Well it is nice to say that we haven’t slowed down any. This week was set at a steady pace with new animals coming in from far and wide. At the end of the previous week we received a ‘bathtub call.’ I had to ask, “What’s a ‘bathtub call’?” Vanessa explained that it is a call from someone who says, “I have a seal in my bathtub. What do I do?” The call came from Egegik, a small fishing town on the north side of the peninsula that juts out from mainland Alaska. The seal was scheduled to be flown into Anchorage for pick-up the next day. Well we got a 2 for 1 because another seal was picked up in Egegik a few hours later. They both were flown in and picked up Monday. These seals were even bigger than Diesel and younger because they both had their umbilical remnants. So big that our vet suspected that they were in fact spotted seals and took detailed measurements of their flippers. It was a boy and a girl, Gears and Clutch. A pretty routine admit for these two, who had no apparent ailments besides being a little dehydrated.
Not even 8 hours passed before we received another call from Egegik about another pup. I was a bit curious. How does a town with under 200 residents have so many pups to deal with? I later learned from Tim that the fishing practice in this area is to line the shallows with nets. This is an area where seals will hunt for fish and the fishermen believe that the seals pull fish from their nets. They will illegally shoot these ‘problem’ seals and give us the pups to deal with. It was pretty apparent that there was a lack of education about seals in this community and Tim has plans to conduct some information sessions for the citizens of Egegik in the near future. So that pup was flown into Anchorage for pick up and since it was my Monday Laura and April did the pick up. They came back with yet another giant baby seal and his name was Manifold. And he brought our number up to nine seal pups.
Around the same time of these three were being admitted we got a call about a pregnant Steller’s Eider with an apparent gunshot wound. This was kind of a big deal. Steller’s Eiders are a threatened species in Alaska and the breeding stock may number as few as 1000 individuals. The fact she may be carrying eggs made this situation even direr. The call came from Barrow, the northern most populated area in Alaska. She was flown from Barrow to Anchorage and picked up by a staff member. It turned out that she wasn’t shot, but her wing had been caught in some wire. She needed surgery and had her wing wrapped to prevent any motion while she was recovering. She was introduced to water and was fed krill. She had a very healthy appetite. There was some concern about collecting sufficient nesting material for her if in fact she was carrying eggs, but I’m not sure what came of that. I haven’t seen her. We have another bird in our care and we needed to shower in just to see her. I hope to see Nozzle because this may be the only opportunity I’ll have to be able to see a Steller’s Eider.
I mentioned we have another bird in our care. He is a Common Merganser named Turbo Charger. He came in from the Seward area after an intensive search for his mother. The problem is with these birds is that they are very social within a family group and imprint very easily. So his living area is off by itself and in his little tote he has a mirror and a picture of a Merganser family. We did this in hopes that he would familiarize himself with well, himself. We set up a camera for him and I think it looks like a little apartment with his pillow case floor and the adornments on the walls. It amused me very much.
Each week seems to offer up a new ‘project’ for us. Last week it was Wiper and the week before that it was Muffler. At times Wiper would be as gregarious as Gasket and she usually was the one answering the other kids’ calls. Something happened to her right around us moving her out into the condo area for the day. She became unusually quiet, lethargic and acting very much as a sick seal. The decision was made to keep her inside all day so we could constantly monitor her. Her treatment was pretty simple: antibiotics, sub-cu fluids and electrolytes substituted into her feeds. It was a little disheartening to see her not as her feisty self. That feeling worsened when she had some seizure activity on Thursday. It was very subdued with her staring blankly into space and head bobbing repetitively. When many of us saw this we couldn’t help but conclude dimoic acid toxicity, but this was not the case for Wiper, thankfully. It turned out she may have had mild septicemia caused by some sort of infection. Being septic would account for the seizures and a combination of antibiotics should solve the problem. She made quite a turnaround this week and is on her way back to her hard to handle self and I’m happy about that.
Not even 8 hours passed before we received another call from Egegik about another pup. I was a bit curious. How does a town with under 200 residents have so many pups to deal with? I later learned from Tim that the fishing practice in this area is to line the shallows with nets. This is an area where seals will hunt for fish and the fishermen believe that the seals pull fish from their nets. They will illegally shoot these ‘problem’ seals and give us the pups to deal with. It was pretty apparent that there was a lack of education about seals in this community and Tim has plans to conduct some information sessions for the citizens of Egegik in the near future. So that pup was flown into Anchorage for pick up and since it was my Monday Laura and April did the pick up. They came back with yet another giant baby seal and his name was Manifold. And he brought our number up to nine seal pups.
Around the same time of these three were being admitted we got a call about a pregnant Steller’s Eider with an apparent gunshot wound. This was kind of a big deal. Steller’s Eiders are a threatened species in Alaska and the breeding stock may number as few as 1000 individuals. The fact she may be carrying eggs made this situation even direr. The call came from Barrow, the northern most populated area in Alaska. She was flown from Barrow to Anchorage and picked up by a staff member. It turned out that she wasn’t shot, but her wing had been caught in some wire. She needed surgery and had her wing wrapped to prevent any motion while she was recovering. She was introduced to water and was fed krill. She had a very healthy appetite. There was some concern about collecting sufficient nesting material for her if in fact she was carrying eggs, but I’m not sure what came of that. I haven’t seen her. We have another bird in our care and we needed to shower in just to see her. I hope to see Nozzle because this may be the only opportunity I’ll have to be able to see a Steller’s Eider.
I mentioned we have another bird in our care. He is a Common Merganser named Turbo Charger. He came in from the Seward area after an intensive search for his mother. The problem is with these birds is that they are very social within a family group and imprint very easily. So his living area is off by itself and in his little tote he has a mirror and a picture of a Merganser family. We did this in hopes that he would familiarize himself with well, himself. We set up a camera for him and I think it looks like a little apartment with his pillow case floor and the adornments on the walls. It amused me very much.
Each week seems to offer up a new ‘project’ for us. Last week it was Wiper and the week before that it was Muffler. At times Wiper would be as gregarious as Gasket and she usually was the one answering the other kids’ calls. Something happened to her right around us moving her out into the condo area for the day. She became unusually quiet, lethargic and acting very much as a sick seal. The decision was made to keep her inside all day so we could constantly monitor her. Her treatment was pretty simple: antibiotics, sub-cu fluids and electrolytes substituted into her feeds. It was a little disheartening to see her not as her feisty self. That feeling worsened when she had some seizure activity on Thursday. It was very subdued with her staring blankly into space and head bobbing repetitively. When many of us saw this we couldn’t help but conclude dimoic acid toxicity, but this was not the case for Wiper, thankfully. It turned out she may have had mild septicemia caused by some sort of infection. Being septic would account for the seizures and a combination of antibiotics should solve the problem. She made quite a turnaround this week and is on her way back to her hard to handle self and I’m happy about that.
excellent recovery on the breaker, your log looks like it has fully healed since the last catastrophic lost post.
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