WildAgain Wildlife Rehabilitation, Inc.

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Help for wild animals harmed by people

by Shirley J. Casey

(As published in Homeopathy Today, November/December 2006)
 

A growing number of licensed and trained wildlife rehabilitators are using homeopathy as an essential tool to treat the physical and emotional problems of wild animals in their care. Working closely with veterinarians and regularly consulting other homeopathic practitioners, these rehabilitators carefully select remedies based on classical homeopathic principles. Their success in resolving difficult wildlife cases is significant—including cases when wild animals do not want to eat.
     Animals in the wild generally have healthy appetites and readily eat natural foods favored by their species. Even in captivity, many wild animals will accept and eat appropriate foods. However, when a wild animal in captivity does not accept food within a short time, rehabilitators recognize this as a red flag that must be addressed immediately.

Three key considerations

One of the first keys in helping a wild animal eat is to understand the natural history of the species, such as development stages, physiology, and natural diet. These factors, which may vary by species and age of the animal, determine what to feed and the amounts, frequency, and feeding method.
     A second key is to be able to identify potential problems of the animal, including health concerns and causes. For example, a duck may have difficulty eating because a fishing line is wrapped around its neck, or a pelican may have a fishhook in its throat. This means using all the clues gathered from natural history, a good medical examination, veterinarians, and other sources to help identify problems contributing to a wild animal’s reluctance to eat in captivity.
     A third key in helping a wild animal eat is to ensure that effective wildlife rehabilitation and care practices are followed. This includes minimizing the animal’s stress, providing the appropriate food, and using proper feeding techniques. This also means working with a veterinarian to ensure that the animal gets necessary medical care, which may include conventional treatments like hydration therapy, cleaning wounds, stabilizing fractures, and eliminating parasites.
     When the rehabilitator has explored and addressed these key considerations and a wild animal still will not eat, homeopathic intervention can often help. Homeopathic remedies can be an effective complement in assisting distressed wildlife since they can work at a mental, emotional, and physical level. Here are a couple of cases where homeopathic remedies complemented good rehabilitation practices and veterinary care to help recovery.

A rescuer found a Turkey Vulture (Cathartes aura) with a gaping wound in its wing. He brought the bird to a rehabilitator who determined that the bird was in good health prior to the gunshot. She took the vulture to a veterinarian who cleaned the wound, and then surgically repaired and pinned the fractured wing. The bird was given pain medication and antibiotics. The veterinarian said that the wing should heal well and the vulture should recover fully.
     Glad that the wing would likely heal, the rehabilitator then was concerned with the vulture’s reaction to captivity, based on previous experience with vultures. Even though she had worked to keep them in a quiet area, provide a natural-type environment and diet, and minimize handling, some vultures had been especially stressed by captivity. In order to ensure adequate nourishment, she had to force-feed those who refused to eat. Unfortunately, some would immediately regurgitate their food. Unless their recovery period was extremely short and they could tolerate a small weight loss, they had died from starvation. Suggestions offered by veterinarians, biologists, and others had not worked in these extreme cases.
     This vulture, like some of the others, refused to eat on her own. While a volunteer held the vulture securely, the rehabilitator carefully opened her beak and used a forceps to place large pieces of fresh meat on the back of her tongue. When she checked later, she found that the vulture had regurgitated her meal. In the wild, vultures feed their young by regurgitating into the mouths of their offspring. Vultures also regurgitate normally if they have eaten too much and need to “lighten-up” to be able to take off flying. However, they also seem to regurgitate when stressed.
     Continued attempts to feed the bird over the next three days resulted in more regurgitation. The bird also had rapid breathing and seemed frightened and anxious, even though the wound and fracture appeared to be healing well. The veterinarian was supportive of finding other ways to get the vulture to eat. They even considered that the medications could have impacted her appetite, but believed that she needed the antibiotics and pain medications due to the severity of
the injury.
     Coincidentally, the rehabilitator was attending a workshop on homeopathic first aid for wildlife conducted by WildAgain Wildlife Rehabilitation, Inc. As one of the instructors from WildAgain, I asked for challenging wildlife cases. She described the case and we repertorized the vulture’s symptoms:

