{"id":2474,"date":"2019-04-02T07:00:33","date_gmt":"2019-04-02T07:00:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.fearfree.com\/2019\/04\/fear-free-but-just-enough-reducing-stress-in-wildlife-patients\/"},"modified":"2024-09-04T20:05:11","modified_gmt":"2024-09-04T20:05:11","slug":"fear-free-but-just-enough-reducing-stress-in-wildlife-patients","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.fearfree.com\/2019\/04\/fear-free-but-just-enough-reducing-stress-in-wildlife-patients\/","title":{"rendered":"Fear Free, but Just Enough: Reducing Stress in Wildlife Patients"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
By Linda Lombardi
\n<\/strong><\/em>When you’re dealing with wildlife, a Fear Free approach means a delicate balance that’s different than when you\u2019re treating domestic animals.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile you want it to be low stress, they need to maintain some level of intolerance towards humans,\u201d says Kristian Krause, DVM, a Fear Free certified veterinarian at Serrano Animal and Bird Hospital in Lake Forest, California, where they treat wildlife for Orange County Bird of Prey Center.<\/p>\n

Wild animals are stressed by the presence of people in a way that domestic animals aren\u2019t, but if they get too acclimated, that\u2019s going to be a problem once they’re released. \u201cEspecially when we\u2019re dealing with something like a raccoon or a bobcat, we don’t want them to think \u2018Oh, people are cool, so I can come hang out in a residential area,\u2019\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

Keep Them Quiet and Separate<\/h3>\n

Minimize exposure to humans as much as possible, starting by keeping them in a quiet, isolated environment. Then, Dr. Krause says, maintain a coordinated schedule of husbandry and medical treatment: \u201cEverything happens at once: they\u2019re fed, treated, the cage cleaned, all at once, so you\u2019re not handling them multiple times.\u201d<\/p>\n

Make treatment choices with stress control in mind. \u201cSometimes you have to treat the animal and not the disease,\u201d she says. \u201cIt’s more stressful for them to get treatment than to just sit in a quiet cage, so you have to gauge which is the worse of two evils, letting them sit and letting their body heal, or getting them out of the cage twice a day to give them an oral medication or an injection of an anti-inflammatory.\u201d<\/p>\n

For some animals, some medications can be administered in a low-stress manner by hiding them in food. Raccoons are such chowhounds that they\u2019re easy to medicate. \u201cIf you can put something in a grape, they’re happy,\u201d she says. Carnivores can also be easy. \u201cChicks and mice are your friends,\u201d she says. \u201cGive them this mouse first so you know they have their medication, then you can give them the next one.\u201d<\/p>\n

Handling Tips<\/h3>\n

When you do need to handle animals, plan for it. \u201cIt changes with the animal and the species,\u201d Krause says. \u201cYou have to know what you’re doing before you even think about opening that door.\u201d<\/p>\n

For instance, handling birds can be a challenge for new staff. \u201cIt takes a while to understand how to quickly and efficiently get a bird out of a cage,\u201d she says. Knowing what the plan is and being quick is critical. \u201cYou have to go in, grab, and be done so that bird\u2019s not jumping all over the place and you do more harm than good.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s also important to know your species. Take Cooper\u2019s hawks, Krause says. \u201cYou barely open the door and they start bouncing off the walls, like a kid who\u2019s had too much candy at Halloween.\u201d<\/p>\n

And like domestic animals, wild animals differ in temperament, so Krause likes to have the same people consistently handling the same individuals, so they know how that particular animal tends to react.<\/p>\n

Familiarity with species’ needs is also important for treatment and husbandry. Improper temperatures are a major source of stress for reptiles.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe knee-jerk reaction is, \u2018It’s a reptile; they all need to be warm,\u2019 but that\u2019s not necessarily true,\u201d she says. \u201cPutting a chameleon in an 85-degree tank is going to stress them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pain Relief and Sedation<\/h3>\n

It\u2019s also common for people to not consider that reptiles feel pain, since they might not express it in ways that we recognize. While they often don’t need to be sedated for basic handling or simple procedures, she says, \u201cIf they have a fishhook or an abscess, you do need to sedate them or use a local anesthesia; you need to remember that it\u2019s painful so no different than working on a cat or dog.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sedation has its own risks, so that\u2019s another delicate balance to maintain. While many procedures that could be done awake on a domestic animal will require anesthesia for wildlife, there are ways to minimize its use. Simply covering eyes and plugging ears with cotton to minimize sight and sound will calm many animals enough for an exam and assessment without the risk of anesthesia and eliminates the stress of being with humans longer while recovering from it.<\/p>\n

Krause uses this technique with deer, rabbits, and even coyotes, and says it\u2019s possible to administer some basic treatments this way, such as fluids and antibiotics. This is possible partly because in these animals the reaction is to shut down, which isn\u2019t entirely a low-stress situation, but for a wild animal it can be better than the alternative, she says.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow I don’t have to keep you in the hospital for another day because I had to anesthetize you, so I can get you back out where you belong faster, which to me is less stressful.\u201d<\/p>\n

This article was reviewed\/edited by board-certified veterinary behaviorist Dr. Kenneth Martin and\/or veterinary technician specialist in behavior Debbie Martin, LVT.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Wild animals need special handling to reduce stress while maintaining their wariness toward humans.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2473,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[83],"tags":[144,149,150,134,151,152,153,154,155,136,156,137,157],"content-type":[47],"duration":[53],"membership-type":[],"profession":[],"species":[33],"topic":[27],"class_list":["post-2474","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog","tag-behavior","tag-coyotes","tag-deer","tag-fear-free","tag-handling","tag-husbandry","tag-rabbits","tag-raccoons","tag-reptiles","tag-stress","tag-treatment","tag-veterinarian","tag-wildlife","content-type-blog","duration-5-minutes-or-less","species-exotic-animal","topic-success-stories"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nFear Free, but Just Enough: Reducing Stress in Wildlife Patients - Fear Free<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.fearfree.com\/2019\/04\/fear-free-but-just-enough-reducing-stress-in-wildlife-patients\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Fear Free, but Just Enough: Reducing Stress in Wildlife Patients - 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