Sonoma County Wildlife Rescue is looking for financial support to upgrade some of our medical equipment and help improve the scope of care we can provide to our wildlife patients. Last year, with your help, we were able to upgrade all incubators for our wildlife orphans, purchase a pulse oximeter for sedated procedures, upgrade our oxygen therapy chamber to accommodate larger raptors and mammals and purchase a new laptop for medical record keeping. Throughout 2020, we were able to see firsthand as wildlife patients thrived as a direct result of your generosity.

This year, we are looking to increase the number of procedures that we can provide on-site in our wildlife hospital. The first and largest upgrade we are looking to make is our exam table, also known as the heart of the hospital. Every animal that comes through our doors begins their journey with an intake exam conducted at this very table. We are hoping to purchase a brand-new exam table for our wildlife hospital called a “wet table”. This specialized table would provide water and drainage during procedures allowing us to clean abscesses and large wounds, vastly improving our wound care abilities. The intake table is also height adjustable, helping accommodate the varying sizes of our wildlife patients. As an added benefit, once replaced, our current intake table would then be relocated to our Raptor Recovery Center’s Hospital where our staff is currently using a small counter and a stool for exams and treatment. The cost to upgrade to the most effective intake table is $3,800.

The second piece of equipment we would like to purchase is our doppler ultrasound to monitor the blood pressure of our wildlife patients. The doppler ultrasound allows our medical team to track patient vitals, handsfree, during our most intense procedures and exams. This is a critical tool, as blood pressure is not easy to gauge without proper equipment. The doppler ultrasound will provide more accuracy in tracking vitals and critical signs resulting in higher survival and quicker recovery time. The cost to purchase this piece of equipment is $1,150.

Both purchases of the wet table and the doppler ultrasound will vastly improve the scope of care we can provide to our wildlife patients on-site at Sonoma County Wildlife Rescue. This is critical for our wildlife patients as the additional handling and time spent near humans is extremely stressful and can be detrimental to a patient’s outcome. By improving the scope of care we provide on-site, we can reduce human interaction by 2-5 hours for some of our most medically fragile wildlife patients.

These combined upgrades to our wildlife hospital will help our wildlife patients thrive for years to come.

Please consider donating what you can to help fund this much needed equipment.

On December 14, 2020 Napa Wildlife Rescue received a call about a beaver that was found underneath a car and was believed to be injured. During the intake exam, Napa Wildlife Rescue discovered a deep puncture wound and a patch of greasy fur. The skilled team at Napa Wildlife Rescue stabilized the beaver and prepared it for transport to Sonoma County Wildlife Rescue for treatment and continued care in our Aquatic Mammal Enclosure.

Upon arrival, the beaver received a full sedated exam, had radiographs taken and the wound to its left hip area was closed by our staff veterinarian, Dr. Dan Famini. The radiographs revealed no skeletal damage, meaning that our care would be focused on the wound closure and addressing the oiled patch of fur on the beaver's right haunch.

With beavers, an oil patch on the fur can be deadly, as it prevents the beaver's fur from properly waterproofing, leading to a high potential for hypothermia among other issues. Properly cleaning an oiled animal is quite laborious, and our animal care team must be meticulous in cleaning the oiled fur while balancing the needs of our wildlife patient. Thankfully, Sonoma County Wildlife Rescue is a member organization of the Oiled Wildlife Network, and both Executive Director, Doris Duncan and Animal Care Director, Danielle McGuire, have been trained in oil spill response. Therefore this beaver was able to be cleaned by our skilled team at the rescue.

After his bath and while the wound continued to heal, the beaver spent time in our brand-new nursery pond since the large pond in our Aquatic Mammal Enclosure continues to be occupied by three orphaned beavers that arrived last year. The new addition of the nursery pond in our Aquatic Mammal Enclosure proved to be especially helpful for this patient. Since the pond is much smaller, we were able to drain and refill the pond as needed to keep the wound clean and dry while also balancing the beaver's need for a large source of water. Even though this addition to our Aquatic Mammal Enclosure was built for orphaned otters, we were able to get a good sense of how this smaller pond could also work for our more critical care aquatic mammals.

After nearly three weeks in care, the beaver received its release evaluation on January 1, 2021. Observing that the wound was closed, and the fur was properly waterproofed after cleaning, we were able to return the beaver to Napa Wildlife Rescue for release on January 2nd, marking both rescue's first release of the new year!