     A review of the top remedies resulting from the repertorization revealed that Aconite seemed to be the closest match to the case. The rehabilitator purchased some Aconite 1M. She returned to the rehabilitation facility and quickly dissolved the Aconite 1M in distilled water, pulled the remedy into a syringe, and placed a drop in the bird’s mouth.
     She then left the room and went to get some fresh food for the bird. When she returned a few minutes later, she was astounded to see the much calmer vulture rearranging some twigs that were in the cage into a nest shape. When the rehabilitator placed the fresh food in the cage, the vulture immediately ate it and then went back to arranging her nest. From that time on, the bird ate eagerly. The vulture fully recovered. She was released back to the wild after she grew back her wing feathers and rebuilt her flying skills, which took almost a year. In later cases, the rehabilitator avoided problems with vultures’ stress and overall eating habits by using Aconite, as well as other homeopathic remedies and good rehabilitation practices.

A father and his two children delivered three juvenile Fox Squirrels (Scurius niger) to a rehabilitator. He explained that he had found them in a nest in the wall of a house two days earlier. His daughter wanted to care for the squirrels and had named them Sunshine, Nutkin, and Peter. She tried to feed them some cow’s milk with an eye-dropper. After his daughter had accidentally dropped one of the squirrels that morning, the father decided to take them to a wildlife rehabilitator.
     The rehabilitator quickly examined the squirrels. They had recently opened their eyes, and their weights ranged from 110 to 120 grams (about a quarter pound), so she estimated they were about 6 weeks old. She placed them on soft bedding in a small cage, which she then put on low heat. Familiar with homeopathy, she knew the squirrels would be frightened so she used a small syringe to orally administer a dose of homeopathic Aconite 200c that was dissolved in water. She was also concerned they might have or develop serious problems related to being given cow’s milk or being fed improperly.
     When the squirrels were warm, the rehabilitator started to rehydrate them orally for two feedings by giving them an isotonic fluid in a small feeding syringe with a special nipple. Her veterinarian had provided the isotonic fluid, which was the same type that these dehydrated animals would receive if they were in a veterinary hospital.
     Sunshine willingly drank the appropriate amount of the warm hydration fluid. Nutkin and Peter were not interested in fluids and took less than half of what they should. Four hours later, Sunshine eagerly ate dilute squirrel milk replacement formula from the feeding syringe while Peter and Nutkin were still reluctant.

Different symptoms, different remedies

     The rehabilitator researched the top remedies. Phosphorus seemed to be a reasonable match since it covered all those symptoms and sudden onset. She gave a single dose of Phosphorus 30c and placed Peter back on heat with his siblings. If the squirrels did not improve promptly, she would take them to the veterinarian for further help.
     When she went to feed them an hour later, Peter was breathing more normally. He ate slowly but eagerly. Nutkin seemed in less pain when touched and was more willing to eat. Over the next couple of feedings, they all ate well. They grew normally and were weaned from formula when they were 13 weeks old. At that time they continued growing by eating a fully balanced rodent chow product and some natural foods. They were given time to acclimate in a large pre-release cage with many branches to prepare them for survival in the wild. They were released back to their native habitat at 16 weeks.

A comprehensive approach

There are many reasons why wild animals may not eat in captivity. The first step to helping them eat is to understand natural history in order to determine the reason for food avoidance and its likely cause. Some eating difficulties can be effectively addressed through good rehabilitation practices, such as stress reduction, proper diet and feeding methods, effective capture and handling, and good care protocols. Conventional treatment of medical problems may be needed, such as hydrating a dehydrated patient, cleaning a wound, stabilizing a fracture, or removing a bullet. In other instances, as discussed in the cases profiled above, homeopathic remedies can very effectively complement good rehabilitation practices and veterinary care, accelerating recovery and release back to the wild.

Many young wild animals that are found do not need rescue. Sometimes the mother animal is away feeding. Other times, an animal may have wandered from or fallen from the nest. Most mammal mothers will retrieve their young. For birds, sometimes young birds on the ground are just fledging. Always assess whether a rescue is really needed—consult a trained wildlife rehabilitator!


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