Native Wildlife Rehabilitation

This residency at a native animal hospital in Florida focused on learning how research, educational, and veterinary teams worked together at a large teaching hospital and visitor education center located in Southwest Florida. The facility is dedicated to saving native wildlife through state-of-the-art veterinary care and conservation medicine. The report included detailing how a visitor education medical center can offer behind-the-scenes views into animal care through live camera feeds, interactive displays and daily presentations, while avoiding stressing patients by protecting them from public scrutiny. Other activities included observing how native animals admitted to hospital (usually as the result of human-related activities, such as a vehicle or boat collision, habitat destruction, insecticide toxicity, or red tide) and the procedures undertaken to determine the extent of injury, the probability of successful rehabilitation, and determining whether the patient will be medically taken care of or euthanized; diagnostics procedures, including how surgery, hospital rounds, basic first aid and physical therapy are administered; developing an understanding of animal behavioral issues, nutritional requirements, and how to safely accommodate, handle and restrain animals receiving treatment. Participating in day-to-day care of the animal, responsible for feeding, cleaning up after animals, making sure they have a safe and clean environment where they can recuperate, keeping detailed records of each animal’s nutritional needs and preparing meals for them, and supervising new volunteers. Other operations included accompanying emergency response and release teams on missions.