On February 6th, we were referred a call from Wildcare of Marin, from a woman in Albany who had been watching a Grey Fox behave oddly and had been able to wrap he fox in a blanket and put him in a box to get him into care. She drove to us in the middle of the night to bring us this beautiful fox.
The fox was lethargic, dehydrated, and in really bad shape. We were concerned that it was either distemper or poison. Foxes do occassionally get rabies but it is so rare and the symptoms were wrong for it, that we were not concerned.
Angela, our head vet tech, came to the center at midnight to help with the fox. She consulted with the veterinarians from Pet Emergency in Berkeley, and proceeded to give the fox IV fluids and care which saved his life. We also began treatment for Rat Poison, in case it was that. We felt confident to stop at 5am and went to get some rest.
At 8am I drove the fox to the Montclair Veterinary Hospital, where a blood panel showed that he was indeed toxified. Distemper was still a possibility but we continued treatment for the poison nevertheless.
The fox was responding. The signs of warfarin poisoning were receding ( red speckled gumline, colapsing veins, slow clotting ) He was standing up and eating (ravenously) and even hiding food in his cage for later.
At one point, he took interest in a nectarine and buried it in the corner of his cage, making a big mess of his blankets. I waited til he was asleep and retrieved the nectarine, placed it back into his food dish and straightened the blankets again. No sooner had I removed my arm then he woke up. grabbed the recently replaced nectarine from his food dish, and proceeded to bury it again but this time he lay on top of it to prevent me from retrieving it!
What a funny guy!
Despite his seeming recovery and response to the rat-poison treatment, about 72 hours after intake, he died from the poison.
Everyone here at the wildlife center was touched by this amazing creature who came to stay with us. His death, despite our best attempts to save him, brought up many issues which needed to be investigated. Here is what our researched revealed:
This fox lived in an area that was surrounded by the Sunset View Cemetary, and Saint Jermone Church and Elementary School. Often, rodent bait boxes are placed around areas such as these to control mice and rats who are attracted to food and garbage left around the premises. Animals such as foxes, raccoons, opossums, hawks, and owls, eat mice and rats. They are the natural predators of these animals. If a mouse or rat goes into the poison bait box, eats the poison, leaves the box, goes out and get caught by any of these natural pest controllers, the predator animal has just eaten a baited meal and has been poisoned.
Now-a-days, poison-makers are using something called “Super Warfarin” for rat bait because rats and mice have become resistant to the original warfarin products. These “super warfarin” poisons are much harder to reverse and an animal poisoned with these “Super warfarins” are less likely to respond to treatment.
Our fox died from secondary super-warfarin poisoning.
He did what all good foxes should do, and ate mice and rats. Unfortunately, these mice and rats were sick with poison from the bait boxes laid out at the Sunset View Cementary or Saint Jermone Church and Elementary School.
This is an unfortunate cycle because we are killing the natural predators of the pest animals we don’t want around. The rodents will become resistant even to the super warfarins eventually but the predators, the natural rat and mouse controllers, will die.
What can You Do?
If you want to help, perhaps a letter to the Sunset View Cemetary asking them to stop using Rodent Bait would help.
Sunset View Cemetery - P.O. Box 187 El Cerrito, CA 94530
A letter to the Saint Jermone Church and Elementary School would also help. St. Jerome Catholic Church, 308 Carmel Ave., El Cerrito, CA 94530
Saint Jerome Elementary School 320 San Carlos Ave, El Cerrito CA. 94530
Also, there is new legistlation in comment period right now regarding the restriction of certain types of rodentcides due to frequent secondary poisoning problems for endangered and other wildlife birds and mammals who eat rodents. If you feel strongly about this, please express your views to the committee by email or letter. Thank you! http://www.fedcenter.gov/Articles/index.cfm?id=6409&pge_id=1854
You can read more about it here: http://www.defenders.org/releases/pr2007/pr011707.html
Today a Peregrin Falcon was resting on a rooftop in Oakland near Lake Merritt. It was unable to fly for any distance and was going from Rooftop to rooftop, in obvious distress.
