PAWS Internship, Week 1

Last year I began the veterinary technician program at a local community college. I felt my skills in wildlife rehabilitation were inadequate and I wanted to provide better medical care, so I became the luckiest person in the world to have a guardian angel to help me financially through the vet tech program for the next two years, as well as making a great friend to talk to. In January of this year, I applied and was accepted for an externship at the PAWS Wildlife Center in Lynnwood, WA. I applied for a full four week vet tech externship. I started this week and I couldn't have asked for a better experience so far.

PAWS takes in over 3000 wild animals each year and has been around since the 80's. They have an expansive wildlife hospital, a full time and part time vet on staff, two vet techs, several rehabbers, and a huge support staff. They take everything from songbirds to opossums to bears, eagles, and harbor seals. Being in the great northwest, there is a huge variety of species big and small. And PAWS is equipped to handle each of these species with really amazing enclosures. The ducks and other water birds have large pools with floating platforms and enough room to dive and swim, the otters have in ground pools to swim in, the flight cages can be opened or closed to adjacent cages to change the size the birds are allowed, the raccoons are limited to their own buildings, and the baby bird nursery is fool-proof with signs everywhere on how to feed, feeding formulas labeled and indicated on feeding charts and great training program for volunteers specifically for that area in place. Everything is cleaned daily and the volunteer base is large and dedicated.

My part is on the "vet team" of PAWS, which is nothing short of amazing. Dr. John Huckabee, the full time vet at PAWS, is a wealth of knowledge and never disappoints in your quest to learn more. He asks questions often to get your brain going. Dr. John is also teaching a vet student intern, so I take the opportunity to listen in on their chats to get a little extra education. My supervisor is Jean, who has been a vet tech at PAWS for 8 years and really knows her stuff and is always teaching and giving the opportunity to learn. I hope someday I can be as good as her at anesthesia monitoring and jumping into action.

The vet team is separate from the rehabbers. Rehabbers do intakes on new patients and monitor animals as well as create diets, supervise volunteers, and are more involved in the caging, general care, monitoring, enrichment, etc. I hope someday to see a little bit more of what they do. The vet team is more focused on animals that need critical care or a vet consult. For instance, a bird that can't stand that needs radiographs, bloodwork needing done on a sick animal, a recheck on an animal that received previous vet care such as a splint or a wrap or wound management. Decisions are also made by the vet team on whether to continue supportive care on an animal of concern or whether to humanely euthanize.

Each day starts off with a rounds meeting in the vet office with the vet team and rehabbers on staff. A print out of all animals in vet care is given to each person and rounds are done, going through each animal, the animal's presenting problem, and the plan. A second sheet is created by the vet tech outlining which animals will be checked on that day, as well as what animals will be NPO'ed (that is, not fed) so that they can be anesthetized for a procedure. All animals getting radiographs are anesthetized and, if possible, intubated. Wings are taped down on the plate with masking tape while monitoring the animal for breathing patterns, heart rate, and plane of anesthesia. V/D and Lateral views are taken for each patient, with more requested as needed.

Some patients I've come across so far are river otters, lots of northern flickers, American robins, dark-eyed juncos, mallards, a harbor seal, lots of American crows, a red-tailed hawk, peregrine falcon, hummingbirds, swallows, a gull, and many more to come. We've done wound flushing and management, splints, wraps, PCV/TS, medications, fracture assessments, and emergency medicine (heat stroke). I've gotten great practice in bird venipuncture, especially in jugular, ulnar, and tarsal veins. Now just to hold that syringe a little more steady haha.

I'm only a week into this internship and already I am sad I only have three weeks left. This place is great, and I couldn't have asked for anything more. Can't wait to see what's to follow for the weeks to come!