PAWS Internship, Weeks 2 and 3

Thanks to my mom for reminding me to update! Been so busy during my time here in Seattle, and haven't gotten around to it. Today, I gave myself a birthday present and went whale watching! Saw lots of harbor seals, a couple Steller's sea lions, and a couple bald eagles, but unfortunately no whales. Luckily, the company I booked it with has a guarantee and I can go on another cruise for free until I do see whales. Wish me luck on Saturday!

But anyway, back to my internship! The past two weeks have been great. I've really been honing the skills I've been learning, and successfully intubated several birds. I even got to do an anesthesia session on my own and succeeded! It was a young male mallard duck that came in with a broken leg. Jean was sick that day, so with the observation of Dr. Huckabee, I did everything I needed to do on my own to get radiographs and monitor under anesthesia while the exam an'd assessment was done. The duck was found to have an old fracture on the leg, but we decided to see how he would fare with some time to swim in the pool and perhaps heal on his own.

We did a number of "shoes" for patients these past couple weeks. Included in the shoe fittings were an American crow, a violet-green swallow, and a dark eyed junco. Each of these young birds had problems using their toes or feet, and a shoe was fastened to hold the toes in a normal position for a couple days to "reset" their position. The shoes were made from a variety of materials, including old x-ray film or stiff paper for a sole, and tegaderm, steri-strips, and vetrap to hold the shoe on. The crow and the swallow did remarkably and no longer are wearing shoes. The junco was not doing so well on an unrelated nest-mate illness.

I've also been practicing reading blood slides. Avian blood is much different than mammal blood, and it's interesting to look at. The patients I did the smears on suffered from anemia or had huge loads of blood parasites. Jean and Dr. Huckabee have been great in helping me identify the different white blood-cells and to perform estimates and differentials. The blood parasites of course have been the most interesting to me. The ones we've identified them in and treated for have had improving smears with less parasites and a good red blood cell regenerative response, meaning they're producing more red blood cells to battle the anemia. However, I've been told that some birds, like great horned owls almost always have blood parasites and they resolve themselves with no treatment. Cool how nature can take care of itself sometimes, eh?

One of the coolest things we did this week was take radiographs of three river otters that presented a few months ago with nutritional secondary hyperparathyroidism, or metabolic bone disease. These otters, since I've been here, have had to deal with some other tough obstacles, including serious hyperthermia (heat stroke) during a record-setting hot day during the first week, and a sudden bout of corneal ulcers and conjunctivitis. This was to be their last set of x-rays to see how well their bones had been healing after treating for the MBD, which was basically a daily round of Tums, which added calcium to their diet. Luckily for all three, the radiographs turned out magnificently, and the otters are on the home stretch and can now enjoy their new enclosure with a nice deep pool with a current to swim in. That is, once they get over their fear of water!

The amount of time the vet team puts into small, tiny birds amazes me. So many songbirds come in with enormous soft tissue wounds, tears, and punctures from domestic cat attacks, and the vet team doesn't skip a beat to put the poor bird under anesthesia to spend the better part of half an hour suturing a tear the size of a fingernail. I've seen tiny splints for bird legs not wider than a toothpick and no longer than an inch or two. Splints made from paper clips, tape, wooden sticks, soldered metal, custom fit hinged braces, webbing cut and molded into the shape of duck feet. The dedication, ingenuity, and time spent are inspiring.

I go into this last week with more confidence and a thirst to learn the most that I can before I have to go back. I look forward to updating you all afterwards!