After tracking the peregrin all afternoon, I lost sight of him and went home to rest and wait for the inevitable call.
The call came at 9pm from John Gordon. A Peregrin Falcon is sitting on my doorstep and not moving.
I called David from OHS Wildlife we and went to help the bird.
The entire event was filmed by the Rescuer, John, and he later posted it on YouTube for all to see.
Enjoy!
Peet’s Coffee in Castro Valley, held a Holiday Fundraiser to support our work. They donated the proceeds from all fresh coffee sales and tips on Christmas Eve at their store. And to make matters even better, the Corporate Office of Peet’s then matched the amount, making the total donation amount just over $1,500.00 ~ That will buy a lot of baby formula, food and medications for our wildlife patients.
Thank you to Peet’s Coffee and those who participated in this event.
Once again, Abby, and the wonderful volunteers from OneBrick.Org came through to help our wildlife center by building new pens for our recovering wildlife patients.
Thank you so much for your support!
January was busy with organization and cleaning to prepare for the oncoming 2007 season. In the midst of this, we had several injured animals come in for care. Amongst these was a young Red Tailed Hawk…
December was a busy month at the wildlife center.
The weather has been so odd that we never really had the winter slowdown we are accustomed to and need to recharge our batteries. We still had juvenile squirrels and other animals we were caring for who were late-season babies and we received many injured adults.
Mid December, the One Brick organization came back to help. It was a rainy day and despite the foul weather, many came up to fold brochures and newsletters and do general cleaning.
Late in December, thanks to the rain and a hidden ongoing problem, our sewer pipe backed up again.
We wish to express many thanks to the City Inspector, Mr Washington, and the 2 plumbing companies who worked with us to repair this problem in a timely manner.
Beyond Plumbing came out and videotaped the sewer line. Thank you Beyond Plumbing!
H&R Plumbing did the actual repair of the broken pipeline. They donated all the materials and labor for this project and replaced a section of sewer line that was broken and full of logs and dirt.
Apparently this had been an ongoing problem for over 6 years, before we moved onto this property. We are pleased that it has now been resolved and so grateful to Mr Washington, the City of Oakland inspector, for his patience and flexibility working with us, and to Beyond plumbing for videotaping the sewer line, and to H&R Plumbing for all their hard work repairing the problem.
Without your help we would not have been able to get this done! Thank you all!
On November 12th, nearly 30 people came to the rescue of our wildlife center by spending the day working at our facility, repairing erosion problems, clearing brush, transporting dirt and gravel, and completing a squirrel enclosure.
More thank you’s are on their way, but in the meantime, please enjoy the photos of that day.
A very special thank you to OneBrick.org, Abby and Peter, as well as to Renee and Michelle Snyder for providing lunch for all these folk! Good job!!
Things are finally slowing down here at the wildlife center.
The occasional late-year babies or injured adults are still coming in, but nothing like what it was. There is room to breathe and think about the next step: Releasing the wildlife who have shown they are ready.
We found this amazing grove of Oak trees, off a path in a park near where this group of orphaned squirrels was found. We set their nest box down in the sandy gravel of the dried stream bed and watched as the wind whipped acorns out of the trees all around us. Squirrels love acorns….
They sniffed the fresh air and smelled the acorns and green leaves for a while before venturing out of their nestbox and into the trees.
Once in the branches, they went as high as they could go and looked out over the treetops all around them. Some let out a challenge and flicked their tails in something more than just excitement, as they experienced freedom for the first time.
And all the while, from his resting place in the dried streambed, a grinning buck watched over them…
We found the Perfect place!
Oak trees, waterfalls, fish jumping out of the stream.
Trilling and pacing their carry-kennel, they were ready…
Out they dashed, and immediately feeling around in the sandy mud for crustaceans and bits of minerals they couldn’t get anywhere but from the wild.
Then Up Up Up!
Into the trees for the fun of racing to the top and climbing down again.
Right-side-up or Up-side-down, it didn’t matter.
They could go any way they wanted now that they were free.
Soon they found a cave of sand under a branch of the trees and in they went to find a den for their first night of freedom.
Good luck little ones!