It’s time to look back on 2024! Check our blog between Christmas and New Year’s for a variety of stories and memories of 2024 from the staff and volunteers of the Wildlife Center of Virginia.
Disclaimer: This is a sad story.
On July 9th, 2024, it was the heat of the summer, and our day started off early, with a special event that only happens once a year – bear cub moving day! The day began with a busy hustle to move the first three cubs up to the bear complex from our smaller LMI enclosure. The bear complex is where the cubs stay and grow until they are released the following spring. This might sound like a simple undertaking, but the vet and rehabilitation teams do full examinations and diagnostic work-ups on each bear during these transitions, and the days leading up to the bear knockdowns require a lot of preparation and planning. Luckily, all went smoothly, and by 8:00 am, we had successfully moved the first three cubs to the complex!
Despite it feeling as if we had all worked our 10-hour shifts by noon that day, the bear move was only just the beginning. Fast-forward to early afternoon - the veterinary team had recovered from the morning’s bear-moving frenzy and had begun working through the new patient admits of the day. Frequently, WCV receives patient transfers from other rehabilitators, and on this day, our front desk team informed us that we would be expecting two Great Blue Herons early in the afternoon coming in from a rehabilitator near the Virginia coast. Unfortunately, both of these birds had been rescued from a retention pond that was storing petroleum oil waste, and were heavily saturated with oil.
Our Center, primarily due to its location, does not receive many patients who are contaminated by petroleum or other EPA-regulated chemicals. There are entire facilities and organizations with highly-trained staff specializing in oiled wildlife response and triage care. Many of these facilities are located in coastal areas where these types of wildlife conflicts occur.
On this particular day, the vet team did have the benefit of knowing ahead of time that these two herons were en route to WCV, and when they arrived, it became an all-hands-on-deck situation. Nearly every available staff member came together to help triage, bathe, and stabilize these birds when they arrived into our care. On initial assessment, the vet team determined that one of the herons was an adult, while the other was an older juvenile, likely a hatch-year bird. Both herons were grossly contaminated with the thick, brown oil over nearly every surface of their bodies, even in their mouths and trachea. This was a level of contamination that I had personally never witnessed before, and it was truly breathtaking.
The clinic was somber as everyone assisted in the initial intake exams, documenting and cataloging findings as we worked through each bird. The first heron examined was the adult, and in addition to the oil itself, this heron was covered in extensive burns secondary to the oil. As each bird was examined, blood was collected for preliminary diagnostic testing. While both birds did not exhibit clinical signs of anemia, the adult heron had an extremely low total protein, at 0.8 g/dL, which indicated that the oil contamination had compromised major organ systems.
After assessing each bird, they began the tedious process of decontamination. Traditionally, there is a very specific protocol for diluting Dawn dish soap in water at very specific temperatures to achieve the desired outcome. However, both of these birds were so heavily saturated, that the team gave each bird a preliminary wash just to try and get as much of the oil off as possible. Unfortunately for the adult heron, the level of contamination had already significantly impacted this bird’s major organ systems, and humane euthanasia was elected to prevent any further suffering. The younger heron was in slightly better shape. That patient was less saturated overall, and diagnostics did not reveal as severe hypoproteinemia as seen in the other heron. The team made the decision to proceed cautiously with critical care to see if stabilization could be achieved. An intravenous catheter was placed to administer fluid therapy and medications, and the patient was put on supplemental heat support after the initial bathing. Sadly, despite our best efforts, the second heron passed before morning treatments the following day.
I know this is probably not what you were expecting to read for a year-end memory because this story is quite sad and definitely doesn’t have a good outcome for the patients involved. My goals in sharing this story are two-fold, the first being that I am so incredibly proud of the team that I work with. The Wildlife Center is an amazing community of individuals who all care so deeply about the wildlife that we treat every day. Even the folks within our organization who don’t work directly with patients, still share the same compassion and empathy toward these difficult situations that we often face. Situations like these don’t happen frequently, but when they do, the team rallies together to ensure the patients are receiving the best care possible. My larger motivation in sharing this memory is to give a small glimpse of what our days can sometimes be like at WCV. It certainly is not always glamorous, and sometimes we have days like July 9th that feel so utterly defeating. This time of year, when everyone reflects on what they are most thankful for, my WCV family is most certainly at the top of my list. If not for this group of extremely supportive and compassionate individuals, it would be difficult to make it through any workday.
— Jess Ransier, LVT Supervisor