| Wildlife Rehabilitation |
 The Medicine River Wildlife Centre cares for a variety of wildlife, ranging from orphaned hares and robins to injured owls and eagles - over 160 species and close to 1000 patients annually. Each animal is examined, treated then rehabilitated in line with species specific needs before being released into an appropriate environment. The rehabilitation process starts with admission to the Centre and an initial examination of the patient. Fluid therapy, using lactated ringers and/or electrolytes, is administered for the first 24 hours to stabilize the animal. Blood work is done if necessary. The blood work results determine a treatment plan for each patient admitted. Some patients may need simple physiotherapy and others may require bandaging or splinting of bone fractures. Occasionally, surgery to repair broken bones is necessary and is performed by the Wildlife Centre's veterinarian. Drug therapy and homeopathy are integrated into the patient's treatment plan in order to reduce swelling, fight infection and increase the patient's ability to heal more rapidly.Wildlife Centre staff try to keep handling to a minimum, but still need to monitor patients' progress by recording weight, general appearance and activity levels on patient files. Once the initial examination and treatment is done, patients are moved to an appropriate intensive care unit (ICU) and kept warm, dark and quiet. The key to successful rehabilitation of injured wild animals is keeping stress to a minimum. This means the humans administering the treatment must remain as unobtrusive as possible. Recovery can take anywhere from two days to two years, depending on the animal, the nature of the injury and their treatment plan. While under the Centre's care, each patient's diet is varied according to its particular needs. Generally, songbirds get seed, berries, fruit and insects; raptors get various dead rodents; carnivorous mammals get old freezer meat; herbivorous mammals get vegetables and grasses; waterfowl get grain, while dog and cat food and various kinds of feed (such as rabbit pellets) can be fed to many different species. As the patients grow stronger, they can be moved to larger quarters. Songbirds and waterfowl can be moved out of their ICU into an indoor flight room and waterfowl pond, respectively. Raptors and mammals move from small ICUs to larger indoor cages and finally, to large outdoor pens where they get reacclimatized to the outdoors and start exercising. One of the outdoor pens can be used to retrain birds of prey to catch their own food. Due to the extent of some injuries, not all patients can be released. A few of these become foster parents for young arrivals, are transferred to other rehab facilities or zoos, or become part of our education team. Others must be euthanized. Our success rate is about 57%.
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Patients are taken to an appropriate environment for release. For birds of prey, this means returning to the area where they were found, so that they may rejoin a mate and reclaim a territory. Many songbirds and waterfowl can be released on the Wildlife Centre's property -- either in the woods or on the marsh. Some mammals, such as fox and coyote, have to be transported as far away as possible from civilization to ensure they don't once again become a victim of people's intolerance.
