Some days you just can’t catch your breath

Today started out as one of those days. Actually, it started last night. See yesterday’s post to learn about the baby bobcat kitten rescue that President Jamie Veronica and Dr Boorstein did. They finished up around 1 am because of the long drive and then the emergency care the poor little bobcat needed. He was emaciated, dehydrated to the point that fluids just seep right back out through his skin when administered and he is so anemic that his tongue, nose and teeth are all the same pale white. He was just covered in fleas and tiny ticks but has been treated and should experience relief immediately. His raging diarrhea hasn’t helped matters any, except that he’s given us ample samples to test for parvo. The good news is that he is eating red meat chunks and Natural Balance with gusto!

So when our Operations Manager, Gale, began texting us all this morning at the crack of dawn to tell us that Missouri the cougar had chewed a hole in her cast, I really hated to be the one to call Jamie and verify that she had been conscious for the text. A few hurried calls and texts later and we had a plan.

Dr. Wynn and Jamie would sedate Missouri and Carole would run by PetsMart and pick up their biggest e-collars the minute the doors opened.

Dr. Wynn and Jamie got the old cast off while Gale pumped a bag of fluids into Missouri and ran herself ragged going after supplies, hair dryers and keeping the sanctuary running. At 11:00 Dr. Wynn had been scheduled to give a presentation to the Summer Campers, but she was still up to her eyeballs in flying cougar fur, gauze and vet wrap, so she asked Willow, the Education Director to bring the campers to the outside of the cage where they could see the sedated cougar’s procedure. The campers took notes and learned a lot more by observing vet care in action than any speech would have taught them.

After Missouri’s leg was recast and a new e-collar fitted on her, Dr. Wynn then talked to the Summer Campers about Calvin the Civet and the surgery that he is having on his eye today. That will be require a sterile environment, so they won’t be able to watch that, but our goal is to one day build a surgery theater with glass observation areas. In the middle of all this, Dr. Wynn checked on and treated Jack the housecat who recently had iodine therapy to address his hyperthyroidism. He isn’t doing well, so he needed her additional care.

No sooner were we all done that the phone rang and it was a woman in California who had rescued a bobcat and desperately needed information on how to provide emergency care. Fortunately she and the bobcat are only 45 minutes from the best rehab facility in the state of California, which is operated by HSUS and The Fund in Ramona, CA. We called her back and hooked her up with the director there named Ali.

So by lunch time we could all get back to our regularly scheduled day; whatever that is, and as you can see in the photos below Dr. Wynn and Barbara Frank went around and checked on some of the cats who had made the Observation Chart for one reason or another.