A Day in the Life of a Wildlife Rehabber
Each day brings new challenges, new adventures, and new creatures. As a new rehabber, my days vary quite drastically from one to the next. I work in an office environment three days a week (lots of mouths to feed on this farm!) so on those days, I rely heavily on volunteers. But for the purpose of this post, I will share how a day goes when I’m lucky to work from home.
Mornings start early, depending on patients. With critical cases, sometimes there is round-the-clock care. But first things first, fawn bottles go in the bottle warmers while the dog eats and goes out. The indoor small critters usually get fed before we go out for fawns. After wildlife and farm animals have had breakfast, its time to clean cages. Squirrel cages get wiped down, bedding washed, and water bottles washed and refreshed. Floors around cages have to be cleaned as the squirrels really enjoy throwing snacks and poo out the sides of their cages. By then, they are usually ready for another syringe feeding followed by a nap (for the squirrels, not me).
Next up, we head back outside. Fawns need fresh water, scooping in their pen, fresh privet clippings, and bowls of fresh fruits and veggies, plus some hay. They generally eat while I scoop poo in their pen. Bowls and buckets are washed afterwards. By this time, they are likely ready for another bottle of the day, so those are refilled, reheated and re-served to hungry babies.
In the afternoon, I try to take some time for filling up our wildlife feeders for our previously released wildlife (squirrels, possums, fawns). I put out a mix of seeds and nuts for the squirrels and birds, cat food along with leftover fruits/veggies for our possums, and a goat feed/corn for the deer. I also rinse and refill waters for all of these critters if there hasn’t been much rain. Squirrels will be ready for another round of formula by this time.
At dinner, it’s time for another round of fawn bottles and any remaining medications are disbursed. We toss out the limbs left over from the earlier privet. It’s time to go inside and prep veggies and fruits for tomorrow’s feedings. Lots of chopping and rationing into many bowls for the next few days. I spend a few minutes updating logs on the animals, their health updates, medication updates, and notating any changes.
Bedtime consists on one last bottle for fawns, last rounds of feedings for squirrels (unless they are very tiny and need overnight feedings), one more cage cleaning, and tuck ins. Nights can vary greatly. When there are critical patients, I tend to get up multiple times a night to check on them, administer meds, tube feed, etc. It’s hard to get a good night’s sleep when there is a creature in the house depending on you for survival. I spent nights holding babies as they pass, crying tears as I try to tube feed those that have a chance of survival, keeping them warm and comforted.
This is just an example of a day we have here at Smithwick Station. No two days are the same, and you cannot really plan for what will be thrown at you from day to day. There are veterinary visits, good samaritans calling with questions and needing consultations, there are animals coming for intake, fundraising, shopping for supplies, and more. We rely so much on our volunteers to help with our day-to-day operations. If you are interested in assisting, please reach out!