now while we had given the essential shock treatment and gotten a good look, the entire exam did not really reveal many abnormalities! There was a small amount of dried dark blood found on the outside of his beak, one small blood spot on the elbow of the same left side, slightly low body condition (rather normal for this stage of life in this bird). No fractures detected manually, neither in wing, shoulder nor elsewhere. Eyes clean, clear, responsive. Nothing wrong? So there we had a mystery, and if nothing was wrong then the bird must have been seriously ill and debilitated for somebody to be able to capture it, which would likely stack all possible odds against this bird, and our attempts to save it.

We definitely needed an x-ray! But since we are still working on acquiring that as one of the first more expensive basic pieces of equipment for the Belize Wildlife & Referral Clinic, we had to reconvene the next day and make arrangements to see if we could borrow a machine and arrange development without too much stress.

I did not sleep well that night. I worried that we didn’t know what was keeping this bird down and how I really did not want to lose this patient. In general we vets are trained to not get too attached to our patients, since we have to deal with the fact that we lose them sometimes, and especially in wildlife rescue! And I generally care equally for small or large, predator or prey with the priority or emphasis on conservation and sustainable management of endangered species. And this was probably the most endangered wild animal I would ever get to see and I so wanted to have a chance to release it back into the wild and see it fly free.

Intensive networking continued. I called our in country snake expert, asking him to do us the favor to find snakes for our VIP patient, and he of course returned the favor of laughing out when I told him what we had in our hands (in disbelief). By the time I had reached back home the people involved in providing assistance for this eagle’s rescue ranged from Spain, to Panama, Guatemala, Virginia to California and more.

This brings me to end this chapter of the story, with a HUGE amazed expression of gratitude to the power of networking! Thank you so much to everybody out there for helping!

And that brings me to the final plead for networking: please help us win the Heska Inspiration in Action Contest by voting for the Belize Wildlife & Referral Clinic. This prize would be the first step towards equipping a clinic with much needed equipment, not only for wildlife but also for the small developing country’s domestic animal veterinarians.

Voting ends on the 18th of December and our US competition has some excellent projects as well, so we need every US vote you can raise for Belize.

http://www.heska.com/Inspiration-Wall.aspx

Difficulties and disappointments in Wildlife rehabilitation and the story of the comatose barn owl miracle, without happy ending.

First of all and „flat out“: wildlife rehabilitation done properly is very difficult and challenging and filled with „disappointments“ or hardship of many kinds. This starts with the assessment whether an animal can or should be rehabilitated.

Which is why it is so fabulous to witness and tell stories like Spartacus’ the howler monkey (still keeping fingers crossed as the story continues) who will hopefully ultimately go from certain death to wild and free living animal in natural habitat with his own kind.

But those unfamiliar with the field, and may be having illusions of fuzzy and cuddly babies... well those we do see too, and they are one of the beautiful aspects of the field. I might have to write about those next, after this. But in a general rescue center we often receive very severely injured animals for who we can only relieve of suffering (meaning humane euthanasia), or we receive animals that did not survive the transport hence their injuries.

While those are really „rough“ and sometimes disheartening experiences, in a veterinarians day and professional life, euthanasia is an important responsibility: To decide over and execute as an act of humane kindness to animals, to avoid unnecessary suffering, pain or incurable illness, the humane and pain free killing of the creatures you work for... Lack of quality of life and stress, is particularly challenging in wild animals. For example when we can cure their fracture but they can not survive being in captivity while their bones should heal. And in general it is not only our responsibility to decide and execute but also to console co-workers, staff, owners or rescuers. Never an easy task I can attest.

But at least in clear cut extreme injuries it is easy to see the unnecessary pain and suffering. We often use a three strike rule: three major injuries and we should not „torture“ the animal with our attempts to cure it, when it’s system or just its wild nature is unlikely to be able to cope with too many major injuries at the same time. We should let go and choose to give this animal pain free relief of suffering.

And then we get really difficult, not so clear cut cases sometimes. And they seem to turn, sometimes even miraculously at first, and we opt to NOT euthanize a really borderline severely injured animal, but fight an extended period of time to rehabilitate and give an animal the best chance at a possible survival for release. And sometimes we win and sometimes we loose. When this happens after many weeks it is especially disheartening. As the title indicates, I choose to talk about lost battles.

This brings me to the most recent example of such a "failure" of mine, so to speak. I thought we should try against many odds, and it did look miraculously at first:

In the middle of a 2 week intensive wildlife course for vet students a barn owl is announced and brought to the classroom by a bird rehabber. When the owl (gender unknown but for the sake of the story assumed female) comes in, she is comatose and unresponsive, in full hypovolemic shock with an old, open humerus fracture and very skinny. Upon first inspection I give her prognosis the „in faust“ which is the worst possible, basically meaning survival unlikely. After some quick pondering we decide that we might as well try and see if we can operate, repair the fracture and place a bone pin, which I had with me. Likely she would not survive the surgery and pass away under anesthesia, which would be similar to just euthanizing her right away, since she would feel no pain in the process.

We quickly prep a table inside the lodges Restaurant, minimal instruments and I draw up the highly diluted anesthetics for the small patient, trying to keep a light dose for the much debilitated patient who quickly succumbs to full anesthesia. We immediately start to go to work and my students help inject fluids, steroids and antibiotics while I try and relatively quickly succeed to place a bone pine, in what feels like only 2 large pieces of the humerus. This is good, I feel no further fragments, contraction is not yet terrible, and surgery is quick. And the patient is still alive too. To complete the treatment we place a standard figure 8 wrap on the broken wing, which is now stabilized with one IM pin. The disadvantage of this simple and quick method of fracture repair that we were able to improvise on a restaurant table is, that it provides no rotational immobilization. So we also have to place a light body wrap on the owl in order to achieve the best possible immobilization of the 2 re-united bone pieces.

Amazingly enough our patient remains alive and starts to show first signs of life so we return her to the rehabilitator and rescuer who takes her back to the avian rescue center, elated that after having gotten the message that likely we would have to euthanize or she would not survive surgery, she now had a “repaired” live bird. 5 hours later I receive an image of the comatose owl now PERCHING with wrap on and all in good position and order! That was like a miracle.

And I won’t stretch out the story too long but we worked with her for a total of 2.5 months to the point of upgrading her into a larger cage to practice and possibly regain flight where she then re-fractured her wing and I had to euthanize her. I always ponder cases, and basically any patient I loose and try to „make the best“ out of them, and learn for the future, to not make the same mistake twice. My goals is to avoid letting an animal suffer when my hopes of curing it were unrealistic and to treat everything the best possible. For the owl, with her old open fracture I realized afterwards that we should have kept her antibiotic treatment on board for longer then we did. Of course we had no x-ray to really diagnose her bone density and monitor fracture repair. All exams were done by hand. I had never had a patient re-brake like her. So I think she must have had a persistent infection in the bone which weakened it. Therefore when we upgraded to fly, she broke again, despite having been immobilized for longer then usually needed. Sigh.

I learned something from her or so I think and try to improve.

Sorry, not all stories end good, in fact most of them don’t. That is life. But I guess what we make from our failures is truly what defines us in the long run?

I guess I should make the next blog a happier one again? Let me know...?